Beam, the privacy based token on the MimbleWimble project has, alongside its fellow MW technology based coin, Grin have been one of the stand out performers in the cryptocurrency space this year.



With the added attention comes a clamour to find out more about the founders and thinkers behind each project. Grin’s founder has decided to make themselves anonymous and talks under the pseudonym, Ignotus Peverell. However, Beam CEO, Alexander Zaidelson, has taken a different approach by revealing himself.



Zaidelson has recently done an interview with Babbit, where he answered 25 questions, which made interesting reading. In it he spoke on a range of topics like Beam and Grim comparisons, vision of Beam, Mimblewimble, upcoming move to Asia, future plans as well as mining Beam.



The comparisons to Grin are obvious but Beam has also been compared to other privacy based coins like Zcash and Monroe. Zaidelson thinks that ultimately Beam out performs them all, saying:



“Beam has better technology than Monroe and Zcash – Mimblewimble performs better in terms of ductility…..Although Grin and Beam have the same technical foundation, we believe that Beam technology is better implemented, including higher privacy (Dandelion), greater usability (SBBS, unilateral trading) and scalability.”



Some have said that Beam’s CEO driven company, which is different to Grim’s community based project makes it more susceptible to a centralised system. Yet, the Beam CEO claimed that Beam was fully committed to decentralisation and that even though Grin is community based it is still just as likely to become centralised.



On the vision for Beam, Zaidelson said:



“Our vision is to create a truly value-for-money, confidential value transfer ecosystem with optional compliance. As with cash transactions, one can choose whether to leave a written record for each transaction. In this way, we will create a currency that both individuals and businesses can use. In addition, we are still developing more confidential assets. People will be able to trade tokenized securities, stable assets, digital collectibles or anything else on the Beam network.”

MimbleWimble has been an interesting addition to the blockchain space and according to Zaidelson it is, “a new generation of blockchain technology” this is because:



“In the Mimblewimble protocol, blockchains do not store addresses and transaction traces, making it impossible to spy on other people’s financial situation. In addition to its powerful privacy features, Mimblewimble offers scalability.”



The company is also looking to expand to Asia, namely China. The Beam CEO said:



“We are expanding our business in China and Asia. I know that these markets are very important to the world of cryptocurrencies. Last week we opened our first meeting in Beijing, and we will open it once in 10 days. We will host more community outreach and offline gatherings in China.”



Mining has been an interesting predicament for Beam and Grin, due to their reluctance to allow ASIC mining. This will change in 2020 according to Zaidelson whilst also pointing out that, “PoW systems have a 51% risk of attack, especially if the network is small and the price of the currency is low.”

On the future, Zaidelson believes Beam has a bright one. He has toyed with the idea of the Lightning Network but “the main challenge of lightning networks is the route and the true decentralization – it is very challenging to build a path of funds between nodes.” In terms of the price, Zaidelon holds the highest expectations, he says:



“We believe that as long as we implement our vision correctly, Beam has every reason to be the top five cryptocurrency .”



Who knows if this will happen, but it is clear that Beam has made an impressive start to life in the crypto space, time will only tell if their vision comes to life.

