Metadata-Shredding Platform Elixxir Launches Public AlphaNet

David Chaum’s Elixxir has launched the xx network public alpha. The network represents the first public demonstration of cMix, the transaction network that shreds metadata and provides consumer privacy and security.

Elixxir, transaction platform running on a full-stack blockchain, has announced the launch of the xx network public alpha. The network is maintained by nodes run by independent operators and represents the first public demonstration of cMix, the transaction network that shreds metadata and provides unprecedented consumer privacy and security.

BREAKING: Elixxir Announces Launch of Public AlphaNet, Run by Independent Node Operators: https://t.co/DdNxNnRfx8 — Elixxir (@elixxir_io) September 11, 2019

David Chaum commented:

“We’ve worked very hard over many years to design and develop the Elixxir privacy protecting platform and now users can access the platform for private communication. It’s one thing to talk about and describe such a platform, it’s quite another to make it available for use on a smartphone. I’m very proud of our team for getting this done.”

According to the press release, users will be able to test the xx network public alpha in the upcoming weeks. At the moment, the public alpha is being tested by select partners. According to David Chaum, the public alpha will immediately be capable of processing 500 transactions per second and is expected to scale within weeks to 2,500-5,000 transactions per second.

The xx network public alpha nodes are run by the most famous node operators around the world. Among these operators are Bitcoin.com, Chainzilla, Everstake, Incrypt, Iqlusion, and Simply VC. All of them are eager to cooperate with Elixxir and ready to contribute their expertise and feedback to inform the xx network decentralized beta later this year.

Roger Ver, Executive Chairman of Bitcoin.com, said:

“It’s great to see Elixxir is available publicly for high volume testing. I’m a supporter. Some things about my life are confidential, that’s why I’m looking forward to using their privacy protecting platform.”

Elixxir a ‘Better Bitcoin’?

Elixxir was launched by David Chaum, a prominent cryptographer and so-called ‘father of online privacy’, last year. Soon after the launch, Elixxir announced a strategic investment round from outstanding figures of the blockchain world, including Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen.

The platform runs on a system called cMix, a mixnet protocol for anonymous communications, and is capable of processing hundreds of thousands of confidential, quantum-resistant transactions in a matter of seconds. Elixxir can also operate at a fraction of the energy of the Bitcoin, addressing concerns over the energy consumption of the bitcoin network.

The core values of Elixxir are anonymity that means protecting the identity of participants in activities, and integrity —verifying the trustworthiness of the transaction system. To achieve both anonymity and integrity, the cMix system brings together two key concepts: mixnets and precomputation.

Mixnets, or mixing networks that were first described by David Chaum in 1981, typically protect the contents of messages with public key encryption, while precomputation is provided by mixnodes that do all the time-consuming work of public-key cryptography before the real-time phase of handling messages between senders and recipients.