INTRODUCTION
In May 2018, the EU’s laws on privacy came into effect, and we saw millions of companies scrambling to update their privacy policies.
A big talking point with regards to the blockchain as a whole has been the issue of privacy. Initially, it was thought that the blockchain was entirely private, but leaks from other solutions such as exchanges and merchants have been a cause of worry.
BEAM is a highly scalable confidentiality crypto that ensures users data stays private, except the user chooses to make it public to a group of people or everyone. BEAM is able to achieve this with the aid of a protocol known as the MimbleWimble protocol.
WHAT’S MIMBLEWIMBLE?
MimbleWimble is based on a unique approach to efficient confidential blockchain, and it was published by an anonymous author. It is based on concepts that were initially proposed by Greg Maxwell which are Confidential Transaction and Transaction Cut-Through.
Confidential Transactions are executed using cryptographic commitment scheme that has two major properties, which are hiding and binding.
Binding refers to the process of giving someone some information or data, but the receiver will still need a key to access that data. To be able to access this data, and be sure of what is contained within is referred to as hiding.
MimbleWimble’s commitment scheme is known as Pederson commitment which is able to achieve this thanks to Elliptic Curve Cryptography.
MimbleWimble uses a process of cutting through a ton of processes to merge intermediate outputs within one block and multiple blocks.
By using this method on the blockchain in its entirety, we have a system that need to only keep record of the current state of UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) rather than everything. In essence, this ensures that information cannot be stolen, and it leaves no room for breaches/losses.
With smaller blocks come efficiency, ensuring it is highly scalable without requiring more processing power.
ADVANTAGES OF BEAM
- User is in total control of his/her privacy settings. Setting is actually set to “private” by default.
- No premine. No ICO
- Superior scalability
- Lower emissions
- Confidentiality maintained without any penalty like use of more processing power.
- Trust setup not required.
- Mining of blocks is done using Equihash Proof-of-Work Algorithm.
- No addresses are ever stored on the blockchain.
- Support for multiple transaction types such as escrow, atomic swaps and time locked transactions.
- Built using C++(from scratch).
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USE CASE
Jenny is trying to save up some funds on the blockchain for a project, and she has been looking for a way to do this privately, on the blockchain. Seeing transactions are open, and anyone can have a look at her account and transactions, she is hesitant in doing this.
She has been scouring the internet for options, and is about shelving her plans, when she hears about BEAM.
BEAM ensures that her privacy is put first, and she has her hopes up again. She is now able to carry out her activities privately, and the blockchain will be the better for it, seeing her and millions like her were hoping to have this, when they joined the decentralized revolution.
SUMMARY
BEAM will change the way crypto users store value positively, seeing all those users that have crawled into their shells, because of the lack of privacy will re-emerge. Being able to toggle between privacy levels and settings ensures that adequate measures can be put in place, depending on the type of activity being carried out.
Humans like being in control, and putting that control back in their hands will ensure that activity on the blockchain will increase, and more users will come on-chain. This will directly give the industry a boost, making sure that lofty heights are attained.
Current solutions lack privacy, because when you have a look at the average DApp, you can easily access information that should only have been gotten with the owners permission. Data breaches from third party solutions have occurred countless times, and this also goes to show that better measures need to be implemented.
Having different privacy levels makes it easy for users to share information with who they choose, discreetly and easily, without hassles. Ease of access is another reason users will stick to a solution.
When privacy is maintained, users will be open to storing more value on the blockchain than ever before. This is critical to the survival of the industry.
Beam Position Paper
Mimblewimble Paper
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Beam Github
Beam Bitcointalk
Beam Medium
Beam Twitter
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