Secret Network and The SCRT Coin: A Blockchain for Private Smart Contracts
*obligatory not financial advice*
What is Secret Network?
Imagine a smart contract blockchain that is not only fast and scalable but it also has Monero’s level of privacy and can easily connect to other blockchains. It sounds too good to be true, but this is exactly what the Secret Network is.
Smart contracts are pieces of code that run on a blockchain and once an action with them is executed it cannot be manipulated or changed, this allows them to, for example, be used as a third party that cannot be corrupt, that’s what lending protocols or decentralized exchanges as based on. Most blockchains like Ethereum are public and so all the data of their smart contracts are usually exposed to the public too. This is a problem because some level of privacy is needed which Secret Network can provide.
The blockchain is using trust execution environments (TEEs) to store the state of the smart contracts in an encrypted way. TEEs are a special piece of hardware that works as a black box for encrypted data processing. They are utilized in all kinds of devices like smart phones or even gaming consoles, the nodes of the Secret Network are using them to bring privacy to the blockchain. To see someone’s transaction history you need to have a viewing key, which can be shared with other people in case you need to show your data to third parties like auditors, so being open about your data is an option, it’s just not the default.
Usecases and dApps
The blockchain lets you build secret smart contracts and sTokens that are completely private and their data is only available to the sender and the receiver of each transaction. This allows private DeFi and secret NFTs. The network can easily connect to countless other chains thanks to the Cosmos Hub and a bridge to Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Monero.
So far there are a handful of dApps available on Secret Network. This includes the DEXes Sienna and SecretSwap, a NFT marketplace that is in beta, a blockchain game, a private and secure messaging app and a kind of social media platform where posters can earn money for providing content. A lending protocol and a stablecoin will launch soon too.
The network and its use cases are growing rapidly and will hopefully attract many users.
Privacy and Blockchains
Anytime someone talks about privacy coins, like Monero, they immediately associate it with illegal activities but really privacy is a basic human right. That is because your data can be used to take advantage of you. For example, if your spending habits imply that you lean towards a gambling addiction, then casino owners could target you with ads or special offers to lure you into their casino if they have that data.
Ethereum and co do offer some level of anonymity, because nobody has to know which address you are using, but the transactions of your address are still visible for everyone. So if your employer pays you in crypto, which would have to become a reality if crypto goes mainstream, then he will know your address and what you use your money for and he could discriminate you for it. Your friends would also know your address if you borrowed them money at any point and if you spend money on adult content, which is not necessary illegal or immoral, they could see that and that would be embarrassing. You can't even avoid that by sending your crypto to a different new address and spending your money that way because anyone could trace that address back to your original one.
And this is only your personal life without privacy. Corporations and governments could use all your data to manipulate you. They could manufacture ads or propaganda specific to each person. This is a scary thought but it’s not unrealistic at all. Thanks to the internet and social media, humans today are already more transparent than ever before and it can be used to harm or control them. Public blockchains that host Web3.0 will only accelerate that further.
That’s why privacy is needed before cryptocurrencies and blockchain tech become mainstream. Of course in some cases you need to share information, but it shouldn't be available to everyone by default.
The SCRT Coin
SCRT is the native coin of the Secret Network blockchain. It is being used to pay for gas fees just like ETH. It is also used for staking to maintain and update the blockchain and it gives its holders the right to participate in governance.
The coin itself is not private if it is used for staking or governance because that requires network users to know what the supply is used for. However, you can easily swap it for Secret SCRT (sSCRT) which is private by default like all other assets and you can use it on dApps instead of the public version.
The network is pushing its users to participate into staking with inflation and block rewards. The more people have their coins staked or delegated, the more difficult it is to attack the blockchain. The staking rewards are variable and will range between 7-15% depending on how many coins are staked, the goal is to keep about 67% of the supply staked and if less are staked it will increase the staking rewards. The block rewards are mostly new tokens, but the inflation shouldn't concern you if you keep your coins staked.
You can buy the coin on Binance and MEXC, but you can also buy it on Ethereum DEXes like Uniswap or Sushiswap and use a bridge to bring it to the Secret Network chain. The best wallet for it is Keplr, which also supports plenty of other Cosmos related blockchains and it makes it easy to stake and to connect with dApps.
The value of SCRT obviously depends on how many people use the network and how many dApps are running on it because its main utility is to pay for gas fees. Due to the need for privacy, blockchains like Secret Network or Monero could really become a huge deal if the crypto market advances far enough, although there will likely be backlash and possible regulations against them.
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