Ivan Bogatty examined the strength of the Mimblewimble protocol. Currently, Mimblewimble is used by the cryptocurrency Grin, and there is evidence that this is privacymodel will also be introduced for Litecoin, and Bitcoin.
Conclusion: in spite of Mimblewimble 96% of all transactions still have to be followed.
Contents
What is the Mimblewimble?
In the past two years, there has been Mimblewimble is becoming more and more popular as a new, light-weight, privacyprotocol. Mimblewimble has been invented, in 2016, by a pseudonymous hacker named Tom Elvis Jedusor. He was informed of the protocol within the IRC-chat, and disappeared afterwards. Since then it has been the most well-known implementation of the Mimblewimble ” the fair-launch of the privacy coin, Grin.
In the name of Tom Elvis Jedusor is selected. This is because it is an anagram of je suis Voldemort, the villain from the Harry Potter series. Mimblewimble, and refers to the land which the counterparty is no longer able to speak. Both terms are used to save, so go back to the preserve for privacy.
A targeted attack
The researcher Bogatty carried out an attack on the Mimblewimble, to see the viability of it on a live network, test the effectiveness of the measure. He could see the way that transactions will take from the sender to the receiver, exposing, for a success rate of 96%. Bogatty therefore comes to the conclusion that you do not click Mimblewimble to trust you if you’re looking for a robust privacy.
The attack does not show how many of the people to mutually influence each other. It only shows that it is possible for you to find out who each other is something to send. In other words, the Bogatty may be transactions on each link, and the flow of payments, to follow.
Not possible to use Zcash and Monero
He gives an example of why this is important:
Suppose that an authoritarian government is aware that a given recipient address is that of a political opponent. You will send that person a small gift. And as long as you have the Mimblewimble be subject to the local exchange is sent to inform that the exchange of these data is the so-called government. As for the government, the flow of the transaction can be followed, that they know, now, that you are a political opponent to support.
Bogatty say that it is not possible for Zcash and Monero.
Mimblewimble the use of two techniques to combat this. The first one is the full-block cut-through, aggregation, and the second one is a Dandelion. Both of them, however, are not enough to ensure full privacy. He makes this very clear in his argumentation.
What remains to endure the test of time
The researcher, however, to the best of with Grin, Mimblewimble, and cryptocurrency. He sees this research as a next step in the evolution of the privacycoins.
Bitcoin is now 11-years-old, but the cryptocurrency’s are still in the early stage of development. It wasn’t that long ago, there was a devastating bug has been discovered in both the Zcash, as Monero. This is to be expected, the most interesting technologies are still science.
However, this is the only way to do science is to move forward, we will be new ideas and breaking them continuously until we get what’s left to the ravages of time have passed.
Check out his full report here. For a more detailed and technical information can be found on GitHub.