Power Ledger (POWR) is an Australian blockchain-based cryptocurrency and energy trading platform that allows for decentralized selling and buying of renewable energy. The platform provides consumers with access to a variety of energy markets around the globe and is meant to be scalable to various energy infrastructures and regulations. The market is based on a dual-token ecosystem operating on two blockchain layers, POWR and Sparkz. POWR tokens allow consumers and hosts providing energy to interface with the ecosystem and are protected through Smart Bond technology. POWR tokens can be converted into Sparkz tokens, which can be used for frictionless transactions in the energy exchange market. The initial coin offering for POWR tokens became the largest crowd funding project in Australia and the 14th highest in the world. Power Ledger’s team has immense expertise in both blockchain and electricity markets. They’re comprised of six Board of Directors in addition to over ten full time-team members. Power Leger’s five co-founders make up five of the six Board of Director seats of the company. The sixth board seat belongs to venture capitalist Bill Tai. Receiving his MBA from Harvard, Yai is a world-renowned venture capitalist. Tai’s experience is quite extensive; he is currently the Chairman of Treasure Data and also a Board Member of Bitfury and Boxer. Power Ledger’s POWR Presale sold out in just three days and raised over thirteen million dollars (AUD) in exchange for 190,000,000 tokens. After the presale, Power Ledger held an ICO to sell the remaining 160,000,000 POWR tokens allocated to Token Generation Event. After both rounds, funds raised totaled thirty-four million dollars (AUD). In addition to money raised from its presale and ICO, the Australian Government also awarded Power ledger a grant for 8 million dollars (AUD) to develop its technology and concept further. (Australia has one of the highest costs of electricity in the world and thus has a large stake in the overall success the company). Power Ledger provides a blockchain-based marketplace that can truly change the world. Taking power away from large energy companies, Power Ledger gives local communities the ability to sell their excess solar power to neighbors. Power Ledger has created an energy distribution and tracking platform that allows consumers buy carbonless, sustainable energy at lower prices than what’s offered by traditional electric companies. Power Ledger has plans to expand its operations to three continents worldwide and has amassed an army of powerful strategic partners to help achieve its goals. With the planned release of multiple applications for its platform in the immediate future, the project has positioned itself to disrupt multiple energy markets throughout the world creating a bright future for all participants involved in this green revolution.
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.