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Litecoin (LTC) has relaunched its MimbleWimble testnet, a protocol designed to improve privacy and obfuscate the traceability of distributed ledger transactions.
MimbleWimble is a modified implementation of the proof-of-work algorithm behind Bitcoin (BTC) in which blocks appear as one large transaction, preventing the identification of individual transaction-related inputs and outputs.
David Burkett, the lead developer of the MimbleWimble protocol for Litecoin, will now focus on making it easier for “non-technical Litecoin users” to start testing functionality, as well as ironing out aspects of the code that are “fragile”.
Burkett is aiming for full activation of the protocol next year, noting in a Telegram channel that it will be up to Litecoin miners and node operators to decide “when or even if they want to activate it.”
LTC’s MimbleWimble testnet was previously launched on September 30, but was postponed due to low community participation.
Litecoin’s advancements in MimbleWimble come as regulators increasingly seek to crack down on privacy-enhancing cryptocurrency technologies, with Europol calling coins for privacy and naming decentralized markets, cryptocurrency mixers and anonymous wallets among the top threats of the organized crime online.
In its “Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment” for 2020, Europol states that “the improved privacy wallet services using coinjoin [..] have emerged as a major threat, “citing their respective Wasabi and Samurai wallets as examples. Wallets using Coinjoin mix the coins of multiple users engaged in separate transactions, effectively providing a decentralized mixing service.
Europol says darknet market operators are increasingly moving to integrate coinjoin wallets on their platforms.
Europol also notes that while Bitcoin is still the dominant currency in darknet markets, Monero (XMR) is emerging as the most popular privacy coin, followed by Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH). The report identified Litecoin and Ethereum (ETH) as the two most popular altcoins on darknet markets.
