Mina, formerly Coda Protocol, solves blockchain’s decentralization problem while enabling high scalability by deploying recursive zk-SNARKs to ensure a constant-sized blockchain of 22 kb—enabling a Web 3.0 powered by zkApps.
San Francisco, CA September 29, 2020 – Coda Protocol has relaunched as Mina, the world’s lightest blockchain powered by participants. Mina deploys recursive zk-SNARKs to ensure the blockchain remains the same size—22 kb—enabling anyone to sync the chain in seconds, ushering in a new era of blockchain accessibility. The more users that join Mina, the more secure, stable, and robust the community and network will be. To support the promise of their technology, the team has launched programs to support community growth, ensure decentralization, and support novices in becoming node operators.
The Genesis token grants program trains participants to become block producers, which will ensure a high degree of decentralization upon mainnet. Their Mentor Nodes program pairs those new to node operation with Technical Ambassadors to work towards earning a Genesis token grant. Mina’s tooling and documentation also makes it easy for anyone with basic technical knowledge to get started on the network. As a result of the focus on accessibility and ease-of-use, more than 1,000 users from over 180 countries have participated on the Mina testnet, with more than 5,000 community members participating in the greater Mina ecosystem.
What Makes Mina Unique:
- Unlike first-generation blockchains, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, with heavy chains, Mina uses a chain that is, and always will be, 22 kb so participants can sync the entire chain in seconds.
- Mina is also the first production system to implement a recursive zk-SNARK with no trusted setup, an achievement that has advanced the entire blockchain ecosystem.
- The deployment of this mathematical proof is what allows Mina to scale while retaining the highest levels of resiliency, privacy, and security while not compromising decentralization.
“Mina is about decentralizing the web in order to shift power dynamics,” said Evan Shapiro, CEO and Co-Founder of o1Labs, the team behind Mina. “By using recursive zk-SNARks, we’ve created Mina to always stay the same size—about 22 kilobytes. This design is what allows just about anyone to participate and offers an open-programmable currency to power a more efficient and fair digital future.”
Mina’s adversarial testnet launches later this year, which offers participants an opportunity to win token rewards for uncovering network vulnerabilities. Shortly after adversarial concludes, mainnet will launch and developers will be able to leverage the Mina protocol to create verifiable SNARK-powered smart contracts, or zkApps, for anything from enabling verifiable payments to verifying vote counts.
Last year in 2019, R3 filed a trademark lawsuit against Coda Protocol. As a result, Coda Protocol agreed to abandon the name. In response, the Mina community issued a letter addressed to R3: bit.ly/MinaLettertoR3
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About Mina
Mina is the world’s lightest blockchain, powered by participants. Rather than apply brute computing force, Mina uses advanced cryptography and recursive zk-SNARKs to design an entire blockchain that is and always will be about 22kb, the size of a couple tweets, ushering in a new era of blockchain accessibility. With its robust decentralized network and open-programmable currency, Mina is powering a more efficient and fair Web 3.0 so anyone can participate, build, exchange and thrive. Mina is a project of o1Labs, a leader in verifiable computation.
About Mina Protocol
Mina is the world’s lightest blockchain, powered by participants. Rather than apply brute computing force, Mina uses advanced cryptography and recursive zk-SNARKs to design an entire blockchain that is about 22kb, the size of a couple of tweets. It is the first layer-1 to enable efficient implementation and easy programmability of zero knowledge smart contracts (zkApps). With its unique privacy features and ability to connect to any website, Mina is building a private gateway between the real world and crypto—and the secure, democratic future we all deserve.
