Casper Association, the not-for-profit entity that oversees the Casper Network, this week announced a solution to security challenges that threatened to slow or halt the adoption of NFTs.
Using a trusted execution environment (TEE) in combination with hardware security modules provided by NFT infrastructure provider VERITIC, the solution aims to make NFTs minted on the Casper Network safe for mass-market adoption by solving NFT authentication and security challenges such as misplaced or stolen keys and lost metadata.
NFT sales have experienced rapid growth since they were first used on the Ethereum blockchain in 2015, exceeding $10 billion during the third quarter of 2021, a figure more than 100 times higher than what was generated at the start of the year. Yet, trust in the medium is declining due to negative publicity generated from reports of hacking, theft, and fraud.
The Casper Association said the solution will enable NFT artists and creators to prove they originated an NFT by intrinsically linking the NFT metadata, creator keys, and the NFT token itself, and verifiably storing the data with Seal Storage Technology’s Filecoin-based decentralized storage. Together, Casper, Veritic and Seal Storage aim to address counterfeit fraud and prove authenticity of data.
“Security and authenticity concerns are currently holding back the extraordinary value-creation potential of NFTs,” said Ralf Kubli, board member at Casper Association. “Deploying a TEE is an essential next step in providing any project with access to a highly secure environment where privacy and security can be applied to NFTs in isolated execution, enabling enterprises to utilize NFTs at scale.”
The Casper Network already successfully powers solutions for NFTs, such as the world’s first NFT marketplace for whisky cask investments with Metacask. It also manages intellectual property (IP), licensing rights, and transactions for IP specialist IPwe, which said it is planning to turn patents and other intellectual assets into NFTs.
“Many mainstream creators and NFT users are not fully aware of security and authenticity risks that arise while minting and taking custody for NFTs,” VERITIC CEO Dr. Stephan Holzer said. “Furthermore, digital creations attached to NFT’s, for example, art, are often stored off-chain and not always stored in robust environments. VERITIC’s team of blockchain and computer science experts from MIT, ETH Zurich, and Harvard will build a highly secure NFT platform tailored for mainstream usability that also allows for storage of the digital creations anywhere the creator or owner desires while ensuring authenticity verification.”
Seal Storage Technology Inc. is providing decentralized storage powered by the Filecoin Network. Filecoin has recently become the official storage partner of the Flow Blockchain, with the firm working to provide decentralized storage for NFTs minted on Dapper Lab’s network.
Seal’s technical leadership brings decades of experience from traditional storage companies, including Seagate and Oracle, as well as experience on the Filecoin Network.
“Seal’s decentralized cloud storage establishes the foundation upon which provenance, chain of custody, and authenticity of data can verifiably be provided to customers, including NFT platforms and holders,” the company’s CTO Jacques Swanepoel said.
“The NFT industry continues to be fraught with vulnerabilities. By building a trusted execution environment for NFT minting, Casper Association, VERITIC, and Seal aim to provide infrastructure on the Casper Network for anyone to use in a truly safe, secure, and decentralized way,” Kubli concluded. “We expect the Casper-VERITIC TEE to represent a seal of approval for NFT creators and their consumers.”