Trusted Execution Environment

A secure, isolated area inside a processor (e.g. Intel SGX/TDX, AMD SEV) that runs code privately and tamper-resistantly, and can produce a hardware-signed attestation proving exactly which code is running. Crypto uses TEEs for confidential smart contracts and fair block-building. 'Trusted' names the assumption: you must trust the chip vendor and the silicon's isolation, and TEEs have a documented history of side-channel attacks — efficient hardware-based confidentiality, not a cryptographic guarantee.