Oasis for Developers: an underrated EVM for privacy-first dApps

Source: Dev.to

Why Consider Oasis Sapphire?

If you’re building in Web3 and everything starts to feel like:

• MEV everywhere
• Front‑running by default
• Sensitive logic exposed in calldata

…it might be time to look at Oasis Sapphire.

Watch the overview video

Key Features

• Layer 1 with modular architecture – Oasis is a base chain that can host multiple ParaTimes.
• Sapphire ParaTime – An EVM‑compatible smart‑contract runtime.
• Confidential EVM execution – Contract state, inputs, and internal logic can be encrypted; data is only visible inside a TEE‑backed secure runtime.
• Privacy enforced at execution level – Not “privacy by obfuscation”.

Compatibility

• Deploy Solidity contracts almost exactly like on Ethereum.
• Use standard tooling (Foundry, Hardhat).
• Minimal changes required for existing contracts.

Operational Simplicity

• No custom rollup infrastructure or sequencers to manage.
• Deploy like an app, not like an infrastructure company.

Use Cases

• DeFi protocols with private strategy logic (arbitrage, liquidations, auctions).
• Account abstraction / paymaster implementations.
• Games that require hidden state.
• Governance or voting systems where privacy is a liability.
• Any application where “everything public” is a risk.

Considerations

• The ecosystem is smaller than Ethereum L2s.
• Apps must be designed with confidentiality in mind.
• Not every app needs privacy, but when it does, Oasis provides a genuine primitive that many stacks still lack.

“If Ethereum L2s optimize for throughput, Oasis optimizes for who gets to see what.”