Last month we took a brief look into non-Bitcoin and non-Ethereum protocols. This month I’d like to continue to focus on a few more that I personally am excited about!
MimbleWimble
MimbleWimble is thought to be a blueprint proposal for private transactions on blockchains. It hopes to make transactions completely concealed but still allows for external validations. The cryptography is unique because it hopes to shrink the size of the blockchain dramatically. It uses 10% of the storage required on the Bitcoin network. Scalability wouldn’t be an issue here like other privacy centered protocols like Monero or Zcash.
The first two coins to launch on this network are called Grin and Beam. Grin aims to be a scalable privacy coin that has no addresses, no amounts, and hence less storage intensive than other privacy coins and digital currencies. Its mining algorithm is ASIC-resistant which means you can mine away on your laptop (sorry CPU).
Beam has the same privacy-focused goals as Grin but takes a different approach to governance. It operates more like a company that uses a treasury model to be able to repay investors.
What’s not to love about a privacy inherent protocol where it’s named for a Harry Potter spell!
It will launch in early 2019.
Cosmos Network
Cosmos is a decentralized protocol network that is scalable and most importantly, interoperable between different blockchains. It’s an “internet of blockchains.”
Cosmos is guided by Tendermint Core, an open-source developers tool. Tendermint is a customizable foundation for blockchain applications.
Cosmos also uses Inter-Blockchain Communications protocol. It is like software that links together the zones and hubs within the network and allows the exchange of tokens between heterogeneous chains.
The final component is the Cosmos SDK. This is a modular framework that simplifies how to build secure blockchain applications. Together, these three tool kits allow you to build on Cosmos.
The goal is to operate within different blockchains and tokens without having to switch back and forth. Basically atomic swaps for all!
Cosmos will go live in early 2019.