Contributed by the community - Author: William M. Peaster

Mimblewimble (MW) is a block that uses an innovative way to construct and store transaction data chain system. It is an alternative implementation of the Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain that can provide more privacy and better network scalability.

Mimblewimble was originally designed and proposed by anonymous author Tom Elvis Jedusor in mid-2016. Despite his initial articulation of its core concepts, there are still many issues that have yet to be resolved in the initial version of Mimblewimble. Blockstream researcher Andrew Poelstra then began researching and improving the original concept of Mimblewimble. Soon after, Poelstra wrote a paper called Mimblewimble. (Published in October 2016)

After that, many researchers and developers were studying the possibilities of the MW protocol sex. Some argue that while technically possible, adapting the protocol to Bitcoin would not be trivial. Poelstra and others believe Mimblewimble will eventually improve the Bitcoin network in the form of sidechains.

How Mimblewimble works

Mimblewimble changes the traditional blockchain transaction model. It allows the blockchain to have a higher compression ratio, making historical transaction records on the network easier to download, synchronize and verify.

In the MW blockchain, there are no identifiable or reusable addresses, which means that all transactions are invisible to others. It's all random data. Transaction data is only visible to relevant participants.

So, a block with the Mimblewimble protocol resembles a large transaction network rather than a combination of many transactions. This means that blocks can be verified and confirmed without showing transaction details. There is no other way to relate its output to its input.

Give a specific example, Alice received 5 MW tokens from her mother and 5 MW from her father. Token. Then she gave all 10 tokens to Bob. The transaction was subsequently verified, but specific transaction details will not be made public. Bob only knows that Alice gave him 10 tokens, but he has no way of knowing who gave these coins to Alice before.

To transfer coins on the Mimblewimble blockchain, the sender and receiver must verify the information. So we still need Alice and Bob to communicate with each other, but they don't need to be online at the same time when the transaction occurs.

At the same time, Mimblewimble has a feature called cut-through, which can delete redundant transaction information and Reduce block data. The block will only record one input and output (from Alice to Bob), rather than recording the output and input of each transaction (from Alice's parents to Alice, and from Alice to Bob).

Technically, Mimblewimble designed and expanded the concept of confidential transactions (CT), which was proposed by Adam Back in 2013 , and implemented by Greg Maxwell and Pieter Wuille. Simply put, CT is a privacy tool that hides the number of blockchain transmissions.

Mimblewimble and Bitcoin

The Bitcoin blockchain retains every transaction record starting from the genesis block, meaning that everyone can download and verify every transaction Public history of transactions.

In other words, the Mimblewimble blockchain only saves the most critical information while retaining more privacy. Validators ensure that no suspicious transactions occur (such as double spends) and that the amount of tokens in circulation is accurate.

In addition, Mimblewimble removes Bitcoin’s scripting system, which uses a series of instructions to define how transactions are processed. Construct. Removing this scripting system makes the MW blockchain more private and scalable. Privacy is because the transaction address is completely untraceable, and scalability is because the block data is smaller.

Another key difference between Bitcoin and Mimblewimble is the relative size of the blockchain data, which is different from the shortcuts mentioned above Concept related. Mimblewimble requires less computing resources due to the removal of unnecessary transaction data.

Advantages

Block size

As mentioned above, Mimblewimble is capable of compression block data, reducing the overall block size. Nodes can verify transaction history faster while using fewer resources. Moreover, new nodes are easier to download and synchronize with the MW blockchain.

Reducing the cost of joining the network and running nodes will bring about a diverse and distributed community, which can reduce the number of PoW areas Centralized computing power common in blockchain.

Scalability

Eventually Mimblewimble may be connected to Bitcoin or its parent chain as a side chain. The design of the MW protocol will also improve the performance of payment channels, similar to the role of the Lightning Network.

Privacy

Mimblewimble removed Bitcoin’s scripting system can blur transaction details and improve transaction confidentiality.

In addition, tokens based on the Mimblewimble blockchain can be considered fungible. The advantage of fungibility is that any unit of tokens can be directly exchanged for other tokens (there is no difference between them).

Disadvantages

Transaction throughput

Transaction confidentiality is severely reduced transaction throughput. Compared to non-private systems, blockchains using confidential transactions (CT) have higher privacy but lower TPS (transactions per second) performance. However, we can think that the amount of transaction data compressed by the MW protocol compensates for the amount of TPS lost due to confidential transactions.

Not resistant to quantum computing

The Mimblewimble system cannot resist quantum computers (powerful computing devices). The MW protocol is based on digital signatures with relatively simple attributes. However, quantum computers will still take decades to mature, and cryptocurrencies using Mimblewimble will likely find ways to resist quantum attacks in the next few years.

Summary

The advent of Mimblewimble is an important milestone in the history of blockchain. First, the shortcut feature makes the MW network scalable, cheap and simple. Furthermore, the MV protocol may be used in side chains or other payment channel solutions to bring more privacy and scalability.

Currently, there are some blockchain projects designed using the Mimblewimble protocol, including the Litecoin team. Grin and Beam are two other cases. Grin is a community-led project. Its function is the proof of concept of the lightweight Mimblewimble protocol, while Beam is innovation-oriented. Although both are based on Mimblewimble, they are technically independent of each other and each adopt a unique approach to the MW protocol design.

There are still unresolved questions about whether Mimblewimble can reach a significant level of credibility and practicality. It's an exciting and promising idea, but it's also premature. Therefore, potential use cases remain to be developed and the future status of the Mimblewimble protocol remains unknown.