Developer Predicts Litecoin Mimblewimble Testnet Launch by September

On March 1, David Burkett, a developer working on cryptocurrencies Grin and Litecoin, estimated that privacy protocol Mimblewimble will see a Litecoin testnet release before the end of summer.

In an update to the Mimblewimble progress thread on Litecointalk.io, Burkett hesitantly predicts that MW will be launched on testnet before September.

David anticipates that the testnet launch will include all transaction validation and block rules, basic peer-to-peer messaging functionality, syncing, transaction pool, and "The ability to mine blocks."

Burkett emphasizes that the version will not include a usable graphical interface wallet, and expects that transactions will need to be created manually.

The developer has also posted a Litecoin Improvement Proposal to Github, which proposes one-sided MW transactions and includes fixes for bugs discovered since his previous proposal.

During September 2019, The Litecoin Project announced that it had commissioned David Burkett of Grin++ to implement MW support for the Litecoin network.

The protocol change was intended to bolster Litecoin's privacy, with MW slated to facilitate confidential transactions.

The protocol is intended to enhance blockchain privacy, scalability, and fungibility.

Through a process called CoinJoin, multiple MW transactions are combined into one transaction.

MW blocks consist of a list of all input, output, and signature data - obscuring the transaction data for any third-party observers.