BEAM: the blockchain that prioritizes the privacy of individual users

INTRODUCTION

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The adoption of blockchain technology has offered the world a new way of exchang for products and services through the use of cryptocurrencies as both digital assets and liquid currencies. This is good because it solves most of the problems that accompany fiat and the preceding currencies.

However, cryptocurrency itself comes with some peculiar challenges, such as the cumbersome nature of blockchains which always result to delay in transactions. As much as people's interests are drifting towards blockchain and cryptocurrency, the lengthy amount of time it takes to successfully carry out a transaction is what many people have cited as a complete turn-off. Not everybody is willing to spend 20 minutes or even more just to transfer money to a roadside vendor for a product he or she purchased.

Another challenge, seen as a turn-off is the issue of privacy/security. Blockchains are presumed to be fairly secured in its streaks of immutable blocks but the idea of keeping transactions private has not been met before now. Those who care can still trace the financial history of an individual because the blockchain, in the course of validation, stores both the address and amount that moved from one account to another in each transaction.

Fortunately, Beam has risen to put an end to all these challenges and add meaning to the use of cryptocurrencies.

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A Look At the Current Problems With Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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• Number one is the issue, emanating from the encumbered nature of the blockchain architecture. The system is bulky by default and this is partly because both valid and invalid transactions take their place in the immutable storage process. By occupying storage spaces, even though the invalid ones are not necessarily required as data, they contribute in making the system more sluggish.

• Number Two is the issue of privacy. Blockchain technologies are generally decentralized. This makes it possible for anybody to access certain data belonging to other users who would rather prefer keeping their transactions private. This include knowing who sent money, to whom he or she sent and the amount they sent. While the process of gaining access to people's financial records from the open ledger may give more burden than a minute's effort, anybody determined to have such information will not face any form of restriction because it is available to the public.

Again, there are issues that build around some limitations to the amount of transactions that can be executed within a given space of time by a particular blockchain. It has been a plaguing challenge associated with poor processing speed of blockchain transactions. Each blockchain has a ridiculous limit to the number of transactions it can process for a given period of time. Some of them can be as low as 5 transactions per second. This is a jinx for a currency that is aiming to replace the traditional fiat because even some traditional fund processors such as Visa can handle thousands of transactions in a matter of seconds.

When the limit is strained, the result is that the subsequent transactions will be queued pending to as long as it takes the system to clear up again. This has overly contributed to the known delay in the successful broadcasting of transactions in the blockchain technology.

This limitation is a problem to all the blockchains except BEAM.

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But There Are Solutions in Beam

WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS BEAM?

BEAM is a next generation confidential cryptocurrency based on an elegant and innovative MimbleWimble protocol.

SOURCE: Beam BitcoinTalk

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This is a blockchain-based decentralized cryptocurrency that makes user anonymity, speed and scalability top priorities by developing an immutable storage system that will keep records of transactions without including the amounts and addresses of both senders and recipients, thereby making it impossible for people to pry into the financial history of others.

In other blockchains like Bitcoin where amounts and addresses are included in the broadcasting, validation and block-storage of a transaction, the following are happening:

– people take advantage of the openness of the system to make unauthorized use of people's supposed personal financial records and the affected persons feel offended and insecure.

– the blockchains are easily overwhelmed due to the load of additional data that are not actually needful but occupy blocks of storage spaces.

– the system is occasioned with lengthy transaction validation period

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Simply put, Beam is a financial system whose strength comes by overcoming the challenges that others have.

Beam maintains speed, privacy and scalability by using an improved version of the Mimblewimble protocol through which it ensures that the overall blockchain sustains a proportional growth aimed at accommodating mass adoption of cryptocurrency.

Beam will be designed to power a wide range of transactions such as time-locked, escrow and atomic swapping transactions. These services will come in ways that are never known in today's blockchain systems.

Beam Solutions:

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By the application of Mimblewimble protocol, Beam executes multiple blocks of transaction as a single large block. This feat is achieved by merging all outputs within a single block and across all blocks between the initial input and the final output of a transaction.

For better understanding, it is important to give a shot at the functionalities of Mimblewimble protocol. Mimblewimble relies on the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) which is characterized by linear inputs and outputs. For every transaction block, the output creates the input of the next block and the chain continues in such linear sequence.

Mimblewimble protocol brings advancement to UTXO system by executing the entire transaction process but leaving the unnecessary aspects unsaved. This in turn, occupies only a portion of the supposed space, making the whole system much more efficient through speed enhancement.

In the continued transaction series, each time the output of a block is sent to another block, the new block uses the output as its input and automatically creates a blinding element before broadcasting it as an output to a new block. This way, the value of a given transaction and the identity of people behind it can only be known by the parties involved in the transaction – that is the sender and receiver.

Replicating this method through the entire blocks on the blockchain makes it possible for Beam to achieve the desired privacy while sustaining a system that will enable people to carry out transactions in real time.

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Transactions on Beam Platform

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• Every user of Beam platform bigins by creating a wallet. These wallets represent new nodes that are signed and connected to the blockchain.

• Users execute transactions through blocks that are created each time such transactions are initiated. This execution is done, using Pedersen Commitments.

• Validation of transactions on Beam involves a process that links the output of the previous block to the input of a new block. This output contains the proof of validity and proof of work of the most recent transaction and this retains the needed indication to that output.

Why the Efficiency of Beam is Second to None

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– This technology comes with a whole lot of enhanced features that will set it ahead of all the existing blockchain systems. These include privacy measures, appreciable transaction speed and scalability.

– Activities on Beam Blockchain happen under anonymity. Users are empowered to decide the amount of information they leave on the system and who has access to such information.

– Beam can be used as a facility for value storage and equally as a medium of exchange. The exchange aspect creates room for various kinds of payment systems from which users are enabled to choose the one that most suit them.

– The Beam's Mimblewimble protocol positions it to go beyond limitations in the amount of transactions it process for any given period of time. This will cure the imbalances that have over the years held other blockchains down.

– Beam is not a copy of any previous script. It is rather built from scratch, using C++ by a team of erudite developers who spotted the downside of other blockchains and took up the task of bringing a lasting solution. Some subsequent programs will be sustained by the Beam open source channels.

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Use Case 1

Elizabeth wants to keep some investment away from her extravagant husband. She has been looking for ways to make an investment that will only be known about by her growing son. She is afraid of buying Bitcoin with the money because her husband has a ways of tracing all her transactions. She continued searching until she finally found Beam. She made her investment and handed the credentials to her son without her husband knowing how much that was spent.

Use Case 2

Ken is running an online-based facility management services, with clients all around the world. Each time he paid his workers, some people would complain that they were underpaid because they always had access to the total payment history to know who got what. Ken needed a payment solution that would pay his numerous workers and keep the history private because he is paying different rates to different people who are in different countries due to inflation and client density. He got recommendations from a friend to try Beam. He created a wallet and has been paying his workers without hassles.

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Meet the Team of Leaders

Engineers

Advisors

Investors

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See this presentation by the CEO, Alexander Zaidelson for further details:

More Information and Sources

Beam Website
Beam Position Paper
Mimblewimble Paper
Bram YouTube
Beam Telegram
Beam Facebook
Beam Github
Beam Bitcointalk
Beam Medium
Beam Twitter

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This is my entry for the @originalworks' CONTEST

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beam2018