INTRODUCTION
For confidential purpose, individuals and organizations would want a situation whereby anything pertaining to their transactions and balances are not made public and could only be visible to authorized parties. To make this possible, there would be a need to deny unauthorized parties access to their transaction details such as; the amount transferred, participants' identities and any other details that could reveal their identities thereby ensuring that only little information are kept or left in in the public record.
Apart from the issue of Security/Privacy/Confidentiality, there is another problem the current blockchain is being faced with; this is associated with Scalability. As more and more people are utilizing the blockchain, undoubtedly there is an increase in the load it can normally accommodate leading to other prominent problems like decrease in transaction speed and probably increase in transaction fee which are highly unfavorable.
However, in the bid to improve the state of the current blockchain system, the Beam team has come up with ideas based on the Mimblewimble protocol.
The Beam Solution Based On Mimblewimble Protocol
The Mimblewimble protocol published by an anonymous just like the anonymous; Satoshi Nakamoto of Bitcoin. The MImbleWimble protocol aims at enabling privacy transactions while still able to provide a strong scaling solution to the blockchain so as to accommodate the increasing number of users. The two basic concepts originally proposed by Greg Maxwell are what the MimbleWImble protocol is built on. These are;
(a) Confidential Transactions
(b) Transaction Cut – Through
Confidential Transactions
Confidential transactions work based on a cryptographic commitment scheme having two basic properties: Hiding and Binding.
This idea is identical to giving someone a closed safe box containing some messages whose combination is only known by the sender and the key to open it can be revealed in a later time so that the receiver could validate the sender's commitment; this is known as Blinding. However, it is not possible for the receiver to know this prior to the release of the key; this is called Hiding.
Transaction Cut – Through
In the blockchain, a block represents or consists of a large list of transactions that can be considered large enough to be “cut through” (combining all the transactions in between A-Z). Unlike the Bitcoin blockchain which uses all the history of transactions to validate a new transaction the way they occur, the Beam blockchain based on the MimbleWimble protocol uses only the current state of transactions.
Moreover, through the value of the message and that of the Blinding factor, unspent transactions outputs, UTXO, can be proved to be owned by the receiving user.
MimbleWimble uses less and delivers more, so does beam. sourceGet more information about the MimbleWimble protocol in the whitepaper
Under The Wood/How It Works.
Now that we have a little but important idea about the MimbleWimble protocol, let's talk about Beam proper.
Beam
Recall that; in the introductory part of this article, security/privacy/confidentiality and scalabilty were stated as two of the problems the current blockchain system is being faced with. 
Beam is the next generation cryptocurrency built based on the MimbleWimble protocol with the aim of bringing confidentiality and scalability into the blockchain system. It does this by ensuring that money sent and received by users is not revealed to the public by limiting individuals that can see the transaction details. Except when authorized to see this, it is not possible to know anything about the transaction!
While ensuring privacy, a reduction in the load of the system is also ensured. Lesser transaction details (Load) in each block would result into a faster and scalable Blockchain architecture.
Features/Benefits Of The Beam Ecosystem
● Privacy: The Beam blockchain transfers the total control or right to users of cryptocurreny to decide on which information to be revealed to the public and to which parties would the information be available to. This will be based on the users will and also the applicable laws.
● Versatility: With the use of a "Scriptless Script" technology, the use of a wide range of transaction types is enabled. Escrow transactions, atomic swaps and time-locked transactions can be implemented and this is supported by the Beam.
● Confidentiality: The Beam blockchain system ensures confidential transactions without any form of penalties, that is; while a user chooses to make every transaction detail unrevealed, it does not result into *bloating of the blockchain. In this way, no information about the transaction is stored on the blockchain. Everything remains private!
● There is no need or requirement of any trusted setup as in the case of ZCash
● There is limited emission using periodic halving with an approximate amount of coins of about 210 million
● Superior scalability: A compact blockchain size makes the Beam blockchain scalable and this is attainable through the use of a feature of the MimbleWimble protocol.
● Sustainability: It is an Open source, implemented from scratch, governed by the community, and sustained by the Beam growth Pool which has a percentage of the block mining rewards.
● Usability: The availability of a wallet for desktop and mobile makes it form an integral part in running day-to-day trading activities for both individuals and small businesses users. There is a built-in dashboard in this wallet which makes management of budget easy, featuring actionable spend and earning insights.
● Compatibility: Blocks are mined using Equihash Proof-of-Work algorithm: Equihash Proof-of-Work discourages the centralization of cryptocurrency mining, hence, it is a major contributor to democratization of cryptocurrencies.
Comparison Of The Beam Blockchain With Others
Use Cases
Case 1
Dam vikky is a cryptocurrency trader who trades a large amount of Bitcoin. He is often dissatisfied with the the way his transactions are made public due to the current state of the blockchain but has no any other choice.
So, he becomes very concerned as he cannot leave such a huge amount of coins on an exchange platform due to security reasons. Moreover, he is an active trader and doesn't want to move those coins to an offline storage. He becomes even more worried and needs a better option.
After a long search, a friend of his who knows about Beam made his dream come true. With everything in place, his transaction details are now safe and can never be traced. With Beam, he would be able to authorize few individuals that can access and track his transaction details while denying others of it. To make his dealings risk-free, he would be able to use the escrow service offered by Beam.
Case 2
Jon Wood works as as a consultant for one of the leading advertising companies in the world. As someone with a high level of understanding in his field and has been working for the company for the past few years, they have much trust on him.
The advertising company got a task ahead of them and needed someone to help them out. The company called on Jon Wood to inform him about the new task ahead that there is a need to broadcast their business transactions to their investors without revealing their employee's financial details.
On hearing this, Jon Wood swings into action. While making his researches, Jon comes across Beam and decides to implement it for the task ahead the company. With this, the company is able to achieve their aim.
Token Analysis
As at the time of writing, no any information was provided about the token; token distribution, token sale, token price, market cap, etc.
Meet The Team
Investors
Roadmap
Summary & Conclusion
In most cases, cryptocurrency users need at least a certain level of privacy regarding their financial activities but the current blockchain system does not offer this as every transaction is recorded on the blockchain and virtually everyone can see it. Also, the inability to scale is another problem plaguing the current blockchain. These two problems really need to be attended to.
However, the invasion of Beam into this aspect of the blockchain would really make transactions easier while still maintaining the privacy of their users. This implies that user, both individuals and organizations are able to benefit from the services offered by Beam.
In conclusion, the ability of Beam to provide a confidential, scalable and faster Blockchain makes it outstanding from other available ones. Moreover, it will surely contribute to the mass adoption of cryptocurrency thereby elevating its value.
For More Information
● Beam Website
● Beam Position Paper
● Mimblewimble Paper
● Beam YouTube
● Beam Telegram
● Beam Facebook
● Beam Github
● Beam Bitcointalk
● Beam Medium
● Beam Twitter
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Beam2018
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- AcheeRx