What You Need To Know About Mimble Wimble
“Mimblewimble” is one of the latest trending phrases in the cryptocurrency communities. If you are one of the Harry Potter fans, you may have remembered this word. Mimblewimble was the tongue-tying curse that was used to bind a target tongue which would stop the person from being able to talk about a subject or a topic. At the end of this article, we talk about the newest launch of this technology on a mainnet launched in September 2019 - Epic Cash-
Mimblewimble has become a popular phrase when it comes to the crypto world as this is the name for one of the latest trending protocols. The Mimblewimble protocol is reliant on powerful cryptographic primitives. It is for this reason that it offers an outstanding framework for the blockchain that possesses fungibility, privacy, and good scalability. What we have to imagine is that there is a lot of room to build and serve the areas where the bitcoin protocol has not yet breached.
In this article, we will go into more detail about this innovative and unique protocol. We will first explain what it actually is, how it operates, its primary applications, along with some of the best players that have implemented it already.
This content was referenced from www.cryptopotato.com 
What Is Mimblewimble & Epic Cash?
Tested over several years, Mimblewimble utilizes elliptic-curve cryptography which uses smaller keys when compared to the other types of cryptography. In the networks which use the Mimblewimble protocol, the blockchain does not feature any addresses, and the data storage on the network is extremely efficient. Epic Cash is a new mineable coin to hit the markets that have the vision to bring these decentralized technologies to the parts fo the underserved world that deserves it the most! The reason this is so important in my mind, Bitcoin has already ended up in the hands of the few, we are all already likely some of the world's new financial elite form seeing these developments come years ahead of their time and mass adoption scales.
Mimblewimble only requires data storage of about 10% on the Bitcoin network. This means that Mimblewimble is very scalable when it comes to storing on a blockchain, which also a lot faster, as well as less centralized. In addition, the nature associated with the protocol provides a way for highly anonymous private transactions (more details on this later).
How Does Mimblewimble Work?
Although Epic Cash is a mixture of the mimble wimble codes, it goes live for its main-net launch August first, this is the cryptocurrency that has piqued our interest in the use of this technology, where privacy and strength of the network are not constraints of one another.
To gain an understanding of Mimblewimble, it is necessary to first explain Bitcoin’s UTXO (unspent transaction output) model. When you pay with fiat, using a Jeff and Jerry example found below. If jerry had to give Jeff 1USD, it would appear like this:
Jeff: + 1 USD
Jerry – 1 USD
In the Bitcoin network, this will not be the same. The BTC transactions contain several outputs and inputs which go from a sender to a receiver. If you have checked on your latest Bitcoin transactions, you will probably see both outputs an inputs on the Blockchain explorer website.
To explain this further Bitcoin will work in the following way. If Jerry would like to send 1 BTC to Jeff, instead of only deducting 1 Bitcoin from Jerrys wallet, this network will bundle together several inputs from the previous BTC transactions, which have been sent to jerry n order to equalize this single coin that jerry has sent to Jeff. This Bitcoin transaction will probably look something like this:
Jerry – (0.1+0.25+0.35+0.3) BTC where A+B+C+D are all of the inputs which are bulked together.
Jeff + 1 BTC
In the example above, Jerry's 1 BTC contained 4 inputs. Yet there are many cases on a Bitcoin network when a single transaction is made up of hundreds or even more inputs. In addition, if the overall sum of these inputs works out to more than the actual transaction amount, this transfer will go onto creating an extra output. For this transaction, the 1st output includes the chosen amount that will be sent to Jeff (the receiver), while the remainder is returned to Jerry (the sender). Due to the fact that each transaction is signed individually by Wallet Software, these types of networks process a significant amount of data. This makes these processes highly inefficient.
Confidential Transactions & Privacy
This is the stage whereby Mimblewimble comes into effect. As was mentioned earlier on, this protocol offers a system that is far more efficient, which eliminates outputs and inputs. The UTXO model has been replaced by a single Multisignature for all the outputs and inputs which are known as Confidential Transactions. This means if Jerry would like to send Jeff a coin, then both Jeff and jerry create one Multisignature key which is used for verifying the transaction.
The Confidential Transactions use what is known as the Pedersen Commitment Scheme, which means there will be no addresses. Rather, the parties involved in such transactions share a “blinding factor”. This Blinding Factor encrypts outputs and inputs of these transactions in addition to both parties' private and public keys. The “blinding factor” is the shared secret between 2 parties that are engaged in a transaction. Because this blinding factor replaces the addresses, only each party involved in the transaction will know about this transaction. This ensures that the overall privacy of these networks is kept at very high levels.
The Pedersen Commitment Scheme operates in the following way. Full nodes will deduct the encrypted amount from the outputs and inputs, which results in an equation that is balanced which is proof that the coins didn’t appear “out of thin air”. Throughout the entire process, this node doesn’t know what the value (the amount) is of the transaction.
The Mimblewimble protocol only verifies that new coins have not been created along with ensuring that each party that takes part in a transaction has ownership when it comes to their keys. Both of these verification processes will use the “blinding factor” which keep the value of the transaction private. Here is a description of the process:
5 + 5=10 – 5+5-10=0
In the above basic example, it displays that new coins were not created, which indicates that the “net balance” is zero.
5(10)+5(10)=10(10)
The secret number is (10) which is known as the “blinding factor” is added into the calculation, which is then multiplied by all the variables. This secret number obscures the actual (original) values.
50+50=100
In the above equation, the “blinding factor” which was the number 10 in the 2nd equation along with each value remains private, yet still allows others to see or verify that new coins were not created through this transaction.
