- Litecoin’s (LTC) MimbleWimble (MW) protocol testnet is registering a low initial participation.
- David Burkett revealed that MW will be activated on mainnet in 2021 if miners and node operators signal their support.
The main developer of the MimbleWimble protocol for Litecoin, David Burkett, has made an important update on the project. After launching a testnet on September 30th, Burkett reported low participation. Therefore, the testnet was re-launched, as explained by the developer:
For the sake of keeping my word, I’ll launch the testnet tonight just on the few VMs I have set aside. I’ll let it mine overnight, and spend the rest of the evening documenting everything and seeing if I can get an automated build of litecoin w/ libmw. If everything runs smoothly, we’ll start adding more nodes to the network tomorrow.
The re-launched took place on October 1st this year around 3 pm (EST). The developer also stated that it is in an initial phase for the development of the wallet that will support the MimbleWimble protocol, but hopes to make enough progress for the time of launch on the mainnet. For now, Burkett expects this to happen somewhere around 2021.
However, via Telegram, the developer stated that the release of MimbleWimble will be left to the miners and node operators “when or even if they want to activate” the update.:
Next month, I’ll share a detailed plan of all of the remaining work necessary to get MWEB merged to the main repo, so that miners and node operators can start signaling for activation sometime in 2021!
Last phase of Litecoin’s MimbleWimble
In the short term, Burkett revealed that he will concentrate on making the protocol more accessible for users with low technical capabilities to join the testnet. To that end, he hopes to improve the automated builds, improve the documentation, and complete the wallet development. Burkett stated that there are still vulnerabilities in MimbleWimble that require his attention:
I’ll also be taking some time this month to harden the code, and start validating any remaining consensus rules we missed. Once I’m confident everything is working as designed, I’ll start looking for ways to break the testnet, to make sure we find and resolve any security or stability weaknesses.
The developer has pledged to continue with the project and stressed that he “sees no reason to believe that MimbleWimble cannot be delivered”. Furthermore, he revealed that the only feature that could remain inactive is non-interactive transactions due to a lack of audits.
As reported by CNF, MimbleWimble is a protocol developed to give more privacy and fungibility to Litecoin’s blockchain. Its initial phase began last year, after a proposal from Litecoin’s founder, Charlie Lee, to fund the development.