Recent Changes at Mina Foundation and Next Steps

Mina Community,

Today, I’m writing to share important updates about the Mina Foundation and our vision for the future of the Mina ecosystem. After extensive dialogue with community members, developers, and stakeholders, we realized we needed to change course. 

To help steer that change, I’m honored to step into the role of interim CEO and President of the Board for the Mina Foundation. For those who don’t know me, I previously served as the Executive Director of the Zcash Foundation. I currently also serve as the President of the Interchain Foundation Council, where I have been working diligently to help unify the Cosmos ecosystem — an experience that will undoubtedly help me as we chart the next stage of the Mina Foundation. 

As part of this transition, Evan Shapiro and Kurt Hemecker have stepped away from their roles at the Foundation. We are deeply grateful for their leadership, vision, and unwavering commitment to Mina over the years. Their contributions have been foundational to bringing Mina where it is today, and we look forward to their continued impact within the broader ecosystem.

Mina Foundation is now concentrating on two critical tasks, in this priority:

1. Identifying and transitioning key product, ecosystem, and technical capabilities/employees at the Foundation to o1Labs — alongside accountability for product delivery and protocol development to o1Labs, where they have maintained and grown a world-class zk-team.
2. During that transition, accelerating the creation and adoption of a decentralized treasury while helping steward tokenomics discussion and changes with the community.

And yes, that means we’re taking a hard look now with o1Labs at all in-flight strategic objectives and resources to assess what remains relevant. Some initiatives may be put on hold or sunset, while others are transitioned to o1Labs with their guidance and consent.

Transitions like this can be challenging, but they also present opportunities to reset and ultimately grow. Through my Cosmos experience, I’ve witnessed firsthand how strategic pivots to double-down on focus and product ownership can breathe new life into an ecosystem. Per our first priority, o1Labs and Mina Foundation leadership teams are currently in conversation planning the way forward, and the changes we’re implementing are designed to maximize Mina’s chances not just to survive in the competitive landscape of zero-knowledge tech, but to thrive.

We understand we can’t do that without a thriving community, and one that has trust in the commitments and changes we make. Throughout this process, we’re going to do a better job of communicating and taking community feedback — and will report back to the community as soon as we can about next steps. Brandon and I have committed to a community space (on The-Site-Formerly-Known-As-Twitter) to jumpstart this process as soon as we’re ready.

Building this community trust back is critical to our second task — bringing the vision of a decentralized treasury and governance mechanism to reality for the Mina ecosystem, and making Mina powered by participants once again. While this sounds like a gargantuan task, a great deal of prior work has been done on this already, and with a streamlined Foundation I believe we will build upon this (relatively) rapidly. Expect more from us on commitments and timelines after we’ve gotten further along with o1Labs.

The promise of Mina remains as compelling as ever: a centralization-resistant, accessible blockchain as the foundation of a private, verifiable internet. 

And it still needs your help, in addition to ours. Your participation, feedback, and support have never been more important. If you have questions about this transition or what’s next, please ask here. 

Sincerely yours,

Josh Cincinnati

Interim CEO, Mina Foundation