High-Performance Blockchain tackles the concept of scalability from a completely different angle. Rather than just looking at the software side of things, the project also tackles the hardware aspect. To realize the optimal performance of blockchain applications, things will need to change in the near future. As such, this team is building an architecture which uses thousands of CPU and FPGA resources to create a more versatile and scalable ecosystem. There are a few aspects of the High-Performance Blockchain project to take into account. First of all, there is the chip-level acceleration engine which provides accelerated hardware chips to power this entire ecosystem. Secondly, the software side of the High-Performance Blockchain is integrated with the new dedicated hardware accelerated engine and focuses on depth and scaling customization. Third, the project claims it can produce a throughput in the millions of transactions without any major problems. While all of this sounds amazing, it is difficult to come by any real information regarding the technical aspects of either the hardware or the software side of High-Performance Blockchain. While the team mainly focuses on blockchain integration for real-world business cases, it remains to be seen how their chips will operate and how their algorithms are created. It seems the High-Performance Blockchain project is closely connected to the NEO infrastructure, which could introduce some interesting developments down the line. Building the High-Performance Blockchain infrastructure will take a lot of time and money. As such, the roadmap is filled with milestones which the team aims to achieve in the coming years. A testnet version of this project will be launched at some point in 2018, which will undergo further improvements for several months. The actual manner will launch in Q2 of 2018 if things go according to plan. However, the official version will not go live until mid-2019 at the earliest.
Enigma is a crypto platform that’s trying to solve the problem of privacy on the blockchain by giving them access to much-needed storage, privacy, and scalability. Enigma wants to extend Ethereum Smart Contracts by introducing secret contracts, a brand of smart contract that gives users an element of privacy that’s not intrinsic to current blockchain protocols. These contracts operate off-chain, meaning the execution of the Smart Contract doesn’t occur on the Ethereum blockchain itself. This is how the Enigma protocol works: it breaks up the Smart Contract and any related data into pieces, encrypts those pieces, and distributes them redundantly among Enigma nodes. Enigma has a protocol level. The Enigma privacy protocol allows for decentralized computation of sensitive data. It has a platform layer too. On this protocol, dozens of platforms such as data marketplaces and AI exchanges can be built. In its application layer, it enables thousands of truly decentralized apps that require private computation and secure data.Its first application is catalyst. Catalyst is the first application to be built on the Enigma protocol, already active with tens of thousands of users. Catalyst is a revolutionary platform for data-driven cryptoasset investing and research, built for professional crypto traders. Enigma has a team of MIT graduates, and they’ve been working diligently to ensure Enigma’s success. Guy Zyskind, Enigma’s CEO and cofounder, helped start the project while he was still a student at MIT. He has more than a decade of software development experience with an M.S. from MIT. Sandy Pentland, a well known MIT data scientist who gained fame for his work in data-mining social interactions, is Zyskind and Nathan’s adviser on Enigma. With other advisors such as Alex Pentland, who sits on the Advisory Boards for Google and Nissan, CEO of Abra, Bill Barhydt and director of MIT media lab, Prof. Alex Pentland, it is hard to difficult a fault in the team.