Beam is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched on January 3, 2019 (Bitcoin’s genesis block anniversary) implementing the Mimblewimble protocol — a cryptographic design named after a Harry Potter spell that requires no public addresses and hides all transaction amounts, offering confidentiality superior to Bitcoin and comparable (in different ways) to Monero. Beam chose a GPU proof-of-work algorithm (BeamHash) for egalitarian mining, fair launch with no premine, and capped supply — with 20% of block rewards going to a treasury to fund development. Mimblewimble’s “cut-through” optimization also makes the Beam blockchain dramatically smaller than conventional blockchains: spent transactions can be pruned without losing security.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | BEAM |
| Price | $0.02 |
| Market Cap | $4.00M |
| 24h Change | +0.6% |
| Circulating Supply | 197.93M BEAM |
| Max Supply | 262.80M BEAM |
| All-Time High | $4.28 |
| Contract (Ethereum) | 0xe5ac...f499 |
How It Works
Mimblewimble protocol:
Mimblewimble (proposed pseudonymously in 2016) achieves privacy through:
- No addresses — Transactions are built using Diffie-Hellman-style key exchange between sender and receiver
- Confidential transactions — Amounts are hidden using Pedersen commitments
- Cut-through — Intermediate transaction outputs that cancel out can be removed, compressing history
- Dandelion ++ — IP broadcasting privacy (transactions propagate privately before broadcasting)
Beam vs. Monero:
| Feature | Beam | Monero |
|---|---|---|
| Protocol | Mimblewimble | CryptoNote/RingCT |
| Scalability | Better (cut-through) | Worse (ring signatures) |
| Auditability | Optional audit keys | Limited |
| Maturity | Newer | More battle-tested |
Scriptless scripts:
Beam supports complex transaction types (atomic swaps, DEX, time locks) through “scriptless scripts” — advanced cryptographic techniques that execute contract logic without on-chain code.
Tokenomics
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Max Supply | 262,800,000 BEAM |
| Block Reward | Decreasing over 130 years (halving every 4 years) |
| Treasury | 20% of block rewards (first 5 years) |
| Mining Algorithm | BeamHash III (GPU) |
| No Premine | True fair launch |
Use Cases
- Private payments — Confidential transfers (amount and address private by default)
- Atomic swaps — Cross-chain swaps with Bitcoin and other assets
- DeFi (Beam’s ecosystem) — BeamX DeFi with confidential AMM
History
- Jan 3, 2019 — Beam mainnet launches on Bitcoin’s 10th birthday; first Mimblewimble coin
- Jan 15, 2019 — Grin (another Mimblewimble coin) launches 12 days later; competition begins
- 2019 — Both Mimblewimble coins attract cryptographic interest and privacy advocates
- 2020 — Beam Confidential DeFi announced; WASM-based smart contracts
- 2021 — BeamX DeFi platform launches with confidential AMM
- 2022–2024 — Beam development continues; team maintains protocol upgrades; listed on select exchanges
Common Misconceptions
“Mimblewimble is broken.” In 2019, Ivan Bogatyy published a paper claiming to link 96% of Mimblewimble transactions. The Beam (and Grin) teams responded that this “attack” is theoretical and already known, and that Dandelion++ mitigates it partially. Mimblewimble provides good (not perfect) privacy.
“Beam and Grin are the same project.” Both implement Mimblewimble but are separate projects with different philosophy: Beam is a company with a treasury and professional development; Grin is an anonymous, pure open-source project with no organization.