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MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data

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Re: MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data

#4

Post by dimino »

Wait wait what? So I can send my (locally encrypted) CC info into an Enigma-enabled CC processor, and they can deduct an amount from my account without ever actually knowing my account info?

Or more like I can send an encrypted list of passwords and they can tell me what the most common letter is in all the passwords without ever knowing any of the passwords?

If these things aren't possible, can someone provide a useful example of this being used to solve a problem? I'm having a bit of trouble actually understanding what this is/does.

Re: MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data

#5

Post by devindotcom »

djent wrote: post #2

Amazing how shallowly an article can cover the specifics of something like this. The best explanation they gave was "mathematical tricks."

This article pretty clearly isn't intended to be a technical manual for the Enigma process, but rather explaining the basic idea and possible uses to a mainstream audience. People reading a general-interest technology site like MIT TR aren't going to be capable of understanding the actual math and encryption techniques involved. If they were, they would likely be getting their Enigma news from the papers involved, or the project's website, or progress logs, etc.

Re: MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data

#6

Post by devindotcom »

dimino wrote: post #4

Wait wait what? So I can send my (locally encrypted) CC info into an Enigma-enabled CC processor, and they can deduct an amount from my account without ever actually knowing my account info? Or more like I can send an encrypted list of passwords and they can tell me what the most common letter is in all the passwords without ever knowing any of the passwords? If these things aren't possible, can someone provide a use…

I was thinking of it more like a distributed supercomputer that can tackle large amounts of data without actually knowing what the data is, so it can be trusted with tasks that might otherwise have to be kept on local clusters. Crunching genome data for medical patients or something might be a good example of having to comb through lots of private data.

Re: MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data

#7

Post by zekevermillion »

dimino wrote: post #4

Wait wait what? So I can send my (locally encrypted) CC info into an Enigma-enabled CC processor, and they can deduct an amount from my account without ever actually knowing my account info? Or more like I can send an encrypted list of passwords and they can tell me what the most common letter is in all the passwords without ever knowing any of the passwords? If these things aren't possible, can someone provide a use…

I'm still waiting for a distributed program that stores its own private bitcoin wallet keys using homomorphic encryption to keep the keys secret. Can Enigma do that? Doesn't sound like it's quite there yet, but the direction is very interesting.

Re: MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data

#8

Post by ilurk »

dimino wrote: post #4

Wait wait what? So I can send my (locally encrypted) CC info into an Enigma-enabled CC processor, and they can deduct an amount from my account without ever actually knowing my account info? Or more like I can send an encrypted list of passwords and they can tell me what the most common letter is in all the passwords without ever knowing any of the passwords? If these things aren't possible, can someone provide a use…

I don't know about CC processing, because... banks and regulations.

But what fully homomorphic encryption allows you to is to perform arbitrary computations on encrypted data.

So you send your encrypted data to a machine, it performs the computation, and sends it back to you still encrypted. Like the password list example you mentioned.

What is cool about this is that is solves the problem with privacy in cloud computing platforms. You don't expose your data.

NOTE: I'm not a cryptographer nor haven't read the article yet. Just writing what I can remember.

Re: MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data

#9

Post by jgrowl »

So if I am understanding correctly, this could compete with services like s3 and ec2.

People can earn money by attaching their machines to the network (but they have to include a security deposit). Then they will collect fees from users for each request processed as well as a set fee for storage.

The application developer will then use a provided scripting language (I am not sure if they actually write the application using this language or if it is just for ensuring a contract). They will need to continually pay storage fees or their data will be disabled and eventually deleted.

I would like to see examples of the scripting language they reference.

Re: MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data

#10

Post by jgrowl »

zekevermillion wrote: post #7
dimino wrote: post #4

Wait wait what? So I can send my (locally encrypted) CC info into an Enigma-enabled CC processor, and they can deduct an amount from my account without ever actually knowing my account info? Or more like I can send an encrypted list of passwords and they can tell me what the most common letter is in all the passwords without ever knowing any of the passwords? If these things aren't possible, can someone provide a use…

I'm still waiting for a distributed program that stores its own private bitcoin wallet keys using homomorphic encryption to keep the keys secret. Can Enigma do that? Doesn't sound like it's quite there yet, but the direction is very interesting.

From the whitepaper:

8.10 Bitcoin Wallet

1. Decentralized private key generation – Multiple Enigma nodes locally create a segment of the key, whereas the full key is only ever assembled by the user. No trail of evidence is left anywhere.

2. Decentralized transaction signing – Transactions signed without ever exposing the private key or leaving a trail.

3. Decentralized controls - Set spending limits, multi-sig, CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY like controls, and more with a private script. Lock time,

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