Auros Secures On-Chain Trading by Using AWS Nitro Enclaves

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is transforming traditional centralized finance systems. Through cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies, DeFi is democratizing financial services such as lending, borrowing, and asset trading, empowering individuals instead of relying on banks and other large financial institutions. Auros—an algorithmic trading and market making global firm with operations in Hong Kong and the US—is a contributor to the DeFi space with its risk assessment, profiling techniques, and operational rigor.

Auros wanted to enhance the resilience of blockchain-based (on-chain) trades for cryptocurrencies and other assets. While traditional trading employs well-established security measures to prevent the theft of sensitive data during transactions, the challenge lies in refining these security protocols to effectively protect confidential information in on-chain trading. Jason Atkins, chief commercial officer at Auros says, “We wanted a solution that could protect sensitive data on-chain without compromising latency or introducing additional costs that could diminish trading returns.”

Auros turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS), whose services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) virtual instances support Auros’s trading technology. Explains Atkins, “AWS stands out as the ideal choice for companies like ours due to its unwavering commitment to security, strong support for blockchain technologies, and the low-latency nature of its network.”

Auros chose to implement AWS Nitro Enclaves, which allows customers to establish isolated compute environments for processing sensitive data in a highly secure manner. AWS Nitro Enclaves uses the AWS Nitro System, which provides enhanced security, continuously monitoring, protecting, and verifying instance hardware and firmware. The flexibility of the AWS Nitro System further supports both the latest and previous generations of Amazon EC2 instances, offering Auros a scalable and adaptable infrastructure to meet its evolving needs.

Auros worked with the AWS Nitro Enclaves development team to implement the solution, using the AWS GitHub page to collaborate on any tooling questions. “We always had peace of mind because AWS provides great support around newer technologies. The team helped us optimize our application to run at high performance and approximately 80 percent lower cost,” says Atkins.

By effectively partitioning processor and memory resources from its operating system, Auros significantly has reduced the attack surface area for its most sensitive data processing applications.

Moreover, the technology proved to be cost effective and highly reliable, leading to minimized on-chain disruptions. Atkins says, “AWS Nitro Enclaves provide the automation and auditing needed to smooth out the sharp edges that always come with hardened security.”