Litecoin Launches Major Mimblewimble Update
Litecoin Unveils Mimblewimble
After beginning the development of the Mimblewimble feature onto Litecoin protocol last year, Litecoin has now finally deployed the major upgrade to public testnet. The recent upgrade spells a new period for Litecoin, and perhaps the crypto space itself.
Mimblewimble is a feature that employs unusual methods to structure and store transactions on the blockchain while keeping all parties and details about the transaction totally anonymous. It is important to note that the current Bitcoin protocol (and many other altcoins for that matter) are pseudonymous. While transactions that occur on the Bitcoin blockchain are nominally anonymous – i.e they are almost impossible to trace to any individual – details like sender and receiver addresses are still visible.
The Mimblwimble feature ensures these details are not visible to the public, making crypto transactions more private than ever.
Mimblewimble’s cryptographic approach is named Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), and is based on discrete logarithms. This makes equations on the blockchains even more complicated to work out. Additionally, Mimblewimble combines cryptographic protocols such as Confidential Transactions (CTs), CoinJoin, Dandelion, and Cut-Through to achieve tighter security and anonymity. In general, these protocols help conceal transaction information.
The integration of Mimblewimble into Litecoin protocol was done via the Mimblewimble extension block (known more popularly as MWEB). The MWEB allows users from any network to validate private transactions.
What Mimblewimble Means for LTC
The Litecoin token was ranked the fifth biggest coin by market cap this time last year. Fast-forward twelve months, and LTC is currently down the rankings to 21st. This in part is due to a lack of faith by investors in the Litecoin project. One of the earliest coins on the market, LTC hasn’t done enough in the past few years to convince investors of its utility over other coins.
The long periods it took to deploy the Mimbewimble feature into the Litecoin protocol is also a contributor to its decline in rankings, considering the privacy feature took two years in development.
Now launched, however, Mimblewimble offers significant causes for optimism among Litecoin enthusiasts. With a utility that is so rare and uncommon amongst other coins, it would not be shocking to see Litecoin climb up the rankings soon.
You can buy or trade any of your preferred tokens for Litecoin (LTC) on ChangeNOW without any registration.
Welcome to the NOW experience! The ChangeNOW team presents you with the new community-inspired crypto wallet – NOW Wallet. For safe and efficient asset tracking, try our crypto portfolio tracking app – NOW Tracker.
