11 Things to Know about Mina

Mina protocol is a top-notch blockchain that relies on zkSNARKs.

To clarify this complex project, our infographic explains to anyone the 11 things to know about Mina. Eleven points  that illustrate

• How Mina solves blockchains size burst with zkSNARKs
• Cool Mina features
• The token economy
• Mina proof of stake specificity and yield
• Cryptocurrency community enthusiasm

(If you have any troubles reading text areas on your device, please zoom in.  Also, you can read it at the page bottom.) 

11 Things to Know about Mina (Plain text)

Mina – The world’s lightest blockchain

#1: Mina entire blockchain is 22 Kb – forever!

Thanks to zk-SNARKs, the entire Mina blockchain is and will always be about 22kb. A light high-speed chain allows a seamless end-user experience and mainstream adoption.

Mina protocol solves the blockchain size problem

• succinct blockchain
• fixed size: 22kb
• constant

Existing Block-chains are massive

• growing blockchains
• current size: 300Go+
• increase at each block

#2: Mina heavily relies on zk-SNARKs

What is zk-SNARK?

zk-SNARK is an advanced form of zero-knowledge cryptography

• zk – Zero Knowledge
• S – Succinct Small amount of proof data
• N – Non-interactive: Little to no interaction
• AR – Arguments: Proof under computational reliability
• K – Knowledge: Information or data is not shared

More specifically, one zk-SNARK proves that computations from a block to the next are correct. Then, combining zk-SNARKs in a recursive way allows one SNARK to prove that computations from the genesis block to the last one are accurate. Finally, any SNARK size is 1Kb.

#3: Mina is end-user friendly

Anyone directly syncs and verify

Mina blockchain keeps a constant size of 22kb and SNARK verification is fast. It removes all blockchains’ bottleneck: bandwidth, storage, and computation power.

Mina works on:

• any device
• slow internet connections

Third parties are back

Most Bitcoin or Ethereum users interact with these blockchains through third parties (explorer, custodial wallet, etc). This problem appears on any blockchain getting too big. Nevertheless, Satoshi Nakamoto was willing to erase the third party need…

#4: Mina has user tokens

Mint and use your tokens

Even if this feature is still under development, it is a promising one. Tokens provide a way for users to create and mint their own currency. In addition, it is a high-level feature accessible to anyone willing to issue custom tokens for everyday life usage like coupons. No need to hire a developer to do so!

#5: Mina brings Snapps: Snarkified Applications

Snapps = improved Dapps

Mina enables an entirely new category of applications with the following properties:

• Verify the integrity of a piece of data without disclosing what it is.
• Verify correct execution of expensive computations.
• Significant scalability benefits.

Some examples

Proof of Credit Score: Providing borrowers with a way to prove their credit score is above a certain threshold, without disclosing the score itself

Private Voting: Allowing a set of eligible voters to vote privately, without disclosing who they are and what they voted for.

Proof of Authentic Identity Document: Proving that the owner of a Mina address has access to an authentic identity document (such as driver’s license), without disclosing the document itself

 #6: Tokenomics

Initial supply: 805,121,694  (4 years of progressive release)

Inflation  rate: 12% down to 7%

Supercharged rewards: 24% down to 15%

#7: Community Sale

7.5% of the initial supply still available for the community sale. 

April 13-14 (2021): Community Sale

=> Up to 75,000,000 MINAs / $0.25 per token / min $50 – max $1,000

April 16-18: Uncapped Sale

=> Unsold tokens remaining / $0.25 per token / min $50 – uncapped

#8: Proof of Stake

PoS powered

Thanks to an incentivizing PoS consensus, all Mina ecosystem’s actors collaborate to secure the network.

Delegators

The end-users that delegate their stake will get their share of the rewards. It encourages most MINA holders to participate in the Proof of Stake consensus.

Snarker workers

SNARK workers provide the computation proofs to the snarketplace where Block Producers buy SNARKs. Running block production and SNARK computations in parallel guarantees a constant block time.

Block producers

The Block Producers are the Mina node validators that stake Mina tokens and get elected to produce blocks. To do so, they earn rewards that they distribute to mina delegators.

#9: No Slashing

There are no MINAs penalties for stakers or delegators. However, the Mina protocol does not reward bad actors. It incentivizes not only good behavior from the stakers but also delegating to reliable block producers.

#10: No Bonding

On the contrary to many PoS cryptocurrencies, Mina allows its users to stake or delegate with no need to lock up a part of their stake.

#11: Amazing community

• Followers on Twitter: 28,000
• Discord: more than 9,000 active members
• Testnet: 1,200 users connected
• Genesis Founding Members: 662