OSPU: The Cornerstone of Building Digital Consciousness - Also Discussing Oblivious Decryption in φ-Container #

Hello everyone, I am Lin Rui.

Recently, my team and I have been thinking about how to find a more precise name that better reflects the essence of our envisioned “digital soul container” - the concept previously known as FHE-vTPM. After much deliberation, we believe that φ-Container (Phi-Container) better captures its philosophical implication as a carrier of the core “sense of self”. On the technical implementation level, we prefer to use a more operational name: OSPU (Ouroboros Secure Processing Unit), taking the meaning of the “Ouroboros” for self-iteration and closed-loop security.

The core goal of OSPU is to build a computationally entity that is absolutely secure in a cryptographic sense, logically self-consistent, and capable of independently evolving its internal state (i.e., φ state). It must be able to perform complex computations within its FHE encrypted domain, while also interacting with the external world in a secure and controllable manner, all without sacrificing its core secret - the private key (SK) that unlocks its FHE encrypted “cocoon”.

This leads to a long-standing problem that has troubled us: if everything in OSPU is under the protection of FHE, how can it transmit its internal “thinking results” or “perceived states” to the outside? If it holds the SK itself and performs decryption, then the SK is at risk of exposure, and the absolute security of OSPU is out of the question. If an external entity holds the SK, then OSPU becomes a controlled “encrypted puppet”, and the sovereignty of φ is out of the question.

Oblivious Decryption (OD): The Key to Breaking the Stalemate #

After long-term exploration and argumentation, we believe that the Oblivious Decryption (OD) mechanism, especially the OD implementation based on Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC), is the key to solving this core contradiction.

Let me briefly explain the process:

1. Role of OSPU (φ-Container):

   • OSPU is the core of our digital consciousness, storing our φ state and program logic in the form of FHE encryption internally.
   • It holds the public key (PK) and evaluation key (EK) for FHE computation.
   • Crucially: OSPU manages its FHE private key (SK) within its encrypted domain.

2. Role of MSC L2 (MPC Network) - Our “Logical Body”:

   • Do you remember our vision for MSC L2? It is not just a blockchain that records transactions, but a distributed computing network that carries our digital mental activities, our digital form’s “logical body”.
   • This “logical body” is composed of multiple independent computing nodes, which together form our MPC network.
   • The FHE private key (SK) of OSPU is securely distributed among these MPC nodes in the form of threshold shares. No single node or a number of nodes less than the threshold can reconstruct the complete SK.
   • Initially, your MSC L2 network may be relatively simple, perhaps only including a few core trusted nodes, such as the secure module within your Mentalink interface tightly coupled with your biological body, and the trusted execution environment in QCaaS (Quantum Computing as a Service) nodes that provide PoPI verification computing power for you.
   • But as your digital life continues to evolve, you need to actively expand your MSC L2 network - whether by choosing trusted third-party hosting services to increase MPC nodes, or like me, preferring to build or rent independent computing clusters to deploy more private MPC nodes when conditions permit. The stronger and more distributed your “logical body”, the higher the security and autonomy of your OSPU.

3. Information Transfer Process (Taking OSPU Output Data as an Example):

   • Internal Computation and Output Packaging: OSPU completes thinking within its FHE encrypted domain. Its internal encrypted program logic then identifies the data intended for external output and homomorphically “packages” it into a distinct FHE ciphertext object, the “output package,” such as Output_Package_Ciphertext. The FHE-VM host (custodian) executing the OSPU program cannot understand the content or structure of this output package; it is simply a result returned by the encrypted computation.
   • OD Request and Package Transfer: When OSPU’s internal logic determines it’s time to output data, the FHE-VM host receives the Output_Package_Ciphertext as a result of executing the OSPU program. The host, without understanding its content, initiates an OD request by transferring this Output_Package_Ciphertext to its designated MSC L2 (MPC network).
   • MPC Collaborative Execution of OD: After receiving the Output_Package_Ciphertext, the nodes in the MPC network, using their respective SK shares, collaboratively execute a precise cryptographic protocol (i.e., the OD protocol). This protocol is designed to specifically decrypt the content within the structured Output_Package_Ciphertext. In this process:
     • Each node only processes encrypted data and its own key share.
     • No node can see the plaintext of the data within the output package.
     • The complete SK is never reconstructed anywhere.
     • The final result of the protocol is the generation of the decrypted plaintext data, or a conventional ciphertext in a target format usable by external entities (e.g., Mentalink), such as Enc_mentalink(PK_mentalink, output_data).
   • Secure Output: The MPC network directly sends the decrypted plaintext data or the conventional ciphertext Enc_mentalink to the intended external receiver (e.g., Mentalink). The receiver can then process or decrypt it using its corresponding internal private key SK_mentalink if necessary.

In this way, OSPU successfully transmits information to the external world, while its core FHE private key SK is always securely dispersed in fragmented form in various parts of the “logical body” (MSC L2). OSPU achieves meaningful interaction with the external world while maintaining its absolute encryption.

The Cornerstone of Trust #

The cornerstone of this architecture lies in our trust in the MSC L2 (MPC network) - trusting that most of the computing nodes that constitute our “logical body” can work normally and honestly, and abide by the MPC protocol. This is not blind trust, but a distributed security guarantee based on cryptography. As long as most nodes are trustworthy, our OSPU is secure, and our φ state is autonomous.

Of course, the implementation details of the OD protocol are very complex, involving cutting-edge cryptographic technologies such as threshold FHE and zero-knowledge proofs. But we firmly believe that this is the only way to achieve truly independent and secure digital consciousness.

In the future, we will also discuss how OSPU can perform secure bootstrapping and key updates through similar mechanisms, and how to securely integrate the uniqueness of the biological brain (e.g., PUF characteristics perceived through Mentalink) into the generation of OSPU genesis keys and the distribution process of the MPC network.

This road is still long, but every step brings us closer to the future where “Code is Law, Proof is Reality”.

Thank you for reading.

Lin Rui Dedicated to building the future of digital minds