Blockchain technology forms the backbone of the cryptocurrency industry. What makes the blockchain so ingenious is its tough security setup. Still, there is one blockchain protocol that seems to offer security measures that are a cut above the rest: Mimblewimble.
So what is this funny-sounding blockchain protocol, how does it work, and why is it important to the safety of cryptocurrencies?
What Is Blockchain Protocol Mimblewimble?
Harry Potter fans would immediately recognize the name Mimblewimble—it is a spell that literally ties the target’s tongue to prevent them from revealing information about a specific subject.
So, the name is pretty apt because Mimblewimble is essentially a blockchain protocol that allows cryptocurrency transactions to remain completely anonymous. This anonymity offered by Mimblewimble is markedly greater compared to regular cryptocurrency transactions.
How so? Normally, when Adam sends some bitcoins to Ben, Adam’s & Ben’s wallet addresses and the amount sent is recorded as part of Bitcoin’s Proof of Work (PoW) protocol.
Mimblewimble does not allow that.
Who Created Mimblewimble?
Who created Mimblewimble? Nobody knows—the person or group behind the technology goes by the pseudonym “Tom Elvis Jedusor,” the French translated name for Harry Potter’s arch-nemesis Voldemort.
Tom Elvis Jedusor released the Mimblewimble whitepaper circa July 2016, just a month before the infamous Bitfinex hack in August 2016, where hackers breached the crypto exchange’s system and stole $72 million worth of Bitcoin.
The Bitfinex hack at the time gave more credence to Mimblewimble’s principles of anonymity and obscurity, and the protocol received much fanfare when its whitepaper was finally published.
How Does Mimblewimble Work?
Mimblewimble relies on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), a cryptographic approach based on discrete logarithms. If you recall high school math, logarithms are basically the “opposite” of multiplications. For example:
2⁵ = 32. This is multiplication. Therefore:
log2 (32) = 5. This is called the logarithm to the above equation. We now know that two has to multiply itself five times to get the number 32.
Of course, the actual application of logarithms in ECC is much more complicated than the example above. And what about the term "discrete?" The term refers to a branch of mathematics that revolves around studying a set of discrete mathematical values. Probability and set theory are topics that discrete mathematics covers.
ECC performs countless discrete logarithm equations and then plots them onto a graph to pin down the private key of a cryptocurrency transaction. If this all sounds confusing to you so far, don’t worry, because that’s the point of ECC: to make equations on the blockchain more complicated to work out, thereby strengthening the security wall that defines Mimblewimble.
Combining Cryptographic Protocols
In addition to ECC, Mimblewimble also weaves together a set of existing cryptographic protocols and enhances them to achieve maximum security. Said cryptographic protocols are: Confidential Transactions (CTs), CoinJoin, and Dandelion.
Combined, these protocols respectively conceal the following: the transaction value on a Mimblewimble blockchain, the public address of the said transaction, and the identity of both the crypto sender and receiver.
Mimblewimble And Crypto: Pros and Cons
So far, Mimblewimble sounds like the ultimate convergence of the best cryptographic practices. It seems very powerful and revolutionary, and for the most part, it indeed is. The protocol is designed to overcome the security, privacy, and scalability issues well-known cryptos such as Bitcoin face.
A 2018 research paper on Mimblewimble published by Fuchsbauer et al. from the Paris Sciences et Lettres University concluded that Mimblewimble’s bundle of protocols “are provably secure against inflation and coin theft under standard assumptions.”
Thanks to a data compression feature called "cut-through," Mimblewimble has a smaller block size than Bitcoin, making transactions more efficient. On top of this, crypto coins built on Mimblewimble are actually fungible. Again, this is thanks to its advanced security infrastructure: if the origin of a coin is unknown, it becomes difficult to trace, and therefore it cannot be invalidated.
However, next-level security features does not mean that Mimblewimble is impenetrable. The fact that it is reliant on digital signatures also means that, like any protocol in the digital space, it has its own flaws and is vulnerable to quantum computer attacks.
In November 2019, Russian blockchain researcher Ivan Bogatyy published an article revealing that he could de-anonymize 96% of transactions on Grin, a cryptocurrency that utilizes Mimblewimble. Bogatyy stated that he did that by just spending $60 on a node.
“Tl;dr: Mimblewimble’s privacy is fundamentally flawed... Mimblewimble should no longer be considered a viable alternative to Zcash or Monero when it comes to privacy,” writes Bogatyy.
Who Uses Mimblewimble?
Despite Bogatyy’s claims, several mainstream cryptocurrencies in the market still choose to deploy Mimblewimble because of the robust security and scalability that it offers. Here are a few:
- Litecoin: This mainstream crypto is on track to deploying Mimblewimble for its transactions, scheduled at the end of 2021.
- Grin: This privacy coin was actually the first to theorize the use of Mimblewimble. Although it launched in January 2019, developers behind Grin began laying the groundwork for Mimblewimble to be part of the coin’s protocol as early as 2016.
- Beam: This crypto was launched 12 days earlier than Grin and runs on the same principles as Grin.
- MimbleWimbleCoin: It is not surprising at all that Mimblewimble has its own dedicated crypto. The team behind MimbleWimbleCoin describes the crypto as “the technologically superior ghost money.”
As of now, Mimblewimble has yet to be introduced to Bitcoin. Although Mimblewimble is viewed as a protocol that would enhance Bitcoin, some say that it is still not possible at this stage. This is purely because merging both protocols would be too complex and difficult a task.
Mainstream privacy coins such as Monero and Zcash could benefit Mimblewimble, but none have decided to merge with the protocol so far.
A Harry Potter-Inspired Blockchain Protocol
Mimblewimble is a significant level-up from existing privacy measures in the blockchain. The protocol is viewed as the ideal creation by any crypto user who wants their personal information to be completely concealed.
As blockchain developers look to improve the privacy and security of cryptocurrencies, we can probably expect Mimblewimble to be implemented by more cryptos in the future.
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