Mina: World's Lightest Blockchain Using zk SNARKs

What is Mina Protocol?

However, no matter how popular Mina becomes, the blockchain will always have the same size - around 22kb (the size of a few tweets). As a result, participants will be able to swiftly sync and test the network.

zk-SNARKs, a sort of succinct cryptographic zero-knowledge proof, have enabled this achievement. When a Mina node creates a new block, it also creates a SNARK proof verifying its validity. The short evidence, rather than the complete chain, can then be stored by all nodes.

The Mina protocol offers a decentralised at scale blockchain by eliminating the need to care about block size. As blockchains grow in size, validating data on the blockchain becomes more complex, resulting in the concentration of validators.

Mina aims to circumvent this constraint by employing a "simple blockchain," which requires a fixed amount of time and data to verify the present status of the world (20 kilobytes/10 milliseconds), according to the developers.

The recursive composition of zk-SNARKs, which use constant-sized proofs of arbitrary, incremental computations, enables the concise blockchain. This means that the difficulty of verifying the chain is unaffected by its size, retaining the ease with which users can engage actively in the network.

Instead of preserving the entire chain, a user might merely hang on to the present state and confirm its existence via a SNARK (short non-interactive argument of knowledge). This enables the Mina protocol to scale to thousands of transactions per second while requiring significantly fewer resources to maintain than PoW blockchains.

Mina is made up of the following major components:

Samasika's Ouroboros: A variant of the ouroboros proof-of-stake consensus process that maximises consensus inclusivity. On Mina, everyone acts as a full node. Anyone can participate in the consensus process and contribute to the network's security.

Snapps: Generally speaking, Smart contracts with SNARK support. Because they're constructed on SNARKs, they're Turing complete like other smart contracts, with the added benefit of secrecy and verifiability.

SNARK workers: Snark workers are critical to the Mina network's health since they are in charge of snarking or creating SNARK proofs of network transactions. Snark workers contribute to the Mina blockchain's succinctness by producing these proofs.

How does Mina Works?

Mina is a layer one protocol that aims to fulfil blockchain's original promise of complete decentralisation, scalability, and security. In theory, blockchains are intended to hold users accountable. When everyone may enforce the laws by validating an irreversible public ledger, authority is concentrated in the hands of a large number of people.

The network's trustless transactions are made possible by its decentralised structure. In practice, however, this has not been the case. When a new user joins a legacy blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum, they must validate the validity of every transaction since the network's inception, which can amount to hundreds of terabytes of data.

Most consumers can't afford the computer power required to verify these complex networks on their own, so they're forced to rely on increasingly powerful intermediaries. This means that most people can no longer connect peer-to-peer, resulting in a loss of decentralisation, a shift in power dynamics, and a more vulnerable network to censorship.

Mina protocol proposes an elegant solution: replace the blockchain with cryptographic proof that is easily verifiable and consistent in size. Mina decreases the amount of data that each user must download considerably.

Instead of checking the entire chain from the beginning, participants use recursive zero-knowledge proofs to validate the network and transactions (or zk-SNARKs) thoroughly.

The little evidence, rather than the complete chain, can then be stored by nodes. Mina protocol api remains accessible because of its uniform size, even when it scales to numerous users and accumulates years of transaction data.

How do zk-SNARKs operate?

Instead of sending the chain itself, they take a lightweight snapshot of the status of the entire blockchain and send it around. It's like sending a postcard of an elephant instead of a vast live animal to a buddy. The following block in the network takes a snapshot of itself, with the prior state of the blockchain as the background.

The backdrop for the next block will be that new snapshot, and so on. Surprisingly, the snapshot always stays the same size, even though it can include proof of an endless amount of data.

Finally, the world's lightest blockchain enables inclusive consensus. The Ouroboros proof-of-stake protocol, as adjusted, maximises consensus inclusivity. Anyone may participate in consensus, secure the blockchain, and keep Mina responsible since all participants operate as full nodes. Mina provides genuine decentralisation, scale, and security in this manner.

Tokenomics

The native utility token, MINA, has the following applications:

Staking: In exchange for staking benefits, users can run nodes and stake their MINA tokens to help protect the network (paid in MINA tokens). Users can also stake their tokens indirectly by delegating them to a third-party staking provider. It's essential to keep in mind that any new delegated staking takes 2 to 4 weeks.

Transaction fees: Users will be charged network transaction fees (in MINA tokens) for each interaction with Snapps (dApps) on the Mina Network.

Block production: Block producers are validators who help the blockchain achieve consensus and provide security. Staking MINA tokens and establishing new blocks on the blockchain earns them block rewards.

Launch & Token Distribution

o(1) laboratories received $3.5 million in initial funding from Mina protocol investors in May 2018 to develop Mina (then known as Coda Protocol), followed by a $15 million follow-on round in April 2019. Since mid-2019, the network has been in a public testnet phase.

According to the developers, Mina released on the mainnet before the end of 2020. Mina launched Genesis on March 24th, 2020, a token programme that prepares users to become the network's initial block producers and ensures substantial decentralisation when the mainnet goes live.

By completing challenges on the testnet to assist build the network, 1,000 Genesis founder members will be chosen to earn a distribution of 66,000 Mina tokens. Because they will have the expertise required to stake tokens when the mainnet goes live, Genesis founding members will be the network's inaugural block producers.

Genesis founder members will receive up to 6.7 per cent of tokens from Mina. "The Genesis programme allows us to develop a community of engaged individuals who contribute to set the ecosystem's rules," stated Izaak Meckler, CTO and Co-founder. Such participation is necessary for developing infrastructure that meets the interests of its members."

Conclusion

Mina protocol provides end-users with a low-barrier-to-entry mechanism to verify transactions independently by building a blockchain that remains constant in size. There's no need to entrust trust to individuals who are willing to keep up with the requirements of running a full node, as in traditional blockchains.

A single SNARK that functions as a certificate for the entire blockchain and a tail-end Merkle path to get full node level security on nearly any device. The blockchain size can be kept under 20kB by using the recursive composition of SNARKs.

More end-users are equipped to participate in network verification, so having an extensive network of validating nodes enhances decentralisation which is good for the ecosystem.