Yesterday, I said that now that the Hoffman Line has been PERMANENTLY re-taken, a wave of large, sophisticated, global investors and institutions will quickly arrive in crypto – yielding massive capital investment, and price increases for assets with viable, defensible use cases.
I was specifically discussing Bitcoin Rhodium – a store-of-value asset meant to be held for decades, if not generations. Now, I am considering MWC; and more broadly, the “MimbleWimbleTrinity” of MWC, Grin, and Beam - that in my view, have erected such strong barriers to entry, it is unlikely a fourth coin will be able to garner significant market share.
Theoretically, MimbleWimble coins have a limited life span – but only if MW is incorporated into Bitcoin and other major coins, to the point that it can be utilized without specialized MW coins. However, the fact is, even in a best case scenario, this would likely take 5-10 years – and possibly, not at all.
MWC Lead Dev Chris Gilliard strongly believes it will be incorporated into Bitcoin, given how much more valuable it would become – by making it 200% more scalable, whilst adding a mandatory, foolproof privacy feature making it 100% fungible. However, given how sensitive privacy is – not to mention, that MimbleWimble is so radical, it would require a hard fork to be implemented – there is a possibility it is not implemented into Bitcoin.
For one, if there’s one thing we learned, it’s that hard forks are anathema to Bitcoin holders. No matter the reason – even a technology that could make it significantly more valuable - a material percentage of the Bitcoin community will fight it tooth and nail – believing (perhaps, rightly so), Bitcoin’s greatest strength is the immutability of its blockchain. In their view, WAY too much value is at stake to risk a hard fork – and if indeed the debate comes to a head 5-10 years from now, WAY, WAY more could be in play.
Second, it was one thing to fight a scam like the Bitcoin ABC/Unlimited/Cash triumvirate, over something as trivial – in hindsight – as big blocks. Not to mention, Bitcoin had no choice in that instance, given Roger and Jihan’s intention to fork Bitcoin irrespective of the BTC community’s wishes.
In this case, however, it is very possible a significant portion of the Bitcoin community won’t desire greater scalability – if indeed, it has become a world-class store-of-value asset; whilst others will fear governmental blowback, from any attempt to make Bitcoin fully, mandatorily private.
Putting the MimbleWimble “lifespan” debate into perspective, here is what Chris Gilliard had to stay about the current state of the powerfully revolutionary, yet nascent state of MimbleWimble technology.
“The reason I see (the MimbleWimble debate) taking so long is because if you look at the scaling debate, it really started in 2015 - before SegWit was activated in late 2017. Moreover, the block size debate will be considered a mild disagreement compared to incorporating MimbleWimble because it has to do with privacy – and government and state actors will be involved. Not that they weren't in the background of the block size debate, but they'll seriously be involved in a privacy debate. And the debate hasn't even started yet. We're like pre-2015 here, a voice in the wilderness.”
So, aside from the fact that the code was just released in January – Grin, Beam, and MWC’s fork of Grin; thus, requiring significant upgrades and lengthy testing; it is not yet on the crypto community’s cumulative radar screen, aside from a handful of forward-looking altcoin investors. To that end, it’s barely being noticed by Monero, ZCash, and other vastly inferior privacy coins – which right now, are acting as if nothing has changed in the privacy/scalability/fungibility space.
It WILL, of course – perhaps, a lot sooner than Chris believes. But even if not by the BITCOIN community, certainly the PRIVACY community – by investors in Monero and ZCash, for instance; and perhaps, coins that pride themselves on high speed transactions…as aside from MimbleWimble’s superior privacy and fungibility, it’s MAJOR scaling improvements will have a SIGNIFICANT impact on ALL of crypto.
In other words, the MWT has many avenues to attract investors, over a long period of time. And if indeed, Bitcoin does one day incorporate MimbleWimble – particularly, after a long, contentious debate – it will only make the brand names of MWC, Grin, and Beam that much more valuable; as well as their usability, given that ALL crypto transactions will not occur in Bitcoin.
To summarize, the MWT will not “go away” under any scenario – any more than Monero and ZCash, whose vastly inferior privacy features it is usurping; or Litecoin, despite the fact Bitcoin does everything it does better. To the contrary, the value proposition MWC, Grin, and Beam bring to the crypto space is massive, revolutionary, and long-term. So, doesn’t it make sense for Bitcoin holders to register for their FREE MWC airdrop, before the rapidly approaching July 19th snapshot?
The MWC airdrop registration for Bitcoin holders will continue until the July 19th snapshot. For more information, please check out the MWC website, Discord room,
Twitter feed, and Telegram Forum.
https://discordapp.com/invite/eUNwqf3