BEAM: Giving the User Control Over Privacy Settings

1.0 INTRODUCTION
When the first block of the bitcoin blockchain was mined in 2009, it created a whole new realm of possibilities.
Initially, it was thought by many that their privacy/identity were entirely protected from prying eyes, but this has been proven to not be the case, over and over again.

Users should be able to control what can be seen and cannot, especially in certain transactions, where privacy is a priority.

BEAM ensures that users have total control and power to decide who can see transaction details and when they can see it.

BEAM is a cryptocurrency that ensures your privacy is not infringed upon, while still ensuring you still get all the benefits the blockchain has to offer. Transactions are set to “private” by default.
BEAM is able to achieve this, thanks to the MimbleWimble protocol.

2.0 WHY USE BEAM?

2.1 BEAM’S FEATURES:

• Users privacy is in their own control. They decide what can be seen, and who can see that information.
• BEAM ensures that privacy doesn’t come at a cost, such as lag, or needing extra resources. Other processes are not affected when privacy measures are implemented.
• Does not require a trusted setup.
• It makes use of Equihash Proof-of-Work to mine blocks
• BEAM ensures that information with regards to transactions, is not stored on the blockchain.
• BEAM is more scalable seeing it makes use of MimbleWimble’s cut-through feature.
• Supports time based transactions, escrow, and atomic swaps, to name a few.
• It has no premine nor an ICO
• Lower emissions.
• BEAM is built from scratch, and is written in C++.

Being MimbleWimble based was a no-brainer, because the MimbleWimble Protocol was created to enable users to remain anonymous, keep private what they want to remain so, and it’s also highly scalable.

3.0 WHAT IS MIMBLEWIMBLE?
The issue of privacy was bound to come up at some point, and in August 2016, a protocol was published by an anonymous person or group. It’s focus was on an efficient confidential blockchain. This was named MimbleWimble, which is a reference to Harry Potter. It is primarily built around two principles proposed earlier by Dr. Greg Maxwell, which are Confidential Transactions and Transaction Cut-through.

MimbleWimble is able to ensure transactions are confidential, by making use of cryptographic commitment schemes that have two basic properties, which are hiding and binding.
Binding refers to the process of ensuring commitments made, are valid. The other party is unable to have access to this commitment at this time, but can see it is there. The process of providing a key, to ensure that the information within is exactly what is expected, refers to the hiding aspect.

The commitment scheme MimbleWimble makes use of is known as Pederson Commitment. It is able to achieve this by using Elliptic Curve Cryptography.

MimbleWimble is a UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) based system, which essentially means that it is defined by inputs and outputs, unlike in a state based system.
It ensures it works efficiently by combining intermediate outputs within one block, and also when it is dealing with multiple blocks. By doing this, it ensures that it stores only the current state of UTXO. This means that size of the blockchain is much smaller than it is, in ethereum and bitcoin.

Such input come from genesis blocks or block rewards, after which they can be used from outputs.

4.0 USE CASE
Eulos is a company at the forefront of revolutionary solutions, and staff is usually paid using cryptocurrencies.
They have been looking for a way to maintain the privacy of their staff, and to also prevent others from knowing what each and every other person takes home.
Seeing they haven’t been able to find a working solution, they were thinking of making use of fiat as a mode of payment, which will be most inconvenient, seeing all business they conduct is via cryptos.
By hearing of BEAM and making use of it, they are able to ensure that only those authorised to view a transaction can, and the privacy of their staff is no longer infringed upon. The company is also able to store value by making use of BEAM, without staff and just about anyone having a peek at what they are doing.
The team and staff are relieved, and attention can fully be directed to taking care of their customers.


5.0 SUMMARY
There have been several projects before BEAM that have tried to solve the scalability and privacy issues of the blockchain, but most of these solutions required a lot of resources, were not truly decentralised or in the worse case scenario, both. BEAM was born to ensure that users can exercise their right to remain anonymous, which is why many individuals and organisations make use of the blockchain in the first place.
BEAM's service will ensure that users will be able to store value, seeing that transactions will no longer be able to be traced back to them easily. Users need to be able to store value, without relying on traditional solutions.
BEAM also ensures that users data is better protected, and the cases of data leaks through third parties such as exchanges, over the counter solutions and merchants, is done away with.
Reducing visibility of transaction details, and being in control of who can see what, and when they can view it, will ensure that more users will be much more open and eager to store up value, using cryptos. This also ensures that users can apply higher levels of privacy to more sensitive transactions that they prefer to remain hidden from the public, and in situations where it will be ideal for information to be viewed by everyone or a pool of people, privacy settings could be toggled easily.
Privacy for a “store-of-value” cryptocurrency will also ensure that users will be more likely to use this solution seeing they are being put in the driving seat, and are getting a solution they have been yearning for.
This will also ensure that the blockchain industry will grow, because those that didn’t see the point of making use of decentralised solutions, seeing the lines were blurred between them and traditional solutions will have a rethink, and will return.

Privacy is a big issue in this day and age. Certain industries, such as the financial and healthcare industry have to meet regulatory and legal requirements by ensuring the privacy of users (Example, GDPR in the E.U). This becomes a problem, when they wish to come on-chain.
Being in front of the problem will ensure that decentralised solutions can retain their users, and also grow by attracting new ones.
When the blockchain technology goes mainstream, governments will be looking to ensure that users privacy is protected, and BEAM will help to answer those questions. It might even be the solution that breaks the camel’s back and ensures that governments worldwide accept it is here to stay, and users come flooding in.
It will be remembered that BEAM was at the forefront of the privacy revolution.

On a parting note, it will be interesting to see how BEAM deals with the criminal minded who will be looking to exploit the system, seeing such solutions attract the bad and the good.

NOTES

• BEAM's mainnet launch is scheduled for Dec. 2018. Integration with hardware wallets, and also a native desktop wallet are in the works, against launch of mainnet.
  After launch, mobile wallets, Dandelion integration and confidential assets will be worked on.

• BEAM's foundation will be responsible for its maintenance, seeing there will be no premine or ICO.

• The team and the foundation are taken care of, via block rewards mechanism.

• Equihash is made use of, because it does not require as much resources as SHA256.

• BEAM's performance will not be fast enough to be used primarily as a means of exchange, because of the transaction speed, at this time. However, it will still be an improvement on what is obtainable on the bitcoin blockchain. This is why its focus is on “store of value”. The possibility of improving on this in the future exists.

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MORE INFORMATION & RESOURCES:Beam
Beam Position Paper
Mimblewimble Paper
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This article is writing with regards to the @originalworks contest that can be seen here

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