FHE Public Decryption

Use this skill when a contract needs to USE plaintext onchain, not just show it to a user. Public decryption is a two-step process: the contract marks an encrypted result for decryption, then a second transaction submits the proven plaintext back. This is the only safe way to bridge encrypted computation into plaintext onchain actions.

When To Use

• Implementing unwrap flows (confidential token to public ERC20)
• Building settlement logic that releases public assets based on encrypted computation
• Designing any flow where the contract must act on a plaintext value
• Reviewing code that converts encrypted results into onchain plaintext actions
• Debugging two-step flows where the finalization transaction fails

Core Mental Model

A contract cannot read encrypted values. It computes on them but cannot extract plaintext synchronously. To act on a result, it must: