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Nautilus

Nautilus is a framework for secure and verifiable off chain computation on Sui. It enables builders to delegate sensitive or resource-intensive tasks to a self-managed Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) while preserving trust on chain through smart contract-based verification.

Nautilus is designed for hybrid decentralized applications (Dapps) that require private data handling, complex computation, or integration with external (Web2) systems. It ensures that offchain computations are tamper-resistant, isolated, and cryptographically verifiable.

It currently supports self-managed AWS Nitro Enclave TEEs. Developers can verify AWS-signed enclave attestations onchain using Sui smart contracts written in Move. Refer to the Github repo for the reproducible build template.

Features​

A Nautilus application consists of two components:

  • Offchain server: Runs inside a TEE, like AWS Nitro Enclaves, and performs the actual computation, such as processing user input or executing a scheduled task.
  • Onchain smart contract: Written in Move, this contract receives the output and verifies the TEE's attestation before trusting or acting on the data.
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We chose to initially support AWS Nitro Enclaves because of its maturity and reproducibility. We will consider adding more TEE providers in the future.

How it works​

  • Deploy the offchain server to a self-managed TEE, such as AWS Nitro Enclaves. You may or may not use the available reproducible build template.
  • The TEE generates a cryptographic attestation that proves the integrity of the execution environment.
  • Sui smart contracts verify the attestation onchain before accepting the TEE output.
  • The integrity of the TEE is auditable and anchored by the provider’s root of trust.

Refer to Nautilus Design and Using Nautilus for details.

important

The provided reproducible build template is intended as a starting point for building your own enclave. It is not feature-complete, has not undergone a security audit, and is offered as a modification-friendly reference licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. THE TEMPLATE AND ITS RELATED DOCUMENTATION ARE PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY. We encourage you to adapt and extend it to fit your specific use case.

Use cases​

Several Web3 use cases can use Nautilus for trustworthy and verifiable offchain computation. Examples include:

  • Trusted Oracles: Nautilus could ensure that oracles fetch and process offchain data in a tamper-resistant manner before providing results to a smart contract. The source of external data could be a Web2 service (like weather, sports, betting, asset prices, etc.) or a decentralized storage platform like Walrus.
  • AI agents: Nautilus would be ideal to securely run AI models for inference or execute agentic workflows to produce actionable outcomes, while providing data & model provenance onchain.
  • DePIN solutions: DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure) could leverage Nautilus for private data computation in IoT and supply chain networks.
  • Fraud prevention in multi-party systems: Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) could use Nautilus for order matching and settlement, or layer-2 solutions could prevent collision & fraud by securely running computations between untrusted parties.
  • Identity management: Solutions in the identity management space that require onchain verifiability for decentralized governance and proof of tamper-resistance, could utilize Nautilus.
  • and more…

When used together, Nautilus and Seal enable powerful privacy-preserving use cases by combining secure & verifiable computation with secure key access. A common challenge with TEEs is persisting secret keys across restarts and different machines. Seal can address this by securely storing long-term keys and granting access only to properly attested TEEs. In this model, Nautilus handles computation over the encrypted data, while Seal controls key access. Applications that require a shared encrypted state can use both tools to privately process user requests and update encrypted data on public networks.

Future plans and non-goals​

We plan to expand Nautilus support to additional TEE providers in the future, such as Intel TDX and AMD SEV. We welcome feedback from the builder community on which platforms to prioritize, or suggestions for others to consider.

Nautilus does not have a native, readily usable TEE network. There may be such TEE networks available from Nautilus partners though. Apart from such networks, developers are encouraged to deploy and manage their own TEEs for running offchain Nautilus servers.

Contact Us​

For questions about Nautilus, use case discussions, or integration support, contact the Nautilus team on Sui Discord.