The Enigma Collective is comprised of talented individuals who represent our project and communicate our technology and vision to their communities and industries. Our goal has been to build a program where everyone feels valued, learns daily, builds skills, and has direct access to the Enigma team. Being involved at the early stages of an ambitious blockchain project like Enigma is an incredible opportunity — and joining the Collective can mean gaining lifelong friends and colleagues.

With the Collective active in over 15 countries, we are slowly building what we believe is the best core community in the blockchain space — curious, committed, and kind. Members bring many different skills and backgrounds to their work, including development experience, artistic talents, business acumen, community-building expertise, and much more.

Today we highlight Brendan Kittredge, another member of the Enigma Collective who has taken a significant role in Enigma’s business development and growth.

“Enigma will help us promote privacy where needed, mitigate the abuse of power by centralized entities, and encourage innovation that lets individuals contribute more meaningfully to shaping the society they live in.”

Who Are You?

My name is Brendan, and I’ve always been a bit of an Enigma. My whole life others have been trying to fit me into one box or another, and I’ve spent the majority of it defying labels. I was a nerd, but an athlete. I went to boarding school, but grew up in a blue-collar family. I’m extremely social, but at times intensely private and quiet. I listen to heavy rock music when lifting weights or running, but like ambient sounds when I meditate. I work a steady, stable 9–5 government job, but have urges to quit and help others by becoming a personal trainer, or traveling across the United States doing videography and working in crypto while living in a van. To some, I’m the daredevil, but to others I’m the reserved, responsible one. All in all, it’s my lack of definition, but intense curiosity about a variety of things, that makes me unique.

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” — Albert Einstein

One of my biggest passions in life is human optimization on both a physical and psychological level. In a world where you can learn anything with the click of a mouse, I’m constantly striving to become a dynamic learner and teacher. When I’m not learning about the intersection of psychology/sociology and technology or chatting away in the Enigma telegram you can find me out biking around the city, snowboarding, wakeboarding, playing soccer or tennis, gymnastic strength training, running, hiking, filming, or consuming a tasty craft beer.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Why Enigma?

I first discovered Enigma at the height of the blockchain buzz when the applications of blockchain technology seemed endless. It seemed as if there was an altcoin for every problem facing humanity. However, as I learned more about programming, blockchain, and cryptography, Enigma made me realize that current public blockchains are flawed in two critical ways: the data stored on them is not private and they are not scalable. It was (and remains) impossible to imagine blockchain technology living up to its full potential without first addressing these underlying faults of the system.

Decentralization encourages the kind of individuality, dynamic learning, and empowerment I am committed to and continue to live for. How can we constantly reinvent ourselves and control our own identity if large data silos are collecting information about us and trying to tell us who we are? I hate being told what to do, who I am, or who to be. Centralization makes it overly easy for controlling parties to determine almost anything for a system or a person; whether it be for good or malicious intent. We need privacy and control over our data to fully express our individuality. That said, I do not see centralization as some evil power that must be avoided at all costs.

My own thoughts on the issue of decentralization vs. centralization lean on ideas brought to light by Yuval Harari in his book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Human Kind. According to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, there is a limit on the number people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships absent more restrictive rules, laws, and enforced norms that maintain a stable, cohesive group. This limit is approximately 150 individuals. Beyond that we’re not capable as a species of trusting strangers. According to Yuval Harari, our species solves this problem by creating “shared myths”, or ”intersubjectives” that exist for as long as people say they do. Examples of such intersubjectives include the value of money or the existence of religions, corporations, or nations. In order to hold our larger society together some set of “shared myths” must be trusted and maintained.

While Bitcoin has seemingly found a way to demonstrate the trustworthiness of digital currency and create a “shared myth” of value in the absence of a central authority altogether, I don’t believe the concepts of blockchain technology and various forms of governance can be applied across the board to eliminate all centralized systems — but they can surely re-shape them and give individuals more power to shape the society they live in. As Chris Dixon pointed out in his brilliant article, centralized systems have given us some of the most sophisticated and useful technologies. The problem is that over time these companies evolved and in the process have begun to abuse their power — misusing, neglecting, and endangering our data in doing so. To quote directly from Chris’ article:

“The bad news is that it became much harder for startups, creators, and other groups to grow their internet presence without worrying about centralized platforms changing the rules on them, taking away their audiences and profits. This in turn stifled innovation, making the internet less interesting and dynamic. Centralization has also created broader societal tensions, which we see in the debates over subjects like fake news, state sponsored bots, “no platforming” of users, EU privacy laws, and algorithmic biases. These debates will only intensify in the coming years.”

