Enigma is an off-chain network intended to complement blockchain networks by providing storage and calculation of second layer data. The protocol will offer privacy and scaling solutions to any blockchain program that uses it, as data transferred over the Enigma network will be both private and freed from network congestion on the chain. Secret contracts will be at the heart of Enigma’s war. They will be to Enigma what smart contracts are to Ethereum, and they will allow developers to build decentralized end-to-end applications that are focused on privacy.
Enigma is interoperable and agnostic, and will serve as an extension to conventional platforms for off-line calculations. The code is processed both on the blockchain, where it is public, and on the off-chain network of Enigma, which is private. To ensure data security, data can be encrypted before being sent over the network and this off-chain layer is responsible for the distribution of this data between Enigma nodes and its confidentiality. The public blockchain registry only stores references to this data to provide proof of storage, but none of the data itself is public - it remains hidden, private and split on the off-chain network.