Tumblebit Client Nears Completion — Gets a Taste of Tor

This week the creator of Hiddenwallet, a Simplified Payment Verification client (SPV) that utilizes the trustless anonymous payment hub Tumblebit revealed the near completion of another project, called N-Tumblebit. Software developer and Tumblebit researcher, Adam Ficsor has added Tor integration to this implementation and says it’s one of the last building blocks for the platform.

Also read: Fifty Developers Hack With Bitcoin for Two Days in San Francisco

The Race Towards Getting Tumblebit Production Ready

Back in August of 2016, the proof-of-concept Tumblebit excited a lot of bitcoin proponents as the idea outlined the possibility of a trustless payment hub. Since the white paper was released, many developers including the paper’s authors set out to build a working platform. Initially, Adam Ficsor was working with the Stratis team on the Tumblebit-based Breeze wallet build but decided to create his own Tumblebit ready wallet. Ficsor announced the first release of Hiddenwallet this past May which he believes is “a major step down the road of making Bitcoin anonymous again.”

Now on July 9th Ficsor announced the integration of Tor to his other project N-Tumblebit and states on the Github description, “This is the last major milestone that’ll make Tumblebit protocol implementation a complete Bitcoin anonymity technique. The rest is UX, bug fixing, and optimization.”

Brace yourselves Bitcoin is about to become fungible

The Choice to be Your Own Bank

Other N-Bitcoin developers and Tumblebit researchers Nicolas Dorier, and Ethan Heilman have also been contributing feedback to the project as well as working on their own branches. N-Tumblebit requires NET Core SDK 1.0.4, and a fully synced, RPC-enabled 0.13.1 client. Even though UX work and bug fixing have to be finalized Nicolas Dorier says there’s still more a bit more work to be done.

Actually, we still need something: a proof that used RSA keys can be used for blinding. This is beyond my skills though, but some people are working on it,” explains Dorier.

During the announcement of Tor integration to Ficsor’s Tumblebit tumbler platform, one individual asked what the implications of a fungible bitcoin means.

“Bitcoin gives you a choice to be your own bank. This way of using it requires a more privacy-aware approach, than using traditional institutes, because they provide you privacy against your neighbors and your stalker ex-husband,” details the N-Tumblebit developer Adam Ficsor.

If we don’t improve Bitcoin’s fungibility, you can start practicing to live a perfect life, where you comply not only with the rules of your government, but also with the expectations of every other human being you ever get contact with during your time in this world.

Circumventing Prying Eyes and Blockchain Surveillance

Right now there are various developers working to get Tumblebit into full production mode, and the protocol seems to be getting closer to reality every day. Even Stratis released its alpha version of the company’s Breeze wallet implementation last week. While blockchain surveillance and governments trying to ban cryptocurrency mixers is becoming the norm within the bitcoin ecosystem, these privacy-centric applications are being released to circumvent the nation state’s prying eyes.

What do you think about the work being done to bring Tumblebit to the masses? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Pixabay, and the Tumblebit logo.

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