Vision for the ecosystem
The vision for Mina, at a foundational level, is a scalable base layer optimized for verifying proofs efficiently without requiring off-chain infrastructure or trusted intermediaries. A design which enables anyone to verify the network’s security in a low-cost way while eliminating the need for additional infrastructure to aggregate and settle proofs.
Mina Foundation was created to support this vision by stewarding the brand and treasury, but with time the scope expanded to incubate an application ecosystem. The Foundation tried different angles, but realised Mina itself isn’t designed as an application platform but rather as a component in a modular stack.
Mina excels when used as a proof verification machine – a shared repository of proofs for applications, not as their execution environment. Right now, only a small subset of applications across the ecosystem have been architected with Mina’s modular design in mind.
Additionally, the programs owned by Mina Foundation haven’t yielded the expected results, further highlighting the need for a hard reset.
Organizational Changes
To get the ecosystem back on track and better execute on this vision, several changes are being implemented:
- o1Labs will now lead the technical roadmap and have committed to a protocol upgrade in the fall. Additionally, Mina Foundation and o1Labs are in discussions for o1Labs to potentially own ecosystem development throughout this transitional period.
Mina Foundation will focus on creating a decentralized treasury, with the ultimate goal to have it managed entirely by the community through a governance process and on-chain voting.
Product Updates
Protokit
Protokit is an appchain framework that enables developers to more easily build scalable applications across shared state, or in other words, a performant execution environment for apps that settle to Mina. o1Labs would like to continue to support the development of Protokit with a focus on delivering a devnet-ready version as soon as possible, followed by audit preparation. The team (currently at Mina Foundation) is doubling down on core features while ensuring a sensible path to mainnet.
DEXes
The team behind Lumina has recently shared that the LuminaDEX SDK is available on Mina Devnet/Zeko Testnet, with front-end partner(s) and deployment onto Mina mainnet coming next. DinoDEX remains dependent on Protokit. These are independent teams, please refer to LuminaDEX and DinoDEX official channels for updates. Finally, alternative execution environments that settle to Mina are also being explored.
Bridges
It’s important to note that for the short-to-medium term, bridging on Mina is going to be slow because of Mina’s design for zk-native consensus, Ouroboros Samisika, which prioritises decentralisation.
Ethereum to Mina:
Ethereum Token Bridge: After community testing, deployment of the multi-sig bridge has been canceled in favor of the Nori approach, which better aligns with Mina’s ethos.
Nori: The Nori Bridge has successfully been verifying Ethereum’s latest execution state root on Mina Devnet. This represents a significant milestone as the first L1-to-L1 bridge in Web3 secured by zk proofs rather than validator signatures. The team began building in December and has demonstrated impressive development speed and expertise since.
Mina to Ethereum:
Nil Bridge: The Nil Foundation project was deemed too expensive for most apps to use in production and has been discontinued.
Lambda Class Bridge: The team were able to complete a working bridge, but similarly, faced high costs for proof verification. However, the challenge helped to identify a new opportunity, and Aligned Layer was created.
This Mina bridge, which has been audited and released, is working on Aligned Layer. The final step, which o1Labs is in discussions with Mina Foundation to actively support, is finding a team to operate the bridge for production use.
Celestia Partnership: The partnership successfully delivered Celestia support via the o1js-blobstream repo, enabling verification of Groth-16 proofs with Kimchi.
This in turn allows verification of SP1 proofs, which the Nori team has used to verify SP1-Helios, core to proving ethereum state root.
Other product updates
Mina Attestations (formerly Private Credentials API): Development of the Typescript library that implements attestations in Mina wallets is complete, and has already been integrated with Pallad wallet. Auro wallet integration is expected in approximately one month. Expect an announcement of audit completion in the coming weeks.
NFT Standard: Development and audit complete. You can learn more about it here.
Launchpad: Development complete. You can watch a demo here.
Tokenomics: The Tokenomics Report from Economics Design has been published on Mina Research with an invitation for community feedback. Next, Mina Foundation will be supporting the creation of a community-led working group to bring forward one or more MIPs that align Mina’s tokenomics with the values and wants of the community.
Next Steps
o1Labs has committed to a protocol upgrade (subject to community approval via a MIP) in the fall, which would prioritise: decreased slot time, increased zkApp limits, and hard fork automation. This upgrade (if approved) would be less complex than Berkeley, as the team is actively working to automate the process. Learn more in their latest video.
Additionally, o1Labs is also in discussions with Mina Foundation to potentially take on some of Mina Foundation’s previous responsibilities, including engineering, marketing, and community management.
After this discussion and transition is complete, Mina Foundation’s singular priority will be creating a decentralized treasury for the ecosystem, managed by the community through governance processes and on-chain voting. A new team of trusted members from the ecosystem will be set up to help drive this forward, with a V1 expected to be functioning in production by the end of 2025.
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.