It seems that the internet, which was originally a source of unlimited creativity, collaboration and innovation, has become too controlled by centralized entities. By giving these centralized entities unlimited control over our data we’ve given them too much power in creating the shared myths that shape our society.

Enigma will help us promote privacy where needed, mitigate the abuse of power by centralized entities, and encourage innovation that lets individuals contribute more meaningfully to shaping the society they live in.

Decentralization encourages the kind of individuality, dynamic learning, and empowerment I am committed to and continue to live for.

What do you enjoy working on?

What I like most, and why I enjoy working in videography and as part of the Collective, is helping people tell their unique stories. I love talking to people about Enigma and blockchain in general. I enjoy trying to understand complex technical details and then explaining them to others in easy to understand terms. Furthermore, due to my interest and understanding of a variety of disciplines, I’ve become an expert at “connecting the dots” between various technologies and businesses.

All of this has really helped in being part of the Enigma Collective, especially in working on the Business Development and Live Events subgroups. I’m constantly trying to perfect my Enigma “elevator pitch” to companies and developers that could benefit from the technology. I’m at a point now where I understand, internalize, and am able to communicate the Enigma use cases very effectively. This has become evident as I’ve helped secure a few meetings recently for the team with potential partners and sat in on the ensuing calls.

What do you want to see in a decentralized, privacy-oriented digital future?

My vision for a decentralized, privacy-oriented digital future revolves around solving the problems created by the proliferation of our personal data. I envision a future with accessible decentralized applications where:

Fraud is avoided by using transparent, immutable blockchain technology

Censorship is resisted

There is no central authority collecting data

There is no central authority able to force a user to follow their terms and conditions

There is no central authority to meddle in the system or make decisions that will adversely affect the larger group

Open development, meritocracy, and network effects take precedence

Reputation and verification of my personal data can occur without data provision and unnecessary proliferation.

This all connects back to my answer to question #2. I believe we will always need some central authorities to uphold certain “shared myths” that allow us as larger groups of humans to cooperate. What we cannot allow is for them to abuse our data for their own benefit and surrender our abilities as individuals to shape the society we live in.

Why should someone join the Enigma Collective?

Since joining the Enigma community, I have learned so much about blockchain technology, crypto economics, cyber security vulnerabilities, cryptography, community management, business development etc. Never did I imagine that an online community could foster such valuable education. Most of the individuals that aided in this education have now become enthusiastic ambassadors for the project (including some of those that were the harshest critics from a technological standpoint).

Aside from the community and educational aspect, being part of the Collective allows you exclusive access to the inner circle of the Enigma team (and we get to hear more of Tor’s genius, zany ideas). We have frequent calls and conversations where we’re kept informed about the team’s progress and short term goals. Not only are we informed, but we’re equipped with the knowledge and resources to effectively communicate, help set direction, and contribute to business endeavors. By being active participants in some of Enigma’s business operations it allows us to grow our individual skill sets and transfer these newfound skills and ideas to other areas of our lives, and other projects we’re working on — and it looks great on a resume!

Being in the Collective allows me to work alongside amazing people and soak up even more knowledge to pass on to others. It has allowed us all to become closer and become a team — one where people feel comfortable to put faces and personalities to often anonymous online profiles. As the Ambassador group has evolved, it has become surprisingly clear that we share an unspoken common ethos: we believe in using privacy to preserve the sovereignty of the self and encourage individuality.

The Collective plays a large role in helping to build, educate, and engage the Enigma community; both online and in person. Although the program is fairly new and still ironing out the details of how to operate most efficiently, I am proud to be part of it, and excited to see what we can help the team accomplish! We all feel like Enigma — and ourselves — are building something truly awesome.