In August 2016 a new protocol was published by an anonymous author, suggesting an elegant to a spell from Harry Potter books, and it builds upon two concepts originally proposed by Greg Maxwell, namely Confidential transactions and Transaction Cut- Throughput. The following is a high level explanation of the key principles of Mimblewimble. For more detailed explanation please read the original whitepaper. Confidential transactions are implemented by using a cryptographic commitment scheme which has two basic properties: hiding and binding. It is similar to giving someone a closed safe box with some message inside that only you know the combination for. When the time comes you can reveal the key and the person can make sure that your commitment is valid (binding) while he can not know what it was before the key is received (hiding).