{"id":37267,"date":"2019-12-17T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=37267"},"modified":"2025-08-29T14:39:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T11:39:35","slug":"what-is-mimblewimble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/what-is-mimblewimble\/","title":{"rendered":"What is MimbleWimble?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1<\/span><\/p>\n

What is MimbleWimble?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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MimbleWimble is a PoW protocol offering broad scalability and enhanced privacy. In the popular Harry Potter novels, MimbleWimble is the “tongue-tying curse” that prevents an opponent from pronouncing a spell correctly. The term alludes to the protocol\u2019s ability to obscure transaction data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/span><\/p>\n

Who created MimbleWimble, and when?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Creators<\/b>: an individual or group using the pseudonym “Tom Elvis Jedusor”. In the French translation of the same novels, that is the name of the main antagonist \u2014 Lord Voldemort.
\nCreation date<\/b>: On July 19, 2016, a white paper<\/a> by Jedusor appeared online, describing a blockchain with improved scalability, privacy and fungibility. On October 6, 2016, Blockstream mathematician Andrew Poelstra released a review of the white paper<\/a> that proposed fixes for several security issues. A few days later, a pseudonymous author, “Ignotus Peverell”, published<\/a> on Github the Grin implementation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/span><\/p>\n

How does MimbleWimble work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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MimbleWimble uses confidential transactions<\/a> (CT), which fully eliminate inputs and outputs by using multisignatures. Under CT, both parties to a transfer create a multisignature key for the transaction. CT employs a blinding factor that encrypts all inputs and outputs, as well as their public and private keys. Transactions are validated using the Pedersen commitment scheme<\/a>, a low-level cryptographic primitive that lets participants commit to a chosen value, hide it and later reveal it. A full node subtracts these encrypted amounts from inputs and outputs and balances them, confirming that no new coins were created. The node does not learn the transaction amount.<\/p>\n

MimbleWimble compresses<\/a> blocks via \u201ccut-through\u201d \u2014 a technique that splits and removes large amounts of data from a block without compromising security.<\/p>\n

MimbleWimble \u201ccuts through\u201d the output of the first transaction and the input of the second. What remains is a single set of inputs and outputs, allowing verification of how the sender obtained the coin and how the recipient received it. This process shrinks the blockchain and optimises data storage.<\/p>\n

The protocol has significant scaling potential: inputs and outputs are hidden, there are no public addresses, and multiple transactions are combined into a single block.<\/p>\n

MimbleWimble also uses CoinJoin. The technique, created by former Bitcoin Core developer Gregory Maxwell, takes payments from several senders and combines them into a single transaction, depriving an uninvolved third party of the ability to determine which recipient a payment was intended for.<\/p>\n

The CoinJoin mechanism hides<\/a> the inputs and outputs of senders and recipients. Many transactions are merged into one. The sum of all inputs is subtracted from the sum of all outputs; a zero result allows consensus to be reached.<\/p>\n

Thanks to CoinJoin and privacy measures, MimbleWimble achieves a high degree of data integrity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/span><\/p>\n

What are MimbleWimble\u2019s drawbacks? <\/strong><\/p>\n

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MimbleWimble does not support a scripting language. The protocol\u2019s functionality is limited to monetary operations. This makes it much harder to implement second-layer solutions such as Lightning Network and atomic swaps<\/a>. In theory, the protocol is vulnerable to quantum computing, since its privacy and coin-issuance controls rely on elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/span><\/p>\n

How is MimbleWimble developing? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The main implementations of the protocol are the Grin and Beam projects.<\/p>\n
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Beam vs Grin: differences, mining specifics and the outlook for MimbleWimble-based cryptocurrencies<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n