What is Mimblewimble?

Mimblewimble is a Blockchain design in which processes are performed, configured and stored in a variety of ways. The Proof of Work is an implementation of Blockchain that allows for much more privacy and successful network scaling.

Mimblewimble was first introduced in the spring of 2016 by Tom Elvis Jedusor. Although Mimblewimble’s early documents contained key ideas, they left unanswered questions behind.

Due to unanswered questions, a researcher named Andrew Poelstra from Blockstream, a Blockchain technology company, has begun work on the original concept to improve it. Click here if you want to see Andrew Poelstra’s article “Mimblewimble” he wrote in October 2016.

For some developers, applying Mimblewimble on Bitcoin would be a difficult process. Poelstra believes that the goals of developing the Bitcoin network will be achieved.

How Does Mimblewimble Work?

To summarize briefly, Mimblewimble is based on changing the traditional model of Blockchain operations. This will make synchronizing, verifying and downloading Blockchain much simpler.

The Mimblewimble Blockchain does not contain any addresses to be reused and identified. This causes all transactions to appear as complex data to someone who is not in the system. The data of transactions is only visible to users.

For this reason, the Mimblewimble block appears to be one major transaction rather than various combinations. This means that the blocks can be validated, but that the transactions do not provide any detail about themselves.

Advantages of Mimblewimble

Blockchain Size

MW reduces the size of the Blockchain by allowing data compression. Because the size is reduced, nodes can perform the transaction book much faster with fewer resources. It also makes it easier to synchronize new nodes.

Scalability

As Poelstra says, Mimblewimble can be added to Bitcoin or a different chain in the future and used as a side chain solution. The MW design can lead to an increase in the speed performance of payment channels such as Lightning Network.

Privacy

A high level of user privacy is achieved by hiding the details of the transactions performed when combined with the removal of Bitcoin command system and preference of hidden transactions.