Litecoin has relaunched its MimbleWimble testnet, a protocol designed to enhance privacy and obfuscate distributed ledger transactions’ traceability. MimbleWimble is a modified implementation of the proof-of-work algorithm underpinning Bitcoin in which blocks appear as a single large transaction, preventing the individual inputs and outputs relating to the transactions from being identified. The lead developer of the MimbleWimble protocol for Litecoin, David Burkett, will now focus, making it easier for “non-technical Litecoin users” to begin testing to functionality, in addition to ironing out aspects of the code that are “fragile.”
The developer is targeting full activation of the protocol sometime next year.
The lead developer Burkett is targeting full activation of the protocol sometime next year, noting in a Telegram channel that it will be down to Litecoin’s miners and node operators to decide “when or even if they want to activate.” Litecoin Network’s MimbleWimble testnet was previously launched on September 30 but was postponed due to low community participation. The testnet progress comes as regulators increasingly look to crack down on privacy-enhancing crypto-asset technologies.
Europol calls out privacy-centric coins for aiding crime.
Earlier, Europol called out privacy coins and naming decentralized marketplaces, cryptocurrency mixers, and anonymizing wallets among the top online organized crime threats. In its latest report, Europol said that “privacy-enhanced wallet services using coinjoin have emerged as a top threat,” citing Wasabi and Samurai’s respective wallets as examples. Wallets that use Coinjoin mix multiple users’ coins engaging in separate transactions, effectively providing a decentralized mixing service.
Europol asserts that the operators of darknet marketplaces are increasingly moving to integrate coinjoin wallets onto their platforms to avoid getting caught. The European agency also notes that while Bitcoin is still the dominant currency across darknet marketplaces, Monero (XMR) is emerging as the most popular privacy coin, followed by Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH).
