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The latest upgrades on the testnet will introduce enhanced decryption capabilities moving the blockchain closer to its mainnet launch.
Ethereum Layer 2 platform Fhenix, designed using the Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) scheme, has announced a major upgrade on its testnet Nitrogen, bringing new features and capabilities to the platform. The latest powerful upgrades aim to enhance decryption, speed and decentralization on Fhenix as the platform gears up to its mainnet launch.
Since its launch, Nitrogen has seen several upgrades but the latest ones prove to be the biggest yet, as Fhenix CEO Guy Itzhaki explained in his speech on the new upgrades. Additionally, Nitrogen also significantly upgrades the level of decentralization of the Fhenix network with the Threshold Network, the mechanism it uses to handle decryption in a trust-minimized way.
Adding to his comments on the latest upgrades on Nitrogen, Guy said:

“The Nitrogen testnet is a major step towards providing a permissionless, censorship-resistant platform for confidentiality with FHE.”

Fhenix is designed using the FHE scheme, an encryption scheme that enables the computation of encrypted data without ever needing to decrypt it. By leveraging FHE, Fhenix is able to bring a version of “encrypted Ethereum” to the Web 3 space, allowing developers and builders to build fully confidential, end-to-end encrypted smart contracts, unlocking a whole new design space for blockchain applications.
Introducing Nigrogen’s New Powerful Upgrades
In addition to the new decryption capabilities on Nitrogen, the upgrades will also introduce ‘Parallel Decryptions’. This upgrade will mitigate the long and computationally expensive operations FHE schemes entail using asynchronous decryption, providing the fast, seamless experience users have come to expect.
Moreover, developers on the Nitrogen testnet will also benefit from Security Zones, a new functionality that introduces flexibility to dApp security. Simply, the functionality will enable applications to be optimized for varying requirements in terms of security and performance. Currently, Nitrogen offers two distinct zones – Zone 0 and Zone 1. Zone 0 is the default setting that emphasizes security and implies less trust for the user, while Zone 1 prioritizes performance over security using a single local keyset held by the sequencer to process decryption.

“The introduction of the Threshold Network, along with new features such as Parallel Decryptions and Security Zones give developers the tools they need to create powerful confidential applications on Ethereum and bring us one step closer to the Fhenix mainnet launch,” Guy added on the importance of the new Nitrogen upgrades.

Alliance With Celestia For Data Availability
Finally, Fhenix also announced that the latest Nitrogen testnet will also introduce Celestia for data availability. The “partnership” with Celestia, a modular data availability network, is expected to enhance development on Nitrogen while reducing transaction costs and increasing price stability. Elsewhere, Nitrogen adds the ability to generate random numbers natively and automatically using a simple function called FHE.rand().
The latest milestones are a testament to the team’s and community’s vision to launch Fhenix mainnet in the coming months. These upgrades mark the right path for Fhenix towards building a fully decentralized platform for on-chain confidentiality, delivering major improvements for network security, performance, cost, and UX.
The Nitrogen test network achieves significant improvements in decentralization, laying the foundation for a thriving ecosystem of confidentiality-enabled applications on Ethereum.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
