Inside the extension block
What the public can verify without seeing
Confidential accounting still needs strict conservation rules.
The MWEB design history describes commitments, transaction kernels and cut-through. A commitment lets a protocol reason about a hidden value without publishing that value in the ordinary way. A kernel preserves information needed to validate a transaction, while cut-through removes spent intermediate structure that is no longer needed in the same form. The original LIP documents remain labeled drafts; they explain design history and must not override current implementation details.
Privacy has boundaries. A person may reveal a payment through an invoice, an exchange account, device compromise or their own public statements even when a protocol conceals an amount. This is why our illustration shows both the protected interior and the surrounding context. It is also why confidentiality and supply integrity must be evaluated together. Concealing a number cannot be allowed to excuse weak accounting, and a privacy feature should never be marketed as immunity from every observer or mistake.
- Threat model:what is hidden, from whom, and where?
- Draft specifications are historical evidence, not current operating manuals.