The FHE Technical Consortium for Hardware (FHETCH) has been officially launched, with the goal of improving the interoperability between Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) hardware and software for practical applications. Founded by Optalysys, Chain Reaction, and Niobium, the consortium aims to unite FHE software developers, hardware manufacturers, and Cloud service providers to accelerate the creation of commercially viable FHE solutions.
Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is an advanced form of cryptography that is resistant to quantum attacks, enabling encrypted data to be processed without requiring decryption. This capability allows organisations to handle sensitive data while preserving privacy, facilitating secure data collaboration across various sectors, even in environments that may not be fully trusted. Potential applications of FHE include areas such as medical data analysis, financial transactions, private Cloud computing, machine learning, and secure communications.
FHETCH aims to address the gap between the current performance of FHE solutions and the requirements for practical, commercial use. The consortium’s efforts will focus on developing hardware acceleration technologies for FHE, establishing open technical standards to align with international regulatory requirements, and ensuring seamless integration with existing data centre infrastructures and FHE software libraries. These initiatives are expected to enhance the commercial viability of FHE, reduce barriers to adoption, and broaden its application across different industries.
For its first project, FHETCH will create an API abstraction layer, allowing any FHE hardware accelerator to connect with any FHE library. This project aims to boost the adaptability of FHE implementations, simplify the development of new applications, and hasten the progress of both hardware and software solutions.
“FHE has long been recognised for its transformative potential but until now, the challenge has been turning that potential into real-world scalable solutions. It’s time to bridge the gap between theoretical potential and practical deployment. FHETCH is committed to driving real-world adoption by bringing together the necessary players to make secure computation a reality for all,” stated Joseph Wilson, Head of Strategic Innovation at Optalysys.
“Cross-industry collaboration is essential for enabling the widespread deployment of THE. FHETCH will advance a unified framework that will allow us to innovate faster and more effectively, laying the foundation for a secure digital future,” said Oren Yokev, Co-Founder and CTO of Chain Reaction.
“The regulatory landscape is growing more complex. FHETCH will give the industry a shared foundation, enabling the rapid development of badly needed FHE solutions that will mathematically guarantee privacy and compliance long-term,” added Jorge Myszne, CPO of Niobium.
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