Inside Trusted Execution Environments: How Secure Are Your Crypto Transactions?

Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) are designed to ensure secure remote computation, but their “security by obscurity” and hardware vulnerabilities raise concerns about confidentiality and trust. Attacks like Foreshadow expose flaws in Intel SGX and ARM TrustZone, while open-source alternatives like Keystone still depend on manufacturer integrity. Encointer’s blockchain ecosystem uses TEEs for proof-of-personhood and universal basic income but acknowledges scalability and trust limitations, pledging transparency through community governance.