About Beam and how it will change the way cryptousers store value!
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Almost everyone now know about the flaws in crypto and its consequences, most especially to those who posses bitcoin. Though most people believe a solution is by the corner, while some thought it would continue like that. Well to me, as long as it's technology driven, all a solution requires is time. Bitcoin makes use of the private and public keys to anonymously carry out transactions. The public key to carry out transaction and exchange value while the private key helps secure the wallet. When transactions are carried out on the blockchain, a trail is left which consist of the details of the just carried out transaction, this is shown by the public key bitcoin uses. It is believed that a series of transactions carried out can be tracked which will ultimately lead to personal information that can give a violator access to the violatee's possessions. Well, there's a way out. I give you BEAM !!
What is Beam?
BEAM is a next generation confidential cryptocurrency based on an elegant and innovative MimbleWimble protocol.
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Beam is a future interface the seeks out to curb the issue bitcoin and other related Cryptos are facing this security issues. Beam is scalable which implies that it is able to be changed in size. Many people prefer their wallet to be confidential and access is only granted to whoever they give the access to. But this has turned out to be the opposite. Various violations has been received regrading tampering on various wallets without the owners consent due to the flaw today's Cryptos possess.
Various planned out ideas on how Beam will achieve and solve the issue.
♣ Various activities to be carried out on the users wallet will be handled by the user and accessibility will be granted to whoever the user choses, the user privacy is simply in his hands.
♣ Confidentiality without penalty - in BEAM confidential transactions do not cause bloating of the blockchain, avoiding excessive computational overhead or penalty on performance or scalability while completely concealing the transaction value.
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♣ Receiver or senders information is not required which means, there'll be no need for addresses to be revealed during transaction.
♣ No trusted set-up is required during Beam registration.
♣ The use of Beam Mimblewimble.
♣ In Beam, blocks are mined using Equihash Proof-of-Work algorithm.
How are many of the current blockchain solutions lacking privacy?
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Given that blockchain transaction are not tied directly to your identity,they may appear more private. Anyone in the world can create a new wallet anytime and transact with it. It's rather not private after all. Looking at all tried-out solutions being proffered by blockchain to curb the privacy issue such as storage constraint,limited scalability,lack of formal contract verification, all appear to be void. When transactions are carried out, details of the transaction are left by the public key and this detail can be used to trail back the coin to the origin and can result in gaining access to wallet's personal information leading to theft or loss of valuables.
Mimblewimble, the core technology behind Beam!
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As per what is the brain behind the Beam system, mimblewimble is a new protocol published by an anonymous author which focuses on two concepts
♠ confidential transaction:
This makes use if two cryptographic commitment scheme which has two basic properties: hiding and binding. These two can be explained as thus;
For an example, in an auction, auctioneers are asked to bill on a lot at a starting rate of $5,000, looking at the price, they sure know what's inside is valuable even when the content isn't visible to them.without an iota of doubt, auctions will start running in. Whoever wins, gains access to the possession and what's inside as well. The fact that they don't know what's inside and they still decide to bill on it-hiding, while the fact that as soon as an agreement has been reached, the winner gets accessto the content -binding.
So during a transaction using beam, contents are hidden between two wallets as only values will be made available and a blinding factor, therefore making it impossible for anyone to see where the recipients have in mind or anything to trace back to them.
♠ Transaction Cut - Through:
A transaction involving 3 phases as well as similar values. For example, A transaction between A&B and B&C, a cut-through could simply be initiated by eliminating B and transferring directly to C.
Applying this method , only wallet holders commitment is recorded and no personal information like wallet address will be revealed, thereby eliminating any form of trace-back.
How does allowing smaller blocks increase performance and scalability (Mimblewimble)?
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Since block is just a list of transactions, each with its list of inputs and outputs, a block can be seen as one large transaction as well, allowing us to “cut through” i.e merge all intermediate outputs both within a single block as well as across multiple blocks in the blockchain. Extending this approach to the entire chain, we get a system that only needs to store the current UTXO state, instead of entire transaction history. Validity of the history that brought us to this state can be confirmed by storing only the headers of the previous blocks which hold the proof of validity of previous states (using a structure called a Merkle tree) and Proof of Work that allows to reach consensus on which of the header chains should be considered the correct one (in case of blockchain branching).
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Why is it important to have privacy for a "store-of-value" cryptocurrency?
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For a store of value?. Why wouldn't I want a privacy for that, I mean "It's my store-of-value after all". When privacy is initiated for a store of value, you control whatever happens on your system, you get to decide who you let in and who you don't want. By having a privacy, you put a stop to people sniffing around your possession. Having privacy means protecting yourself from from losing all that you've gathered because of some public made records. What could be greater than that?. Beam might not be powered to serve as a means of exchange but, it's the beat you're going to find out there when it comes to storing your values by making it private in the most imaginable way.
use cases?
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♥ People haven't totally lost faith in crypto as a store of value but they sure will soon enough if the security aspect isn't well taken care of. That's the kind of league Gregory falls into. He's a great dealer but the security issue is giving him a huge concern. His research on how to curb this lead him to Mimblewimble and eventually to Beam. Now he can safely sleep in that night without the thought of waking up knew morning to find out all his savings is gone.
♥ Anita is a trade and business consultant. She offers service to high business firms and individuals. She provides advice in crypto trades. To her peers,she's not the best but to her consultants, they know the kind of peace of mind they get (with evidence) that no one will sniff through their assets without their authorization. Why?, because she has what others don't. She has Beam !!,Utmost security guaranteed .
Final thought ;
I don't know about you but, Beam's vision is really dominating. You get to take your mind off your valuables and place your mind into something else for your own betterment. No need to hire someone to watch over your possession constantly in case of hack. You get to enjoy the fact that YOU are in control, who doesn't want to be. Strong password isn't going to cut everything, you're still prone to attacks. How can someome know you live in Los Angeles when he/she doesn't have your address. You could be anywhere in the world right?. With Beam, tour wallet address seems like it never existed. And above all, Beam's scalability killed it all. Scalability + security, What more could a person who wants to store his value ask for?. I don't know, why not tell me!.
Thanks for reading.!! You care to leave a comment?, please do not hesitate.
To learn more about Beam visit their website
Beam mimblewimble paper
Beam position paper
This is an 
Beam2018