How does Tarush solve the efficiency and security problem by facilitating a side chain implementation? Tarush Follow May 2, 2019 · 5 min read

Sidechain is often regarded as the second most significant innovation in the blockchain industry after cryptocurrency. It’s utility directly affects the efficiency, scalability, and interoperability of a network.

To put everything in perspective, please note that Tarush makes use of MimbleWimble protocol to offer all of the functionalities mentioned above. As a result of this successful implementation, Tarush has a unique standing in the market.

Efficiency and scalability

To be very straightforward, right now, MimbleWimble is probably the most robust side chain for BTC network. It can easily be integrated with the main chain by executing a soft fork. As a result, the load on the network will be drastically reduced.

If you find it difficult to understand, I would suggest you to think of a water tank and a tap. Now visualize that you have opened the tap and the water flow is constant for a while. Gradually, the water flow increases but the size of the tap remains the same. What would happen?

Well, the same number of water molecules can pass through the tap and hence, the ‘backlog’ of water will increase. Same is the case with the Bitcoin network if sidechains are not implemented.

Over the years, capacity of the network has remained the same but users and transactions have increased significantly. Therefore, we need to offer another channel for executing the transactions and facilitating the load.

This protocol is gaining popularity for providing feasibility in order to increase the TPS rate of the main BTC network. Talking about mainstream sidechains, they merely focus on ‘providing an alternate path’ for the flow of transactions. Well, that’s good for efficiency, but in the long run, that’s not enough.

Therefore, MimbleWimble has focused on scalability as well. In this sidechain, the block size is significantly smaller and the chain size is regularly optimized by aggregating the blocks.

Basically, it gets rid of the intermediary transactions.

Let us understand this scenario from an example. Suppose that in order to confirm a transaction and record it on the ledger, user X must send the token to user Y and then Y must send it to user Z.

It seems pretty straightforward, right? But unfortunately, in the mainstream blockchain networks, record keeping is so unnecessarily complex and detailed that it maintains the history of this entire process (even the intermediary transaction). However, if you look at it, MimbleWimble focusses on the desired result and then optimizes the chain accordingly. For instance, in this transaction, there is no need to record that the coin was ever in the ownership of user Y.

The purpose of the transaction was to change the ownership from user X to user Z. That’s it. Therefore, MimbleWimble will just record that the token was in user X’s ownership and it is now owned by user Z.

Now if you look at it, unlike BTC or major pioneering currencies, a huge block size is not required. Bitcoin’s block size is 1MB and it is still insufficient. However, in Tarush, every block will be about 100B and it will be more than enough for carrying a transaction record.

Moreover, in the near future, Tarush aims to make the solution interoperable as well. Currently, we are only focusing on Bitcoin but with the consensus of the community, several new features, like pair and fiat to crypto conversion and tokenized security exchanging could be offered to the general public.

Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Sounds difficult? Well, so is the technology and math behind it, but that brings out the true beauty behind this venture. The primary benefit is that ECC allows MimbleWimble to reduce the key generation time required during the transaction for privacy and verification. By doing that, this ‘curvy’ technology also allows Tarush to increase the security of the network by at least 10 times.

The procedure is relevant for public key generation and since these keys play a crucial role in hacking attempts, it is important to ensure their encryption.

With the help of ECC, the algorithm generates a curve that allows progression in one direction only. It implies that the network can generate a private key with a mathematical formula but it is impossible to trace back the key to the owner.

In the current scenario, every second venture advertises itself as ‘secure’. That’s not the debate. The real question is — how secure is ‘secure’? The more you incorporate randomization and mathematics in cryptography, the stronger it gets.

Confidential transactions

It is quite unfortunate that the transactions happening on the Bitcoin network are not as safe as you think. In several mainstream tokens, every contract detail is broadcasted to all nodes and from the perspective of a hacker, it is a goldmine!

Tarush makes use of blinding factor to guarantee that the ‘unwanted’ information is removed from the record and the nodes irrelevant to the transaction never receive the details of the users involved.

Dandelion

Once again, it happens to be an inherent feature of the MimbleWimble blockchain and it solves a major issue by prolonging the distance between sender and network broadcaster. As a result, it is really difficult to trace back the originator of the transaction or the amount from a given broadcasting node.

Conclusion

MimbleWimble is not a ‘lone’ venture. Several pioneers in the crypto niche, including Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, have appreciated the technological infrastructure at the core of this protocol and its potential to boost the efficiency of Bitcoin.

The most important thing to notice (in contrast) is that it doesn’t only allow efficient transactions. In fact, scalability, security, and user privacy are also a couple of major advantages. It should also be noted that instead of aligning or rather synchronizing its features with that of the main chain, this sidechain implementation is way powerful than the primary network itself.