Mimblewimble and Bitcoin: A Future Integration
As we have stated numerous times, we believe that Mimblewimble will be implemented in the base layer of Bitcoin and that MWC will help test out the Mimblewimble protocol by creating a financially viable implementation of the protocol with a limited supply that investors can get behind. This is in contrast to one with hyper-inflationary monetary policy for the foreseeable future, which will have a harder time creating a monetary base to fund development. After all, since Mimblewimble has no addresses and no amounts, it offers a much higher level of privacy and fungibility than that found in Bitcoin's current codebase. So unless something better comes along, it's a fait accompli that Mimblewimble will find its way into the market leader's codebase itself. In addition, this high level of privacy and fungibility is ON by default, which is the only way to implement privacy. Opt-in privacy is widely considered a non-viable option by the technical community because most users will not use it, and those that do will be too small a subset to matter.
Mimblewimble's Scaling Advantage
At the same time, while offering these benefits, Mimblewimble is an amazing scaling improvement over existing blockchain protocols due to the fact that spent transaction data in Mimblewimble can be discarded, whereas in all other blockchain protocols, spent transaction data must be retained in perpetuity. This would translate into a nearly 3X improvement given historical Bitcoin transaction data. That's a huge upgrade, and since Bitcoin is defined by the holders who create a consensus over which chain is the "real" Bitcoin, clearly investors will prefer a superior chain that implements the upgraded Mimblewimble protocol over the existing blockchain protocols. But that's when Mimblewimble is ready for prime time. Clearly, it's not now, and that's what we're working on very hard every day along with others (like those working on Grin and Beam).
The Role of MWC in Advancing Mimblewimble
This was all going to happen whether or not we chose to create MWC, but possibly MWC will speed it up by creating a more viable option, thus funding more development efforts and making things happen faster. In addition to these benefits, instead of rewarding venture capitalists like those who invested over $100 million in Grin mining hardware, MWC primarily benefits Bitcoin holders by airdropping an almost unheard-of 30% of the supply that will EVER exist to Bitcoin holders and another 10%, potentially to those same holders, through the HODL program. This is also an important long-term strategy that we believe Bitcoin holders should get behind. When given the choice, Bitcoin holders should prefer cryptocurrencies that reward Bitcoin holders. I see even people like Adam Back, the CEO of Blockstream, defending Facebook's new coin Libra. Why should Bitcoin holders defend Libra? Why aren't Bitcoin holders rewarded at all through Libra? What if Libra had given even 5% of the lifetime supply of the coin to Bitcoin holders? Isn't that better?
Mimblewimble and the Cypherpunk Vision
Back to the point of the article. If you read the writings of the cypherpunks like Timothy May, in his Cryptoanarchy manifesto, it's clear he would favor a Mimblewimble-based blockchain protocol over the existing Bitcoin protocol for obvious reasons. The specter of crypto-anarchy, as he wrote about, is finally in the air some 27 years after he wrote his manifesto. Cryptocurrency is an arms race. Those who want to spy on others will always be up against those that want privacy. The current complacency, which is commonplace amongst many of the major Bitcoin influencers on Twitter, is not healthy. The best technology must be developed and integrated if we want to maintain what we once had with Bitcoin in the early days of a truly peer-to-peer, censorship-resistant, ecash system. Right now, that best technology is Mimblewimble, which is why we are working on it to improve it so that it can help us create a world without the coercion of the state that Timothy May described years ago.
Increasing Interest in MWC
In the last few days, there has been a big pickup in registrations for MWC, which also coincided with the run-up in Grin and Beam's price. The market is starting to understand what we have been talking about for the past few months: Mimblewimble is not going away, and no, it's certainly not the "flavor of the month." Bitcoin holders should heed this warning. This is only the beginning of a multi-year process. Be informed, make the right decisions, and most importantly, do your own research.
