After the inception of the blockchain technology, there are a number of developments that seek to improve the security, stability, anonymity and the overall performance on the technology. One of such arrivals is the Mimblewimble Protocol which I will be talking about today.
In Detail, Explain Your Understanding Of The Mimblewimble Protocol
Mimblewimble is one of the most revolutionary protocols developed in the blockchain industry. Even the mention of its name sounds a bit hilarious for many.
However, it's importance overshadows it's humor. This privacy protocol was mainly designed to provide and ensure privacy and scalability of transactions among users in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. If the name sounds familiar, it is obvious you're a fan of the Harry Potter franchise. As its name was coined from the movie/novel.
Though mimblewimble is not an actual English word, it is now commonly used by many, it might end up so. In the movie, the word refers to a spell/charm that prevents a person from disclosing a secret. So you see, this pretty much explains itself and its major function in the blockchain network.
Thus, this blockchain protocol prevents third party users from having access to transaction details between two users by encrypting the data/information about the transaction to only the party/parties involved. Mimblewimble tends to hide addresses and user information of senders and receivers. Unlike Bitcoin, Mimblewimble provides no traceable address and also hides the IP address of your device used in the transaction.
The publisher of the Mimblewimble Protocol remains anonymous. Well, it was published/founded by Tom Elvis Jedusor, and nobody has any idea who this person is. It may be a man or a woman, an individual or a group of people, etc. Data that is embeded the transactions of the mimblewimble protocol is verifiable, however, it remains hidden and protected from third party users, thereby maintaining the anonymity of transactions. Mimblewimble has been in the system sinc way back to 2016. The mimblewimble block has a number of cryptocurrency application including Grin, which was released in the year 2018.
Discuss In Detail How The Mimblewimble Blockchain Protocol Works
Prior to the production of mimblewimble, one of the few problems users had with the cryptocurrency Blockchain was privacy of transactions. This is a big challenge in especially the Bitcoin network. Anyone could see the exact amounts you send or receive anytime, obtain user addresses involved in transactions, and a whole lot of things. Mimblewimble consists of two major components that helps achieve anonymity and scalability in cryptocurrency. These components are "Coinjoin Transactions" and "Confidential Transactions"
In Mimblewimble, transactions involve the multiplication of complex series of numbers to form larger complex numbers, making every transaction very bulky to an outsider even if it were a simple one. This bulky numerical system hides the actual transactions. These are referred to as Blinding Factors.
In effect, when a sender wishes to send to a recipient, they subscribes to blinding factors, and the receiver chooses from these a specific range of values known to only the two parties. These values are multiplied to give large numbers that define the transaction.
Confidential Transactions
The idea of confidential transactions does not involve the display of addresses of recipients and senders in blockchain. It makes use of the blinding factors that hides these information from the public including private keys.
This feature of mimblewimble was first unveiled by Dr Adam Back in 2013. Shortly after, it was included by Grin, Monero and more. Confidential Transactions one may say is an addition/enhancement of the anonymity provided by the Bitcoin Blockchain, which only offers a pseudonymous (false anonymity) transactions. BTC uses a public ledger system that ensures the amount and addresses involved in transactions are verifiable.
On the contrary, CTs use blinding factors that add up to the inputs and outputs and the use of a cryptographic technique known as the Pederson Commitment. The amount of inputs at the beginning of the transaction is always made equal to the output amount at its end. The Elliptic Curve Cryptographic technique is a difficult concept for most people to grasp especially for non-cryptographers. To explain it briefly, consider any type of curve(hyperbolic or parabolic) in the cartesian plane. This curve constitutes of numerous sets of points joined together.
All points on this curve in the cartesian plane has an X value and a corresponding Y value. All points on a curve are equal. X=Y. Say X is the input amount in the transaction and Y our output. If point X has components a and b, such that ab=X, and point Y has componentsm and n, such that mn=Y, it implies the data can be represented as ab=mn. Indirectly, a third party will only see the representation of ab=mn, without knowing the actual values involved. Meanwhile, only the two people involved in the transaction know the actual values as X=Y.
