Overview
With a provable supply cap of 20,000,000, MWC is a scarce pure proof of work Mimblewimble based coin that enables greater network scalability, privacy, and fungibility than legacy blockchain protocols. All transactions on the base layer use Greg Maxwell's Coin Join with his Confidential Transactions and signature aggregation.
The MWC network was launched in November 2019. The goal is to be an extremely efficient and pure form of monetary sovereignty combining scarcity, proof of work and fungibility.
And the MWC buyers and hodlers are imposing their will on the world to make this tool a reality at the lowest cost possible.
Mimblewimble is putting the pressure on other cryptocurrencies to adapt and find the right tradeoffs, creating a net positive to the ecosystem.
— Guy Corem
Proof of Work
The initial supply was distributed via airdrop in November 2019 to Bitcoin holders that had demonstrated their time preference.
All new emission comes from proof of work with the Cuckatoo 31 algorithm.
There is a C31 ASIC that has been widely deployed to the public by iPollo.
The current S2F is about 415.
The final two difficulty adjustment will occur around February 2030 and February 2040.
The tail emission after February 2040 will result in a S2F of about 2,100.
Proof of Work, in contrast with Proof of Stake, is important for censorship resistance because holding large amounts of MWC does not give the owner the ability to censor transactions.
Unfortunately, proof of work is the only solution I've found to make p2p e-cash work without a trusted third party. Even if I wasn't using it secondarily as a way to allocate the initial distribution of currency, PoW is fundamental to coordinating the network and preventing double-spending.
— Satoshi to Malmi; email 3
Pools
These are the pools that are currently mining MWC.
Mining Calculators
These are the mining calculators that are currently available for MWC.
Miners
These are the miners that are currently available for MWC.
Trading
It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Once it gets bootstrapped, there are so many applications if you could effortlessly pay a few cents to a website as easily as dropping coins in a vending machine.
— Satoshi Nakamoto
Good Money
Good money in the Information Age is (1) recognizable, (2) scarce, (3) censorship resistant, (4) durable & indestructible, (5) extensible, (6) salable, (7) portable, (8) fungible, (9) private and (10) divisible.
As Michael S. Milano observed at the Mises Institute, "Transparent blockchains, by their very nature, are incompatible with sound money. Fungibility is fragile and cannot survive without privacy. Digital assets that aren't private by default become tools of control, putting our freedoms at risk. In a world where traceable digital payments are becoming the norm, private digital cash stands as a vital bulwark against the state."
Bitcoin is absolutely the Wild West of finance, and thank goodness. It represents a whole legion of adventurers and entrepreneurs, of risk takers, inventors, and problem solvers. It is the frontier. Huge amounts of wealth will be created and destroyed as this new landscape is mapped out.
— Erik Voorhees
Articles
- CoinTelegraph - What is Mimblewimble and How Does It Work
- Andrew Poelstra - 2016 Bitdevs Presentation
- Mimblewimble protocol privacy - MWEB on Litecoin
- Satoshi on a commitment-based blockchain
- Grin monetary policy
- Confidential Assets on MimbleWimble
- Factual inaccuracies of "Breaking Mimblewimble's Privacy Model"
Development
The are several software projects available.