Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S12W3 - The Mimblewimble protocol .

It is another week in crypto engagement journey. One of the basic strengths of Blockchain is anonymity and immutability. There is absolute confidentiality of an individual's identity as transactions are carried out.

I will be using the contest guides to explain more about this.

Use your own words to show your understanding of the Mimblewimble protocol

This word was used in Harry Potter's film to restrict an individual from saying things he ought not to say.

So MimbleWimble also explains that fact only that it is applied to the Blockchain. It is a protocol in a blockchain which ensures further anonymity of transactions on the blockchain.

Remember that Blockchain transactions are anonymous but some information are still known. But the use of MimbleWimble protocol stops those ones that are revealed from being seen at all.

It is a new way of structuring and storing transactions in the blockchain bringing about further privacy, fungibility and increased ability to expand the chains network.

The protocol was proposed and introduced by an anonymous developer referred to as Tom Elvis Jedusor.

It was noticed that blockchain intention to be anonymous was not completely so since certain information concerning transactions can still be known.

Informative details like:-

° Senders addresses

° Recipient addresses

° Quantity of coin being sent in the transaction.

With these details being known, blockchain users do not get the absolute anonymity they want when they perform transaction. So this MimbleWimble protocol attempts to solve these further identity details.

Explain how the Mimblewimble(MWB) protocol works, giving an illustrative example.

This protocol uses a very strong cryptographic protocol that ensures that the Blockchain provides a good scalability, privacy and fungibility.

This cryptography enables the chain to have a smaller history, which is faster and more easier to download, verify and synchronize. We all know how difficult it is to download large megabyte information compared to smaller ones in our phone and laptops.

MWB helps the Blockchain achieve these feats by the use of cryptographic protocol. It prevents data like senders and receivers addresses which are normally visible in most Blockchain appear like random data to another viewer on the blockchain scan. The transaction information can only be known by and visible to the two parties involved.

The various cryptographic approach used are

° Elliptic Curve Cryptography: This helps to verify the correct transaction figure together with the sender and the receiver such that the information is not revealed. This also adds to the security of the protocol.

° Confidential Transactions protocol: This protocol is also used to hide the value of the transaction.

° Dandelion Protocol: This protocol conceals the identity of both the sender and the receiver.

° Coinjoin protocol : It conceals the public addresses of transactions since all payments from various peoples are joined together as one transaction. This also helps maximize the Blockchain memory.

Additionally, all blocks on the MWB looks just like one big transaction, which can be verified and confirmed. However, there is no link or relationship between two transactions and no details whatsoever.

To illustrate, Mr A wants to send some token to Mr B. He does that by using an encryption process known as the Blinding factor to send it. This Blinding factor is a set of values randomly chosen by the sender.

Once the recipient, Mr B, selects the same random values used by Mr A. The transaction is deemed to be valid. Through this way, the Blinding factor which Mr A sends to Mr B for claiming the transaction acts like the Proof of Ownership, authenticating his ownership of the coin sent.

Do you think the Mimblewimble protocol could be used on the Steem blockchain to improve scalability and privacy.

Steem Blockchain is a Blockchain of its own and would welcome any development which will impact positively on the chain.

Having been on steemit, we have seen that the Blockchain reveals some information from transactions which should not be. Information like senders and receivers addresses, amount transferred, even time of transfer.

Considering the above, privacy and anonymity is not ensured completely in the Blockchain even though transactions are immutable.

So using the MimbleWimble protocol will be very advantageous for the Blockchain, since it will enhance further privacy, anonymity and scalability of the Blockchain.

Discuss in detail a crypto (its blockchain) that uses the Mimblewimble protocol.

There are several blockchains that have adopted the use of MimbleWimble protocol. Some of them are

°Litecoin

° Beam

° MimbleWimble coin

° Grin coin.

I will be discussing Litecoin Blockchain as an example of a chain using MWB.

Litecoin (LTC)

LTC chain is a chain that is very transparent by nature. When a transaction occurs, both the senders' address, the recipients' address, the amount sent are all shown and revealed. Like I earlier mentioned, some individuals do not want this exposure.

When MimbleWimble is applied on the LTC blockchain, this problem is solved. To make this happen, a block known as Extension Blocks is created where users move their litecoins into. This Extension blocks exist within the Litecoin block.

When Litecoin holders transfer coins within the extension blocks, the addresses of both the sender and receiver, the amount involved in the transaction will be hidden and only those involved in the transaction will see these details.

When they are done with the concealed transaction, the holders will now move out their coins from the extension blocks to the transparent main Litecoin chain.

This provision is entirely optional for Litecoin chain users.

I will now go further to explain this process.

The act of sending funds to the extension blocks is refered to as ( pegging-in) while sending it back to the main chain is known as (pegging-out).

To move coins into the extension blocks, the user needs to create a pegging-in transaction which has a prefix *ltcmweb1). With this, the miners will automatically create the pegging-in transaction in his behalf.

Once this is done by the miner, the pegging-in transaction will be dully processed by another transaction which is resident in the same extension blocks. This is known as HogEx (Hogwarts Express). With this, the user will be able interact with his Litecoin in the next extension block.

The user can also move out his funds from the *extension blocks by creating a pegging-out transaction. This he does by sending his transaction to the main chain Litecoin address.

This movement is possible after six block confirmations. This is because a total of six blocks is processed on top of the block where their own transaction is. This transaction for removal of coins is processed by the Hogfx in that block where the pegging-out transaction is.

Finally, the Hogfx performs a balancing transaction by moving the balances in an extension blocks from one block to the other, adding all the pegging-in transactions and removing all the pegging out transactions, thus giving a balance which should ultimately be zero. Unless there is a user that did not complete his own transaction, which is pegging-in and pegging-out.

This is how MimbleWimble works in Litecoin chain

Mention the advantages and disadvantages of the Mimblewimble protocol.

Advantages

• Anonymity* : It is difficult to identify the senders and receivers address of the Blockchain transactions used with this protocol. It is not traceable nor can they be tracked.

• Fungibility : Its fungibility is another great feature. It is difficult to track assets when used on this protocol since there is no risk of loss or have the possibility of being listed as an illegal transaction.

• Scalability: It has the capacity to remove unwanted information from Blockchain transactions, thud reducing block sizes and making it more scalable. It also combines all blocks as one large transactions. The smaller the block size, the more scalable and faster the chain is.

Disadvantages

Despite its huge benefits, it also has its own demerits. Some of the demerits are

° Low speed of transaction - Systems with support for confidential transactions have low speed in execution of transactions due to its thoroughness and size of data being processed. So this affects blockchains using MWB protocols.

° The MWB Protocol requires digital signatures to complete its transaction processing. This gives room for a possible malware attack on the system.

° The project (MWB), is still in its developmental stages and as such, its real life usage can not be confirmed and ascertained.

Conclusion

Having explained what mimblewimble is, we can now see how it works and the benefits accruing from its usage. This should be applied on all chain to ensure more privacy of transactions as is required of a Blockchain.

I therefore invite @drhira @aaliarubab and @yancar to join this centest

Success to you all!