S16 E8: Alex Romanov on Beam, MimbleWimble & Privacy

Launched on January 3rd 2019, a whole decade after Bitcoin, Beam is the first MimbleWimble implementation to hit the markets. Unlike its smiley cousin Grin, Beam is organized more like a start-up, was more efficient in raising VC funding, and appears to focus more on smart contracts and interoperability with other chains. In this episode, Beam CTO Alex Romanov explains everything about the network: what it is, how it works, and what it aims to accomplish with the MimbleWimble technology. Time stamps: Introducing Alex Romanov (00:00:24) Beam's Launch and MimbleWimble (00:00:50) Alex's Journey to Beam (00:03:01) Beam vs. Monero vs. Zcash (00:04:25) Technical Aspects of Mimblewimble (00:07:12) Unique Properties of Beam Transactions (00:09:31) Blockchain Analysis and Pruning (00:12:15) Misconceptions About Mimblewimble (00:13:12) Responding to Criticism (00:14:21) The Impact of the Ivan Bogatyy Incident (00:18:01) Discussion on UTXO Attacks (00:20:21) Dandelion Protocol and Transaction Origin Obfuscation (00:21:28) Decoy Inputs in Beam (00:22:42) Integration of Lelantus-based Solutions (00:23:46) Overview of Beam Wallet Features (00:24:42) Introduction to Beam's Smart Contracts (00:28:20) Confidential Stablecoin: Nephrite (00:30:59) Comparison of Privacy Protocols (00:33:35) User Experience and Usability in Privacy Coins (00:38:23) DAO Voting System (00:39:26) Staking and Layer 2 Development (00:40:00) Popularity of Privacy Coins (00:40:41) The Evolution of Privacy in Blockchain (00:43:24) Beam vs. Ethereum (00:46:20) User Need for Privacy (00:48:17) Social Shift Towards Privacy (00:50:13) Comparison of Beam and Grin (00:51:19) Decentralized GitHub on Beam (00:52:11) Beam's Smart Contracts vs. Ethereum (00:55:14) Beam Wallet Interface (00:55:46) Atomic Swaps & Asset Swaps Explained (00:56:22) Native Swapping with Bitcoin (00:57:51) Decentralization Concerns (00:59:01) Messaging Layer in Beam Wallet (01:00:50) Beam's Messaging System (01:03:53) Maximum Anonymity Set Feature (01:10:47) Exchange Withdrawal Addresses (01:13:33) Long Addresses in Beam (01:14:29) Roadmap Features (01:16:28) Confidential DeFi Article (01:18:33) Mining Beam with GPUs (01:22:01) Community and Mining Pools (01:23:01) Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake (01:24:10) Investment Pitch for Beam (01:25:12) Funding Challenges in Privacy Projects (01:26:11) Collaboration in Privacy Space (01:27:20) Confusion Over Beam Tickers (01:29:30) Final Thoughts on Beam's Development (01:33:36) The Importance of Feedback (01:36:44) Beam and Monero Bridge Collaboration (01:37:08) Why not Build on Bitcoin (01:38:06) Pruning the Blockchain (01:38:40) Mimblewimble’s Harry Potter References (01:39:51) Marketing Challenges in Crypto (01:43:20) Price Action and Exchange Listings (01:44:10) Need for Deeper Analysis (01:46:27) The Scams Narrative (01:46:37) Innovation through Competition (01:50:08) Usability Challenges in Crypto (01:52:50) Positive Features of Beam Wallet (01:54:05) Local First Design in Beam (01:54:27) Ethereum Wallets and Features (01:55:21) Local Application Architecture (01:55:53) Hardware Wallet Integration (01:56:20) Decentralization Goals (01:56:56) Privacy vs. Usability Trade-off (01:57:08)