MIT Media Lab's Enigma blockchain project to launch beta version

In July, we reported that researchers and entrepreneurs at MIT Media Lab had begun working on a new encryption system called Enigma, which uses blockchain technology to enable non-trusted and anonymous participants to securely share sensitive information with third parties.

"Enigma" is part of the history of cryptography. During World War II, the electromechanical encryption system used by the German military was named after Enigma. At the time, it was known for being unbreakable. It was eventually successfully cracked by a team of mathematicians and early computer scientists led by Alan Turing.

The creators of the new Enigma system include technology entrepreneur Oz Nathan, who previously served in the IDF’s counterterrorism unit, and Guy Zyskind, a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab whose interests include data parsing, privacy, and Bitcoin. Zyskind’s mentor, Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, is also a member of the Enigma team.

This new Enigma system will be supported by blockchain technology.

According to Enigma’s website, Enigma is a “decentralized cloud platform that ensures privacy, storage, sharing and analysis of private data without revealing it to third parties. Blockchain is the magic technology behind it.”

In fact, protecting sensitive data is only part of Enigma’s functionality. An important innovation of the system is that it will allow the analysis of data stored in external applications while maintaining the privacy of the data, giving users full control over them.

Additionally, data owners will be able to monetize their data. For example, participants can anonymously sell portions of their medical data to pharmaceutical companies.

“Enigma is a peer-to-peer (p2p) network that enables parties to jointly store and execute data while keeping it completely private,” wrote Nathan, Zyskind and Pentland, authors of the Enigma white paper. “Enigma’s computational model is based on a highly optimized version of multi-party computation, secured by a verifiable secret sharing scheme. For storage, Enigma uses a modified distributed hash table to keep data secret.”

An external blockchain is used as the controller of the network, managing access control, identity and serving as a tamper-proof log of events. Security deposits and fee incentives are responsible for the correctness and fairness of the system," the white paper continues. "Similar to Bitcoin, Enigma removes the need for a trusted third party, making autonomous control of personal data possible. For the first time in human history, users can securely share their private data through encryption."

The Enigma team was the winner of the final round of the Bitcoin Project Summer Startup Competition held at MIT in 2014. The team received a $5,000 prize, while the Ethos project of MIT Media Lab graduate students Amir Lazarovich and Guy Zyskind, as well as Bitcoin entrepreneur Oz Nathan, won prizes in the first two rounds.

Bitcoin Magazine reached out to Enigma’s creators to learn more about the project.

“Enigma’s mission is to enable people and organizations to share data with each other while maintaining control over that data and not revealing the original data to anyone, balancing security and privacy,” Nathan told Bitcoin Magazine.

Since July, the Enigma team has focused on the following three areas:

1. Enigma implementation

2. The Enigma protocol was formally proven in an academic paper, which should be released soon;

3. Discuss the most interesting applications with potential users.

“The most interesting application we’ve heard about is doing data science and machine learning techniques on encrypted datasets. Other uses include private smart contracts and the ‘internet of things with privacy,’” Zyskind said.

It is reported that the Enigma team will soon launch a beta version, and interested users can visit the Enigma website to participate in the test.

Original article: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/enigma-mit-media-lab-s-blockchain-based-encrypted-data-marketplace-to-launch-beta-1450810499
Author: Giulio Prisco
Compiled by: Satuoxi
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/enigma-mit-media-lab)