Enigma was one of the most anticipated ICO’s during the summer of 2017. It was viewed as a winning project with a team out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The idea was to create a prediction market for Crypto investors similar to a Bloomberg terminal and driven by artificial intelligence. I myself decided to invest in Enigma due to their seemingly all star team. However, they were hacked about 1 month prior to the official launch of the ICO. The article from TechCrunch can be read here.

“Users on Reddit found that Engima CEO Guy Zyskind’s email was accessed by the hacker. His email had been part of a hacking of a different services in the past and had been dumped on the internet, but seemingly Zyskind had not taken the time to change the password..”

Enigma lost investors half a million dollars and angered their Telegram community. At this point a downward trend began and the bullish confidence began to fade. What made matters even worse was that the hard cap was raised toward the beginning of the ICO to $45 Million. The questions began to pop up. Why do they need to raise the hard cap? Investors began smear campaigns across social media. Incredibly, the ICO was executed and funds were raised. The damage had been done, but at least the token sale went unscathed.

Can Enigma be the Bloomberg Terminal of Crypto?

The Initial Coin Offering price was 60 cents for the crowd sale. It pumped around 80 cents range for a couple of days, and then quickly dropped way below ICO price. I felt that the hacking incident and lack of organization lead to the initial demise but there is still a light at the end of the tunnel. Enigma does have an ALPHA version available now. When looking at a Crypto startup it’s important to see a working product as opposed to only a Whitepaper. The fact that Enigma does have an Alpha gives me some confidence in it’s future. Some of the features Enigma offers are:

Quant Research Tools – free, open-source Python SDK – either locally or over a web-based IDE – to quickly access crypto-data and to design, test and refine winning trading strategies.

– free, open-source Python SDK – either locally or over a web-based IDE – to quickly access crypto-data and to design, test and refine winning trading strategies. Data Marketplace – decentralized data marketplace for the blockchain ecosystem as a data curator, data consumer, or both. Provide crypto-investment data in exchange for ENG tokens and spend tokens to subscribe to data sources. Get market, network, sentiment, ICO and other crypto-investment relevant data from a single source and create your edge in beating the crypto markets.

– decentralized data marketplace for the blockchain ecosystem as a data curator, data consumer, or both. Provide crypto-investment data in exchange for ENG tokens and spend tokens to subscribe to data sources. Get market, network, sentiment, ICO and other crypto-investment relevant data from a single source and create your edge in beating the crypto markets. Machine Based Investing – Invest in winning strategies with a proven track record, even if you lack the skills or time to create your own algorithms. For developers – prove you can create successful algorithms and attract investment from your peers.

Enigma’s Future

I attended a Data Science event last year in New York City and the keynote speaker proclaimed Data is the new currency. But when you think about it, everything we do digitally collects data for marketers. Your phone, tablet, websites you visit, Apps you install, all collect data which is bought and sold. This is part of the reason why we are seeing a movement towards decentralization. Do people want to voluntarily pay for expensive devices and give away their private information at no cost, with no benefit? This is part of the reason why I see decentralized systems taking root. Enigma does have a strong team and backed by some major names including MIT, Digital Currency Group, Flybridge Capital Partners, Floodgate, Converge and Heroic Ventures. It could very well become the Bloomberg terminal of Crypto, it all depends on the reliability of their product and the community that backs them.