Mina Protocol (MINA) was launched on HotsCoin on January 9. Mina Protocol is a lightweight blockchain characterized by its block size that is always maintained at 22kB. MINA is currently open for trading on HotsCoin.
- Project Overview
1.1 Basic information
Introduction to Mina Protocol: Mina Protocol is a lightweight blockchain characterized by its block size that always remains at 22kB. This design allows anyone to operate a node and help secure the network without the need for complex computer hardware. The key innovation of this protocol is the introduction of zk-SNARK technology, which allows users to confirm ownership of certain data without revealing this data to each other. The Mina mainnet was officially launched on March 23, 2021.
Token information:
Circulation volume: 1,031,259,983.84 MINA
Total supply: 1,112,645,692.84 MINA
Circulation market value: $1,197,156,634.834
Fully diluted market cap: $1,291,634,693.75
1.2 Key events
2022-03-18: Mina completes US$92 million in private financing round
2021-05-05: Mina completes US$18.7 million in public financing round
2021-03-23: Mina goes online on the mainnet
2020-10-21: Mina completes strategic financing of US$10.9 million
2019-04-01: Mina completed US$15 million in Series A financing, with a valuation of US$150 million
2018-04-01: Mina completed US$3.5 million in seed round financing, valued at US$70 million
- Project Overview
2.1 Technical features
Mina is a lightweight blockchain whose block size can be maintained at around 22 KB. This design allows nodes to participate with low-threshold hardware conditions, and even mobile devices with weak computing capabilities, such as mobile phones and tablets, can simultaneously verify the Mina network.
In addition, Mina has good scalability, making the entire network more distributed and decentralized. Building an ecosystem around zero-knowledge proofs, Mina's ecological application Snapp can implement business logic in specific scenarios, such as importing Internet data into Mina without trust. It can also cooperate with other public chains through transfer bridges to enhance interoperability and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
The Mina protocol developed by the O(1) Labs team has attracted outstanding contributors from multiple fields and demonstrated outstanding development capabilities. A total of US$48.15 million has been raised, and investment institutions include Paradigm, Multicoin, Coinbase and other front-line institutions as well as Wall Street investors. The support of these institutions usually indicates a focus on long-term value. These institutions also have their own IP traffic, which will help Mina proactively expand the market in the future.
After Mina went online on the mainnet, it reached cooperation with the credit risk platform Teller Finance and jointly released an EVM compatibility solution with the Ethereum Foundation. Although there are currently no ecological applications, Mina is expected to launch a developer toolkit SDK in the fourth quarter of this year to further promote ecological construction.
2.2 Token Economics
The initial supply of MINA's token, MINA, is 1 billion, which will be increased with block rewards. The additional issuance will last for 8 years. In the first year of the mainnet launch, the annual inflation rate is expected to be around 12%. The inflation rate will decrease over time, eventually falling to 7% at steady state.
2.3 Technical route
Mina uses zk-SNARK technology to achieve the same block size with recursive zero-knowledge proof. Currently, zero-knowledge proof technology is mainly used in fields such as private transactions and Layer 2, while Mina innovatively applies zero-knowledge proof to block packaging and network status verification.
Recursive zero-knowledge proof is a special form of zk-SNARK, which has the characteristics of zero-knowledge, simplicity, non-interactivity, and demonstrable knowledge. Mina's design enables the prover to convince the verifier that a certain assertion is correct without providing useful information to the verifier.
2.4 Application of zk-SNARK
2.4.1 Blockchain field
Mina builds ecological applications around zk-SNARK, which can serve the needs of various scenarios in future ecological development. zk-SNARK is widely used in privacy and scalability, and is used to hide transaction addresses and amounts, as well as improve the security of transaction verification in Layer 2.
2.4.2 Cross-field applications
In addition to blockchain, zk-SNARK also has a variety of applications in other fields, such as:
Payments for Digital Services: Secure private transactions and settlements of digital assets.
Verifiable voting: Increases the security and anonymity of the voting process and reduces the possibility of censorship.
Data audit: Develop a plan to prevent data breaches.
Financial Institution Information Investigation: Provide privacy-protected customer information investigation.
Healthcare: Protect cloud medical data from being leaked, monitor the vital signs of doctors and patients, and mine data to prevent epidemics.
- Development prospects
The Mina mainnet was launched relatively late, and the SDK toolkit is still under development, so there are no ecological applications yet. In this regard, Mina lags behind Polkadot, Solana and BSC in terms of progress. However, in the long term, Mina has the support of strong technical community volunteers and high-quality capital, and adheres to the concept of decentralization, which will help attract developers to join its ecosystem in the future.
At the same time, Mina mainly provides zero-knowledge proof services, which is different from other comprehensive public chains. It has deep technical strength and has first-mover advantages. This allows it to avoid competition in the usual sense and is expected to become the leading project in this field.
The successful development of the project involves many aspects, including team development capabilities, product operation capabilities, fund management, field breakthroughs, etc. With the technical hardware conditions, capital support and first-mover advantages in the field, Mina is expected to become a good ecological application platform.
Summarize:
As a public chain platform with zk-SNARK as the core technology, Mina Protocol is expected to realize various applications in the field of privacy computing in the future, such as trustless Internet information import, identity verification, and Snapps driven by zero-knowledge proofs. Although the development process is relatively lagging, based on its technical strength and capital support, Mina's future development prospects are worth looking forward to.