What Is It and How Did It Emerge?
The history of the Mimblewimble development, which was put forward to ensure privacy and reduce the data size in the blockchain, reminds us of the way Satoshi presented the Bitcoin whitepaper. The story begins in August 2016 when the Mimblewimble prospectus was posted to the Bitcoin IRC channel by an anonymous person nicknamed Tom Elvis Jedusor, the French equivalent of the character Voldemort in the popular fantasy series Harry Potter. And the name “Mimblewimble” is a spell in the Harry Potter series, from which the name Tom Elvis Jedusor was inspired.
How Does It Work?
Blockchains are systems that record all transactions and verify all records by going backwards to confirm new transactions. There were 69.5 million unspent balances on the Bitcoin blockchain on November 9, 2020, as of this writing. A total of 574 million Bitcoin transfers have been made to date. If one of the 69.5 million unspent balances is desired to be spent, the 574 million transactions are controlled sequentially and if the accounting is correct, the transaction is allowed to be made. For this reason, recording all transactions increases the data size, and reveals information about personal data due to the fact that it can be tracked.
On the other hand, Mimblewimble keeps senders and receivers within a block in two separate categories in order to ensure confidentiality. Since sent and received transactions are signed in groups and included in the block, it is never revealed which sender and receiver are matched. However, transactions can be confirmed and verified retrospectively.
And in order to reduce the data size, it restricts the blockchain data that validators need to download in order to synchronize. Data size can be reduced by 60% with transaction records kept only by including new block rewards and records of unspent balances.
Usage Example: GRIN
With the Mimblewimble integration on the blockchain, GRIN is a prime example of the Mimblewimble process and offers the following features:
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Confidentiality feature: It offers users the opportunity to optionally share information they wish during transfers. If no changes are made, the transfers are carried out confidentially.
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Low size: Transactions made on GRIN are less than 100 kilobytes in size. While the number of instant transactions increases, the total size of the blockchain remains low.
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Mimblewimble uses Elliptic-curve cryptography technology. Elliptic-curve cryptography, which we know from Bitcoin, has proven its security.
