Entry Date:
December 15, 2015

Enigma

Principal Investigator Alex 'Sandy' Pentland

Co-investigators Guy Zyskind , Thomas Hardjono


A peer-to-peer network, enabling different parties to jointly store and run computations on data while keeping the data completely private. Enigma's computational model is based on a highly optimized version of secure multi-party computation, guaranteed by a verifiable secret-sharing scheme. For storage, we use a modified distributed hashtable for holding secret-shared data. An external blockchain is utilized as the controller of the network, manages access control and identities, and serves as a tamper-proof log of events. Security deposits and fees incentivize operation, correctness, and fairness of the system. Similar to Bitcoin, Enigma removes the need for a trusted third party, enabling autonomous control of personal data. For the first time, users are able to share their data with cryptographic guarantees regarding their privacy.

THIS IS NOW DEVELOPED INTO AN MIT STARTUP COMPANY (in STEX, ID#1999)