Mina Navigators is a developer program designed to fuel innovation in the Mina ecosystem and empower builders to deepen their understanding of zero knowledge (ZK) technology. Season 1, which saw participation from 65 developers across 50 projects, has now concluded.
After months of dedication and hard work, Navigators recently showcased their contributions to a panel of community electors to compete for grand prizes. 12 finalists presented demos and six have been awarded first, second, and third prize grants from an available pool of 225,000 MINA. These grants were not project-specific, but instead focused on innovation and technical achievement across multiple teams’ GitHub repos.
See the grand prize grantees below! You can also watch each of these teams present on demo day here and here.
| ZK Project | Grant |
| zkNoid – gaming platform powered by ZK proofs | First Prize: 50,000 MINA |
| zkNotary – zkOracle based on TLSNotary
zkArcade – XR games of incomplete information (also known as fog-of-war games) | First Prize: 50,000 MINA |
| ID-Mask – ZK identity proofs of age, nationality, and humanity | Second Prize: 37,500 MINA |
| Mina Playground – interactive learning platform for zkApps | Second Prize: 37,500 MINA |
| ZK Regex – library enabling regular expression verification
Mina ZK Battleships – another ZK version of the classic game SHA256 o1js – PoC for developing the SHA256 hashing algorithm using o1js | Third Prize: 25,000 MINA |
| Mina-anons – interoperable ZK social layer
mina-puzzles P2P Kit – general purpose P2P ZK puzzle/game kit | Third Prize: 25,000 MINA |
What’s Next?
The Navigators program will return for a Season 2, this time focused on helping Mina developers accelerate their projects to production. Designed to fund the strongest teams in the ZK space, this new season will empower dedicated teams and individuals to experiment, build, and deploy on Mina mainnet.
Learnings from Season 1 have informed several key changes and improvements for Season 2. For example, the inaugural program identified the need for an ‘always-on’ grants funnel to ensure continuous building and a path to production for developers. Season 2 will also introduce a Navigator’s Exploration Team (NExT), comprising experts from o1Labs, Mina Foundation, and experienced builders from the community. This team will review and evaluate proposals, provide technical and product guidance, and direct ecosystem growth in focus areas.
Skilled developers and teams are now invited to apply for Season 2 grants based on written project proposals. Submissions are accepted on a continuous basis through December 31, 2024, and will undergo a multi-stage assessment process involving preliminary screening by the Mina Foundation, secondary screening by the NExT team, and public screening on the Mina Research forum.
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.
