Great Road Ahead: A New ARPA Network

TL;DR

ARPA Chain rebrands as ARPA Network, and we will focus on building a threshold-BLS network.
ARPA Network’s new Mainnet is expected to go live in Q2 2023.
ARPA Network can serve as the infrastructure for many blockchain applications, such as verifiable random number generators (RNG), secure wallets, decentralized asset custody, cross-chain bridge, and more.
Visit our new website and join our discord!

The New ARPA Network

Since our inception in 2018, ARPA Chain has been focusing on designing and building a general-purpose multiparty computation network (MPC).

We launched ARPA mainnet in 2019. Since then, it has completed over 220,000 MPC computation tasks. During that time, we partnered with JD.com to put our MPC product prototype to test. Through our system, financial institutions and internet companies could perform joint data analysis while keeping sensitive data encrypted.

Besides engineering MPC-based products, we have been dedicated to pushing the adoption and standardization of MPC. For example, ARPA joined the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to combine forces with companies like Alibaba, Ant Finance, and Lenovo to explore privacy-preserving data sharing for large organizations. We also co-authored and led the creation of national standards for and numerous whitepapers on MPC and blockchain in China.

During the marketing phase of our product, we encountered numerous obstacles. First of all, the concept of MPC was a novelty — joining encrypted data sets from different sources to extract valuable insights in plaintext without ever decrypting the original data is counterintuitive. Businesses had a hard time wrapping their head around how the technology works; thus, they were skeptical of what MPC promised. Secondly, the cryptographic algorithms used in MPC are computation-intensive. Running general computation on top of this cryptographic layer further limits the performance, which renders many conceived use cases impractical — the system was too slow. Further, policymakers took their time implementing applicable data privacy laws and regulatory statutes, allowing ample room for enterprises to maneuver when using consumer data. As a result, we advocated for MPC protocol while working to implement it. From this, we gained in-depth knowledge of cryptography and a better understanding of MPC’s applicable use cases.

Though our business development effort did not come to fruition, our devotion to cryptography remained. In privacy-preserving computation, we continued to explore general-purpose MPC, TSS, and secret sharing. Meanwhile, blockchain grabbed our attention as a versatile cryptographic system. We started investigating its underlying mechanisms: MEV, PoW, PoS, and many others. By learning from the bottom up, we saw how cryptography made blockchain possible and took a good look at its constraints — the impossible triangle of decentralization, security, and scalability. On the application side, we saw blockchain’s potential to disrupt our day-to-day life — it makes intercontinental payments frictionless so the workforce is less confined geopolitically, enables immutable data storage to preserve evidence, certification, and digital identity, and facilitates the price discovery of virtual assets so that we can properly evaluate our data.

Just imagine how revolutionary blockchain could be if we push the boundaries a little further.

We went through our arsenal and realized the potential in combining MPC and blockchain. By introducing new algorithms and blockchain-adapted cryptography to reshape the foundations of blockchain technology, the impossible triangle might dissolve. That’s why we are pivoting to a more focused MPC field — threshold signature scheme (TSS). From being a seemingly inconspicuous random source to solving the problem of scalability, enabling privacy-preserving smart contracts, and protecting on-chain assets, TSS can be a critical tool for tackling many problems in blockchain.

After one year of brewing, we now rebrand as ARPA Network — a permissionless computation network utilizing threshold BLS signature schemes (TSS-BLS).

What Is ARPA Network?

The new ARPA Network is a secure computation network that can generate on-chain BLS signatures for a variety of use cases. The ARPA Network can provide a much more affordable substitute for existing inefficient and expensive on-chain operations by serving as the infrastructure of many blockchain applications, such as verifiable random number generator (RNG), secure wallet, decentralized asset custody, cross-chain bridge, and more.

Here’s a good intuitive explanation of the technologies we are using, from TSS to BLS-DKG. Read a detailed article here to learn more about what we did to adapt the TSS-BLS for blockchains.

More Utilities for $ARPA Are on the Way

As our utility token, $ARPA will continue to play a critical role in maintaining a permissionless ARPA Network. We designed rigorous tokenomics where $ARPA will serve as a computation task reward, currency for service fees, collateral for security deposits when setting up computation nodes, and as a tool for many other utilities in the future. If you are interested in running a node, join the waitlist.

At ARPA, we firmly believe in the power of the community. We are about building together with the community. The ARPA Network aims to be a permissionless ecosystem where all fellow developers and builders can contribute and expand the possibilities of a truly adaptive TSS network. This will inevitably increase the many future utilities of $ARPA token. The possibilities are endless.

What to Expect Next

We have implemented proof-of-concept and completed small-scale testing. We are now on track for the next milestone — a perpetual development network (Devnet) integrated with EVM-compatible chains. For devs interested in building on ARPA, please sign up for updates.

Roadmap

2022 Q3 — Cryptographic Protocol Prototype release
2022 Q4 — Devnet Release
2023 Q1 — Testnet Release, Bug Bounty
2023 Q2 — Mainnet Launch

In addition, we are also working on Randcast, a verifiable, secure, and low-cost RNG, as the first application and showcase of ARPA. Randcast can be utilized in numerous scenarios like metaverse gaming, lottery, NFT minting, key generation, and blockchain validator task distribution.

If you have any questions, want to befriend us, find bugs in our codebase, or simply want to troll, join our discord, don’t miss the party!

About ARPA

ARPA Network (ARPA) is a decentralized secure computation network built to improve the fairness, security, and privacy of blockchains. ARPA threshold BLS signature network serves as the infrastructure of verifiable Random Number Generator (RNG), secure wallet, cross-chain bridge and decentralized custody across multiple blockchains.

ARPA was previously known as ARPA Chain, a privacy-preserving Multi-party Computation (MPC) network founded in 2018. ARPA Mainnet has completed over 224,000 computation tasks in the past years. Our experience in MPC and other cryptography laid the foundation for our innovative threshold BLS signature schemes (TSS-BLS) system design and led us to today’s ARPA Network.

Randcast, a verifiable Random Number Generator (RNG), is the first application that leverages ARPA as infrastructure. Randcast offers a cryptographically generated random source with superior security and low cost compared to other solutions. Metaverse, game, lottery, NFT minting and whitelisting, key generation, and blockchain validator task distribution can benefit from Randcast’s tamper-proof randomness.

For more information about ARPA or to join our team, please contact us at about@arpachain.io.

Learn about ARPA’s recent official news：

Twitter: @arpaofficial

Medium: https://medium.com/@arpa

Discord: https://dsc.gg/arpa-network

Telegram (English): https://t.me/arpa_community

Telegram (Turkish): https://t.me/Arpa_Turkey

Telegram (Việt Nam): https://t.me/ARPAVietnam

Telegram (Russian): https://t.me/arpa_community_ru

Telegram (Indonesian): https://t.me/Arpa_Indonesia

Telegram(Sri Lanka):https://t.me/arpa_srilanka

Telegram(Africa):https://t.me/arpaafrica