Litecoin developers are preparing to launch a new version of the MimbleWimble privacy protocol, MingleJingle, that supports fully non-interactive transactions on the test network.
Litecoin developer David Burkett, who is responsible for the integration of MimbleWimble, provided an update on its implementation. He said significant progress has been made and the initial code will be ready and available for review on March 15.
"There are still plenty of ways we can (and will) continue to improve the MWEB code, particularly with regard to synchronization. But most of what's left is not required for the initial run... I'll submit the code for review on March 15," Burkett wrote on Twitter.
The MimbleWimble implementation project in Litecoin has been in development for more than a year, and the MimbleWimble Extension Blocks (MWEB) test network was launched last September. Burkett recently turned the community's attention to MingleJingle, a new offering from leading developer RandomX Tevador.
MingleJingle is a redesign of the original MimbleWimble protocol, offering completely non-interactive transactions. This means that the sender only needs to know the recipient's address generated from the two public keys. Other important features include addresses that cannot be linked to wallets and transaction outputs by which addresses cannot be determined.
According to Burkett, Tevador's extensive experience with hidden Monero addresses has led to a number of innovations in the project, as well as improvements in MWEB addressing and output structure. Burkett added additional tweaks to the overall mechanism for hiding transaction details, and said the code is now ready for the new test network. It will contain all the consensus, P2P and wallet code needed to support MWEB.
"The only thing that won't be there is the activation code, which I'll add after all the checks and audits are completed," he said.
Burkett hopes to activate the MimbleWimble update on the main Litecoin network in 2021, provided miners and node operators support it. The principle behind MimbleWimble is that the block does not contain detailed information about all transactions, while they are confirmed, which also prevents double-spending attacks. The proposed improvements will be implemented if more than 75% of network members vote for them.
In January 2019, the Grin and Beam blockchains were launched based on the Mimblewimble protocol.