What is Mimblewimble?

Mimblewimble is a blockchain protocol that redesigns the data structure of the communication method to make blockchains with Proof of Work (typically Bitcoin) more concise, secure and private.

Mimblewimble is a spell in the famous Harry Potter series with the meaning of blocking the opponent’s tongue.

Mimblewimble was developed by anonymous users named Tom Elvis Jedusor, French name “Voldemort”, document Announced in early 2016. According to Jedusor, Mimblewimble is designed for improved data protection and greater scalability than Bitcoin. Although the core idea has been published, the question remains until research by Andrew Poelstra from the BlockStream team perfected his concept with the title Mimblewimble (published in October 2016).

Mimblewimble was once a buzzword in the crypto world. In the 2018 crypto winter, a number of blockchain innovations caused a sensation such as the release of Mimblewimble and its first crypto app, Grin, which quickly exploded in value after its launch at the end of the year.

Many studies developed mimblewimble but failed to reach consensus. Some argue that merging Mimblewimble with the Bitcoin protocol is too difficult. However, most agree that Mimblewimble can still upgrade Bitcoin’s system as a sidechain. There are currently many popular implementations of Mimblewimble such as the Grin and Beam blockchain. In October 2020, Litecoin launched the Mimblewimble test network to improve its privacy and scalability.

How does Mimblewimble work?

Mimblewimble’s transaction structure is derived from “secret transactions“, Which was first published by Dr. Adam Back of Blockstream, who also happens to be Satoshi Nakamoto’s front runner. This method is also used in other privacy coins such as Monero.

In short, it all starts with a private transaction in which a certain number of tokens that the sender wants to process are encrypted so that “anonymous elements“. Bitcoin’s UTXO model is being replaced with a multiple signature for all inputs and outputs known as confidential transactions. The transaction that Alice sends to Bob is encrypted with the anonymization factor, and the network nodes subtract the input and output tokens to logically confirm that there is no double factor. Then the transaction is complete.

In Mimblewimble, anonymous items must be selected by the sender. In this way, it acts like a proof of ownership for the recipient, allowing them to use the money.

Confidential transactions were made by Dr. Adam Back and used it in a number of crypto projects, including Monero and Tari – in the sense of Mimblewimble.

Example: Transaction Alice sends Bob 200 BTC

If we write this as a mathematical equation with the output positive and the input negative, we should be able to balance things out so that no other generation of coins is created.

-300 + 200 + 90 + 10 = 0

Basically, this is information that is on the Bitcoin blockchain. Anyone can review someone else’s transactions simply by checking their global ledger transaction history. It’s not good for privacy.

This is where secret transactions come into play. We can start by multiplying both sides of the previous equation by a point that creates H on the elliptic curve ( This is the first step in the Elliptic Curve encryption algorithm used by Mimblewimble.)

300.H = 200.H + 90.H + 10.H

Since H is constant, the above operation stays the same, so we can confirm that Alice is not stealing by using

(3.H) – (2.H) – (1.H) – (fH) ≡0.H = 0

Notice that we only see the public keys and therefore the hidden values. This means that now only the H parameters are seen, but no values. Of course, the structural protocol will be much more complex than described above. The content only summarizes the anonymous transaction stub, with the parameter H being the initial anonymous stub element.

Deploy coinjoin

CoinJoin is a controversial cryptosystem (for some other developers) that was developed by Gregory Maxwell of Blockstream. It enables a “coin maker” system in which Payments from a lot of people send differently combined in a single transaction, with the aim of making it almost impossible to trace the transactions from the perspective of an outsider. This means that multiple (transaction) transactions are now contained in a single transaction.

In comparison, for example, Bitcoin’s nodes have to download the entire blockchain including its transaction history, which is then analyzed by the network to confirm its validity.

Cut through

Another feature of the mimblewimble protocol is Cut-through. It’s work Combination of inputs (inputs) and outputs (outputs) in all recorded transactions give smaller blocks. This process uses previous records as input to facilitate new transactions. It is understandable that the A to C transaction would be summarized instead of recording the A to B and B to C process.

To explain this better, here is an example of a transaction with different inputs and outputs.

• A sends 1 BTC to B (this shows a single entry for trading with B, this results in a single output)
• B sends 1 BTC to C (this has a single input to trade with C, it results in a single output)

Here, Mimblewimble merges these transactions into a single input and output. The transaction kernel confirms and validates ownership of assets. This kernel contains the public key, the mining fee and the signature.

However, nodes do not always have to implement Mimblewimble’s cut-through functionality. However, this means that it takes up more storage space than normal transactions stored in the ledger.

Compare Mimblewimble to Bitcoin

In the construction principle of the Bitcoin blockchain, every transaction must be public so that everyone can follow the entire history by downloading all the data from the Genesis block.

Blockchains are based on the Mimblewimble protocol with the design of the security principles mentioned in the above two sections. Then Mimblewimble has no address. The concept of a mimblewimble address does not exist. Hence the transaction is completely private. All transactions are confidential. It’s easier to save and download data. As long as the entire system of network nodes ensures the logic in the system that there are no abnormalities in the cash cycle, such as repeated spending.

In particular, the Mimblewimble structure does not allow anyone’s address to be tracked and ensures privacy by eliminating Bitcoin’s scripting system, making the data in the Mimblewimble structure smaller and easier to store. At the same time, the Mimblewimble system deletes unnecessary transaction data in the transaction, which means that Mimblewimble requires fewer computing resources.

Features of Mimblewimble

Mimblewimble has three major differences when compared to other blockchain platforms available.

incognito

In Bitcoin, there is always a public address that can be traced back to identify the sender and recipient of a particular transaction, especially if their address is linked to the real identity of the transaction. Hence, Bitcoin is a pseudonym.

No transaction history can be tracked with Mimblewimble. And since no address is accessible to third parties, it becomes extremely difficult to bypass the anonymity of those who conduct a transaction through the protocol.

Interchangeability

Like other privacy coins, Mimblewimble has a higher fungibility than Bitcoin. This is because you can exchange any cryptocurrency on your platform without the risk of loss. Other coins can be “tainted”, especially if they are related to illegal activity. While some tainted assets may be accepted by some, under certain circumstances they can lose value. Therefore, the difficult-to-follow mimblewimble function makes swapping easy.

Expandability

Since the block size in Mimblewimble is much smaller than in Bitcoin, the block size has so far been more scalable than most blockchains. This is exactly the same problem that previously split the Bitcoin community in an attempt to solve the scaling problem and created the infamous Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork that modified the block size limit.

However, the Mimblewimble workaround is through CoinJoin and methods Cut through got there without the disadvantage of a large block size limit.

malfunction

Of course, there are some limitations to anything revolutionary. Here are the two largest:

• Longer transaction throughput

Systems that support the implementation of secret transactions have slower transaction speeds due to their data size.

• Electronic signature reliability

Since Mimblewimble relies on digital signatures, it is very susceptible to attacks via quantum computers.

The future of Mimblewimble

Mimblewimble is a huge step forward in protecting the anonymity and privacy that most other cryptocurrencies are designed for. Since it is trace-free and the validation process is difficult, it is much easier for anyone to adopt the Mimblewimble protocol model than some other current blockchain systems.

This is one of the reasons why grin and beam Use the mimblewimble protocol for implementation. Both cryptocurrencies have no address, no transaction amount and a record of the entire transaction history.

In many cases, these are also concerns that people think of when they decide to consider using cryptocurrencies. Mimblewimble’s efforts to meet these needs can help increase adoption. All information in the article is information compiled by CoinCu and does not constitute investment advice. CoinCu …