6 ms·

It may scale really, really well "The state a given node in a MimbleWimble blockchain needs to maintain is very small (on the order of a few gigabytes for a bit

by nope96 8y ago

It may scale really, really well "The state a given node in a MimbleWimble blockchain needs to maintain is very small (on the order of a few gigabytes for a bitcoin-sized blockchain, and potentially optimizable to a few hundreds of megabytes)." https://github.com/mimblewimble/grin/blob/master/doc/intro.md https://github.com/mimblewimble/grin/blob/master/doc/intro.m... Also, anonymous transactions. Downside: you cannot "send coins to an address" as in bitcoin, you must have interaction with the other party to create a transaction.

mr_woozy 8y ago
Doesn't this just mean adoption is easily farmed out to various communication protocols that do it better? (Signal, Whatsapp, Telegram, Threema). Basically handing them a ready-made drop-in cryptocurrency system ?
- democracy 8y ago
  Any regular centralized system doesn't need any of this, they can do just fine with mature, stable, very well understood and crazy fast RDBM systems.
- rdl 8y ago
  Hurts anonymity if you have to do peer to peer transfers of the file, plus you have issues around resending/etc. (payments are somewhat different from other messages). Even with IM-based exchange, I'd probably use something else and then pass a message instead.
- tromp 8y ago
  The wallet already supports interacting through keybase.
samatman 8y ago
It's worth expanding on that downside: the interaction can be asynchronous, it's not a requirement that the two parties be online at the "same time" or even in the same week. In other words, less of a downside than it may seem, but it is a real shortcoming since it precludes sending to the equivalent of a cold wallet.
- koheripbal 8y ago
  How would an asynchronous transaction work? If you're posting your side of the transaction publicly, doesn't that expose you to a MITM or spoofing attack?
  - samatman 8y ago
    No, the handshake requires the two public keys engaging in the transaction, no one else can complete it. They can be MITMed by an attacker spoofing the identity, but this is no different from a MITM inserting a different BTC address into a communication stream.
xorcist 8y ago
How does that work in practice? Do payments take place over a tcp connection? How do you find your payment peer?
- drexlspivey 8y ago
  The wallet exposes an interface that allows different 'plugins' to be implemented. Right now you can exchange slates (the transaction data) via http, file or keybase. It is possible to build plugins that use any communication channel (Telegram, Signal, email etc)

by nope96 8y ago

mr_woozy 8y ago

Doesn't this just mean adoption is easily farmed out to various communication protocols that do it better? (Signal, Whatsapp, Telegram, Threema). Basically handing them a ready-made drop-in cryptocurrency system ?

democracy 8y ago
Any regular centralized system doesn't need any of this, they can do just fine with mature, stable, very well understood and crazy fast RDBM systems.
rdl 8y ago
Hurts anonymity if you have to do peer to peer transfers of the file, plus you have issues around resending/etc. (payments are somewhat different from other messages). Even with IM-based exchange, I'd probably use something else and then pass a message instead.
tromp 8y ago
The wallet already supports interacting through keybase.

samatman 8y ago

It's worth expanding on that downside: the interaction can be asynchronous, it's not a requirement that the two parties be online at the "same time" or even in the same week. In other words, less of a downside than it may seem, but it is a real shortcoming since it precludes sending to the equivalent of a cold wallet.

koheripbal 8y ago
How would an asynchronous transaction work? If you're posting your side of the transaction publicly, doesn't that expose you to a MITM or spoofing attack?
- samatman 8y ago
  No, the handshake requires the two public keys engaging in the transaction, no one else can complete it. They can be MITMed by an attacker spoofing the identity, but this is no different from a MITM inserting a different BTC address into a communication stream.

xorcist 8y ago

How does that work in practice? Do payments take place over a tcp connection? How do you find your payment peer?

drexlspivey 8y ago
The wallet exposes an interface that allows different 'plugins' to be implemented. Right now you can exchange slates (the transaction data) via http, file or keybase. It is possible to build plugins that use any communication channel (Telegram, Signal, email etc)