When it comes to Mimblewimble, the “blinding factor” makes up a combination of private and public keys. In this way, other than providing proof that new coins were not created, the parties involved can also prove that they own their keys.
Each party in a transaction are given what is known as a Multisignature header which is located at the end part of their transaction. This Multisignature header is made up of every output and input that were merged in this transaction.
To The Point and it Cuts
An important feature of Mimblewimble when it comes to scalability is known as “Cut Through”. Each block is made up of 100s of transactions along with a significant amount of information which is then stored on this blockchain. With Mimblewimble the blocks can now be compressed using Mimblewimble’s Cut Through feature. This involves removing a large portion of this information without allowing the security of the blockchain to be at risk.
Here is a basic example:
Jerry send 1 BTC toJeff
Jeff sends 1 BTC to Charles
In this scenario, the standard block will have two UTXOs. The first UTXO will retain the input for the 1 BTC which will reflect how the BTC got to Jerry. The output from the first UTXO is the actual result of this transaction, which now verifies that this Bitcoin is now Jeff's. The second UTXO includes the output from the first UTXO, which now becomes the input for the second UTXO, and then the output involved in the 2nd transaction to Charles.
In this example, Mimblewimble will eliminate the output from the 1st transaction along with the input associated with the 2nd transaction, which means there will only be 1 input and 1 output, which will verify how Jerry got the Bitcoin and then how Charles received the 1 BTC, opposed to having two transactions for each.
This process compresses the overall size of a blockchain, which makes Mimblewimble far lighter when it comes to data storage.
Beam And Grin Vs Zcash And Monero
Since the 16 January 2019, Grin and Beam which are both ASIC-resistant coins have started using the Mimblewimble protocol. The first coin known as Grin has been under development since the late part of 2016. On the 15 January 2019, the developers launched the Mainnet. On the other side, Beam already has its own working Mainnet.
While both these coins make use of the Mimblewimble protocol, they have significant differences. Beam features a highly corporate structure, where this company has already collected VC funding along with hiring a skilled development team which helped them to conquer the development time-frame race against Grin. The foundation of Beam relies on block rewards that it gets in order to support the overall development of this network. Beam will change from its current corporate-structure into a true non-profit foundation in 2019. At the same time, the company will start moving towards building business-use cases with Beam as the currency. On the other side, Grin has governance which takes after the “cyberpunk” ideology which empowers decentralization that is community-driven. There is no pre-mine or ICO, and these developers happen to be volunteers.
These two coins also differ in audiences and usability. Beam has a stance that is more professional when it comes to cryptocurrency use-cases. This team has developed a very simple wallet-interface which is focused on being user-friendly along with implementation for the different types of operating systems, which includes Linux, Mac, and Windows. Grin, is not as user-friendly, as the Coin only provides the command-line wallet which can only be accessed by users that are more technical.
Grin uses the Rust programming language. Beam was coded in C++.. The same cannot be said when it comes to the models that are economic. While the goal of Beam involves been used as “an anonymous store” of value, the Grin developers believe that Grin should, in fact, be used as “currency” rather than a “Store of Value” The Grin supporters do not want to reward the early adopters unfairly, instead they would like to maximize adoption.
Now we will do a comparison on these two coins to three of the most popular of the privacy coins which include Dash, Monero, and Zcash. According to the critics, zk-SNARK’s and XMR ring signatures are highly computationally intensive, which has resulted in expensive and slow transactions when compared to Grin and Beam.
Monero uses the “mixins” to ensure the privacy of transactions. However, one of the analysts states that 73% of all the inputs fail to contain mixins, which actually means the transactions are not private. There are other researches that have said that around 80% of the Monero transactions are traceable.
Dash is regarded among the most centralized when it comes to privacy coins, which makes this crypto far less private. Dash may have its advantages in association to scalability, yet for the users who prefer to stay entirely anonymous, they should not use this coin due to its high levels of centralization.
Why Epic Cash?
People seem to think that simply decentralization is the answer to everything. I have learned over the years that every great vision is driven by a team of leaders, in this sense, Bitcoin is not decentralized, it is always reliant upon the developers, coders, and miners. Decentralization in its whole is never achievable, the weakest part of the system is always the human connection. Seeing as we are also the most important part of this equation, in my mind. I have always been on the lookout for companies who work in this space. If you want to read more about Epic Cash, Check out their whitepaper here<<==
FULL DISCLOSURE- I work with Epic Cash Foundation as a consultant and marketing strategist, so you must understand I am little biased, but also very very excited to see what we can do
The Introduction
Pay attention to Harry Potter fans. Here is another reference that was derived from the movie. The Mimblewimble Whitepaper was originally published in the month of July 2016, in the Bitcoin Research channel under an anonymous author who was called Tom Elvis Judusor ( the French name for Voldemort).
Not long after this Whitepaper was published, closer to the end part of 2016, another user who also remained anonymous used “Ignotus Peverell” as a pseudo name (the original owner of the invisibility cloak from the Harry Potter universe), started up the Github Project which included applying the Mimblewimble protocol. This project is named Grin, which went onto release its first Mainnet of the 15 January 2019. Another implementation of Mimblewimble, called Beam has already been released. We will tell you more about Beam and Grin further along in this post.
Conclusion
While Zcash and Monero are regarded as some of the best private coins which are used widely within the cryptocurrency community, the networks that they use could really benefit from the latest technology, like Mimblewimble. Epic Cash we think is going to take this space by storm!
If creators of these coins (which can also include non-anonymous currencies like Bitcoin) would take the time to thoroughly analyze and then follow developments of Beam and Grin, it becomes possible for these cryptos to become anonymous and more private once again.
