What is Beam?
Beam is a cryptocurrency based on the new MimbleWimble protocol. As the first MimbleWimble implementation to go live, Beam is an innovative cryptocurrency that offers base layer privacy. It achieves this by ensuring that address information isn’t stored on the blockchain and keeps all transactions private by default, as opposed to its competitors that have privacy as an optional feature. The token allows for multiple transaction types that include; time-locked transactions, atomic swaps, and escrow transactions. The Beam protocol was hard forked on August 15th, 2019 to upgrade its mining algorithm. The digital asset and protocol have been developed by Beam, a for-profit corporation. Eventually, funding for the digital asset and protocol will come from the Beam Foundation, a non-profit entity. The foundation is funded by the Beam treasury which will allocate 4% of all Beam that is mined in the first five years of the token’s existence for the purpose of further developing the project. The foundation is currently being controlled by an independent Board of Directors. However; they wish to fully decentralize the project in the future by increasing community involvement when making decisions about the platform.
Beam Technology
Beam’s top technological feat is combining privacy and scalability into one blockchain. This creates a network that can handle a high rate of transaction throughput while keeping all information encrypted. Privacy Every transaction that is completed on the Beam network is confidential. There no data or information related to the transaction that is saved by the blockchain. The transactions are never visible to the network nodes or miners. Scalable Mimblewimble built a cut-through feature that mitigates unnecessary computational resource costs. This helps to make the Beam blockchain much smaller, efficient, and easy to work with. The Beam network can process hundreds of transactions simultaneously. A transaction on the Beam blockchain typically takes about one minute to complete.
How to mine Beam?
The Beam network needs miners to perform services that protect the network, validation transactions, and organize them into blocks. In order to mine Beam, you will need a graphical processing unit (GPU) with a minimum memory of 4GB. Beam uses the Equihash (150.5) proof of work consensus algorithm. In this case, the miners on the Beam network are working against each other to provide enough computational resources to mine a block and earn the block reward. A block on the Beam network will typically hold 1,000 transactions with a block size of approximately 1MB. The reward for mining a block on the Beam network is 80 Beam tokens. The block rewards will be reduced to 40 Beam per block until the 5th year of the network. At that time the reward will be reduced again to 25 Beam per block. After that, the block reward will be cut in half every 4 years, similar to Bitcoin.
Risks of BeamTrading
Investment Risk As a digital currency, Beam has risks associated with volatile price moves. Traditional markets like stocks typically move less than 1% per day. However, digital currencies consistently have 5-10% price swings within a 24 hour period. The significant price moves of digital currencies like Beam need to be accounted for before you decide to buy or sell the asset. Security Risk Beam has security risks stemming from hackers and personal error. Hacking a digital asset wallet is generally a near-impossible feat but sometimes a personal error can make it easier for a hacker to gain access to your wallet. For example, if you send your seld a copy of your private key in your email inbox, a hacker will have a much greater chance of infiltrating your email and stealing your private key. Be sure to always take care of your private keys and never store them digitally on the internet or in a place where others can find them. Regulatory Risk Government regulators have not yet addressed digital currencies. This means that there are only a few countries that have established clear rules and laws regarding cryptocurrency. Without knowing for certain what regulators will do, it is hard to calculate the regulatory risk of digital assets like Beam. Before buying or selling Beam, consider the possibility that regulators may take an unfavorable approach to digital assets in the future.