There are many different ways to make cryptocurrencies scale these days. A direct block size increase, SegWit, and Raiden are just some of the names that come to mind. Mimblewimble is another solution which was initially developed to solve Bitcoin’s scalability problem once and for all. Not much has been heard from this project over the past few months, but the team is now ready to put their code through its paces on a testnet.
Mimblewimble Development is Still Ongoing
It is always good to see new scaling solutions getting a testnet. Mimblewimble has been an interesting project, especially considering that it was announced well over a year ago. Until earlier this week, there was no indication that this project would ever get off the ground. As it happens, the first testnet for Mimblewimble has finally launched. While it is still experimental at best, some big progress has been made by the developers.
One of the main reasons Mimblewimble has received so much attention is its focus on scalability and privacy. All of this is achieved with “cutting-edge cryptography”, although few people know the specifics of this project right now. The new testnet will allow developers to see what the code does and build applications taking advantage of this scaling protocol.
It is very likely Mimblewimble’s developers will run into a fair few issues along the way, given that their code is still experimental first and foremost. That was the main reason for launching this testnet, as it will help the Mimblewimble developers identify issues and resolve them in a future version of the software.
The code for the Mimblewimble testnet – as well as associated instructions – can be found on GitHub. Given the unique and complex nature of this project, it is good to have some written instructions on hand. Indeed, accessibility is always an issue affecting software in the early stages of development, though this first testnet was designed for developers rather than anyone else.
The native currency of Mimblewimble will not be Bitcoin, surprisingly enough. Rather, the testnet coins are known as “grin”, and the testnet itself is called “Grin”. It will, however, be possible for the Bitcoin developers to integrate this functionality once it becomes more stable. There will be quite a few different testnets along the way, though, and no one should expect to see this implementation go live within the next few months.
It is certainly possible that future versions of Mimblewimble will include support for Lightning Networks of some capacity. It is evident that this proposal has a lot of promise, assuming the developers can ensure that the code works. There is a lot of promise out there when it comes to scalability solutions and privacy-oriented features in the cryptocurrency world, and an interesting future lies ahead for Mimblewimble.
