Mina Protocol

Mina Protocol is a minimal “succinct blockchain” built to curtail computational requirements in order to run DApps more efficiently. Mina has been described as the world’s lightest blockchain since its size is designed to remain constant despite growth in usage. Furthermore, it remains balanced in terms of security and decentralization. The project was rebranded from Coda Protocol to Mina in October 2020.

Mina’s succinct blockchain is a decentralized payment system that provides a constant verification time. This is possible because succinct proofs of state validity are added to every block. The entire blockchain is based on SNARKS – micro-crypto certificates in the nodes that verify the transactions. The whole blockchain network is just 22KB, which is the size of few tweets. All it takes for users on Mina Protocol to verify the entire transaction history is a zk-SNARK zero knowledge of proof. It uses a Proof-of-Stake algorithm called Ouroboros Praos.

There are three key roles within the Mina Network: Verifiers, Block Producers, and Snackers. Each of these roles is properly incentivized.

Mina protocol is still in its early stages, but it already offers potential solutions to scalability, high energy consumption, and cost of transactions on modern blockchains.