Mina Ecosystem Roadmap – Q3 2022

*Please note that each ecosystem roadmap update may contain forecasts, projections, targets or other forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the relevant ecosystem partner’s estimates and assumptions based on information available at the time such update is made. Accordingly, plans, goals and other statements may not be realized as described, and actual results may differ materially from those presented in such an update. In addition, the Mina Foundation is not responsible for updates made by community contributors or ecosystem partners, whose work is important to the development of the Mina ecosystem and is independent from any of the initiatives that the Mina Foundation is working on.

Mina Ecosystem Roadmap

Update on Ecosystem Roadmap Projects

New Uptime Tracking System

On July 1, the new Uptime Tracking System for the Mina Foundation Delegation Program, which had been worked on by ecosystem partner OnTab, was announced on Discord. The beta release displays uptime scores for the Delegation Program based on the newly implemented SNARK-work-based uptime tracker. The new uptime leaderboard can be accessed here.

In addition, OnTab also published the SNARK-based uptime tracking system API, which aids community members and ecosystem partners in accessing data from the new uptime tracking system and allows such data to be incorporated into tools and services. 

• Test API endpoint
• API Documentation

zkApps Software Development Kit (SDK)

o1Labs’ zkApps Product Engineering team added multiple major features to o1js (formerly SnarkyJS) during Q3: Recursion (a.k.a. proof composition) to leverage Mina’s infinite recursive ability, zkApps composability to allow a zkApp to invoke a method on another zkApp, events, & payments to allow a zkApp to send MINA to other Mina accounts or zkApps.

For those willing to live on the edge, the o1Labs team also enabled a few experimental API’s: Merkle tree, custom tokens, & actions & reducers (a.k.a. sequence events). “Experimental” indicates that these methods are highly likely to be changed and improved. These APIs will be moved out of the experimental namespace when the designs have reached relative stability.

zkApps Testing

The plan was originally to ship the Berkeley Incentivized Testnet phase of zkApps Testing before the end of Q2, but due to a number of bugs that showed up during development, the estimated delivery timeline for the first phase of testnet has been updated to Q3. The o1Labs team is fixing the final bugs that have showed up in unit tests and the QANet. The plan is to ship a Berkeley Testnet Alpha in September, which will give the opportunity for some initial testing before the Incentivized Testnet begins later. 

Easy zkApps Programmability on Mainnet

Work continues to enable easy zkApps programmability on Mainnet. We are starting to see a lot of new zkApps being built on the Mina network, including zkPOAPs and the interactive Canvas zkApp. You can also see a community-curated directory showing some zkApps within the ecosystem here.

On-Chain Signaling – NEW

This project is being developed by Granola Systems. It is open source software that does 2 things. First, it connects to an existing Mina archive node to query Mina blockchain state data to fulfill queries on the RESTful web interface. The queries give JSON data that describe the on-chain signals (specially constructed memo fields on transactions) in support of or against known proposals. Second, it supplies a web front-end to visualize the status of the signaling process (a results page for each signal). This MPL2-licensed software can be used by other developers to report on the signaling results in a decentralized way. The On-Chain Signaling project will be used to gauge support for the upcoming hardfork on the testnet in Q3/Q4 2022.

Non-Consensus Nodes

The non-consensus node project to add an additional implementation of Mina Protocol in Rust has been worked on by Chainsafe and a partial proof of concept has been completed. Another engineering team is now taking over the project. To see the project in its current state, check out the Github repo. 

zkBridge

Q2 brought the in-EVM state proof verification proof generator to the auditable state along with all the circuits necessary. Q3, according to security auditors ABDK Consulting, is supposed to bring the proof generator audit results which would result in Mina’s auxiliary state proof to be published at =nil;’s proof market which would enable users to retrieve and submit Mina’s state proof.

The verification component strongly depends on the circuit’s readiness because it is being generated from its definitions on the proof generation side. That means the verification part is supposed to come ready for the audit after the proof generation part circuits and proof system implementation audit is done. The sequential nature of the overall solution components results in potential timings increase and is dependent entirely on progression of the security audit.

Enable 3rd-party, off-chain usage of Mina’s proof system

Originally planned for Q3, this is now a project targeting delivery in Q4 2022 due to higher impact priorities in o1Labs’ o1js (formerly SnarkyJS) roadmap.

zkOracles

For context, zkOracles refers to the capability to connect real world data to blockchain in a trustless way, using HTTPs. Originally scoped to be only a Minimally Viable Product (MVP), the o1Labs team has expanded the approach to be 2 phases:

• Phase 1 (Q4 2022): Deliver a short-term solution for incorporating off-chain data into zkApps
• Phase 2 (Q1 2023): Identify a 256x more performant Multi-Party Computation (MPC) design for zkOracles using interactive zero knowledge proofs.

zkRollup on Mina – NEW

Longtime community member Trivo#0001 has started zkFusion, a modular zkRollup of Mina Protocol:

I have actively started working on a rollup to help scale Mina and provide a framework to developers to help them support their work on application specific rollups. The work on the first stage, a proof of concept, has been completed and will be deployed to the QANet as soon as its back up. The proof of concept includes basic rollup functionalities like depositing and withdrawing from/to the layer 1 contract and transferring MINA on the layer 2. If both the proof of concept and the QANet are stable enough, I plan on deploying a public test version that allows everyone interested in it to play around with it.

In the following weeks and months, focus will be on increasing throughput and supporting both basic and advanced zkApp features as well as increasing stability and making the system more robust.