FHE Fully Homomorphic Encryption has seen a surge in popularity over the past two years, becoming the new favorite in the privacy track after zero-knowledge proofs. It’s a bit ironic—this technology was introduced in 2009, but only recently has it gained the attention of developers.

What makes Fully Homomorphic Encryption so powerful? In simple terms, it allows computations to be performed directly on encrypted data. Imagine: data never needs to be exposed, yet calculations can still be carried out as usual. This solves the longstanding dilemma between privacy protection and data usability—either privacy is maintained but data can't be used, or data can be used but privacy is compromised. FHE breaks this binary curse.

Why has it only gained attention now? In the early years, the technology lacked maturity and performance was subpar. Recent breakthroughs at the foundational level have significantly improved FHE’s practicality. Coupled with the increasing demand for privacy-preserving computation, this technology has finally moved from theory to real-world application. Developers are beginning to realize that FHE could be a key component of Web3 privacy solutions.