What Is Multi-Party Computation?
Multi-Party Computation (MPC) is a type of secure computing technique that allows multiple parties to jointly compute on data without revealing the underlying information. It enables two or more entities, such as individuals, organizations, and governments, to securely collaborate on sensitive tasks while preserving their privacy. MPC can be used for various applications including secure voting systems, distributed machine learning algorithms, and private financial transactions.
The main idea behind MPC is that each party holds its own secret input which it does not reveal to any other participant in the computation process. The participants then use cryptographic protocols to perform computations over these inputs without ever having access to them directly. This ensures that no single entity has access to all of the data involved in the computation process and thus prevents malicious actors from gaining unauthorized access or manipulating results. Additionally, since only encrypted versions of the inputs are exchanged between participants during an MPC session there is also no risk of exposing confidential information through network traffic analysis attacks.