How Do You Think Mimblewimble Protocol Can Be Utilized On The Bitcoin Network To Enable Anonymity Of Transactions And Improve Scalability
The appearance of Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency ecosystem has been a milestone achievement. However, despite its positivity, BTC has a few challenges as far as transactions are concerned. One is anonymity and scalability issues. The other is it's infungible nature.
Previously, BTC was considered by many as a cryptocurrency that guaranteed exclusive anonymity and privacy of business transactions among it's users.
Down the line, we've realized this isn't completely the case. This is because, BTC displays the public addresses and history of transactions performed by individuals in the blockchain market. Hence, anyone could simply dig down into a person's information and be able to narrow down their status and confidential transactions. This is a bit dangerous as people who mean evil can easily pry down their targets with this information. It is because of this most people now consider BTC as pseudonymous.
MW could be a great addition to BTC in this aspect. The MW technique prevents addresses of user transactions from third party users. That is, the actual information of any transaction is limited to only the two persons involved (sender and receiver). This ensures strong anonymity in the ecosystem.
The aspect of scalability is one where mimblewimble can also contribute immensely to BTC network. We know in Bitcoin that every detail/information is recorded and computerized. This increases the Blockchain size of Bitcoin extremely due to the tremendous amount of stored data. Mimblewimble on the other hand removes redundant transactions. This ensures that less data is stored and computerized. This greatly reduces the blockchain size offered by MW. Hence, the adoption of mimblewimble will help improve the scalability of the Bitcoin network.
Concerning the fungibility of Bitcoin, one can conclude it is not. Once a BTC is labeled tainted, many merchants/traders do not want to accept it for transactions/exchange. However, in MW, data is so confidential, such that no one will really be able to doubt you. Thus makes it easier for trading transactions.
State The Pros And Cons Of The Mimblewimble Protocol
Pros
- MW ensures higher degree of anonymity in the blockchain network since it hides transaction details from third parties
- MW coins are fungible and ensures easy trade because it's data of originality is encrypted
- MW has a higher resolved scalability as compared to others. It reduces the amount of Blockchain size by filtering out redundant transactions and storing only fewer details
- MW also provides high level of privacy and security of users by hiding addresses of trades and transaction history from third parties.
Cons
- Since most information on the MW Protocol is discrete, it will be impossible to audit it.
- The operating script of mimblewimble is not obscure. This makes is very difficult to directly inculcate it into the Blockchain network at the moment without causing setbacks.
- The use of ECC by mimblewimble makes it susceptible to attacks especially quanta computing.
- MW is also sometimes affected by time zones and network failures between parties involved in a transaction especially
Discuss In Detail At Least A Crypto That Uses Mimblewimble Protocol
There are a couple of cryptos that have adopted the mimblewimble protocol. Some of them include Monero, Beam, and Grin. They all have their specific characteristics. Let us talk extensively on Grin.
Grin is privacy cryptocurrency that uses the mimblewimble protocol as one of it's core components.
Since its launch in January 2019, the Grin cryptocurrency seeks to increase the privacy/anonymity and scalability of the blockchain network and also making it an open-space for all. It has no known founder's reward nor ICO(Initial coin offering) during it's launch. It is however funded/financed by donations from the public.
Because Grin is mainly based on mimblewimble, it hides transaction addresses and amounts, making it highly private and high level of fungibility. It is also notably scalable as seen in mimblewimble. Along with other components required by mimblewimble, Grin utilizes the Elliptic Curve Cryptographic technique, and confidential transactions as well as Coinjoin Transactions.
Since Grin is an open source, it's growth is mainly determined by the general feedback and contribution by structured reviews and suggestions. Grin has an emission rate of 1grin per second which makes it different from Beam.
Mimblewimble Protocol is a great initiative that was created to improve upon the already existing security and privacy of transactions in the cryptocurrency Blockchain. I believe it has been able to live up to it's task as a better agent of ensuring anonymity and scalability.
Post it's inception, it has received a lot of applause from many users. However, there's still a long way to go before it can universally be inculcated into most other cryptocurrencies to help improve their privacy, scalability and fungibility.
It was a pleasure to participate in this lecture. I am looking forward ti the next.
Thank you fir your attention.