Trusted Execution Environments (TEE)

Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) form the cryptographic and hardware-enforced privacy backbone of PrivAI, enabling secure off-chain computation of sensitive tasks without compromising trust or decentralization. A TEE is a hardware-based isolated execution space embedded within the processor, which ensures that both data and execution logic remain inaccessible to any external process, including the operating system, hypervisor, and even the node operator.

In the context of PrivAI, TEEs are integrated via Phala Network for EVM-compatible chains and Secret Network for Solana, forming a dual-chain infrastructure for privacy-preserving execution. Each time a task is routed through Privacy Mode, its data and agent logic are encrypted and transmitted into the enclave. Inside the TEE, the following properties are enforced:

• Memory isolation: The enclave's runtime memory is hardware-protected and shielded from external reads or writes, even under full system compromise.

• Confidentiality of input/output: All data entering or exiting the enclave is encrypted with attested keys, preventing leakage during transit or post-processing.

• Code integrity: Only signed, verified agent code can execute within the enclave, ensuring that the logic is authentic and unmodified.

• Runtime attestation: Upon execution, the TEE generates a cryptographic proof (remote attestation) which includes a hash of the code and input state. This is broadcast on-chain to confirm the task’s integrity, origin, and trust level.

PrivAI's TEE-based architecture is built to support asynchronous, multi-tenant task execution, allowing agents from different users and domains to run securely and in isolation within the same distributed network. The enclave interfaces are tightly coupled with PrivAI’s task dispatcher and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), ensuring that tasks retain their contextual bindings (permissions, privacy level, execution scope) while processed securely.

By abstracting the complexity of hardware-level security into a programmable privacy layer, TEEs in PrivAI provide a production-ready solution for verifiable confidential computing. They enable a wide range of real-world decentralized use cases — from private DeFi logic to sensitive medical model inference — where provable data secrecy and execution integrity are mandatory.