Mina Protocol is a lightweight blockchain proof Protocol based on recursive Zero-knowledge proof zkSNARKs.

Mina is working to establish a privacy gateway between the real world and cryptocurrencies, providing the infrastructure to ensure security and democracy for all in the future.

In theory, blockchains are meant to be accountable to their users. When anyone can enforce rules by verifying an irrevocable public distributed ledger -- power remains in the hands of the many, not the few. This decentralized structure enables the network to conduct untrusted transactions. But in practice, this is not the case. With traditional blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, when new participants join, they have to check every transaction since the network began to verify correctness -- the equivalent of hundreds of gigabytes of data. Most people cannot afford the computing power needed to verify these heavy chains themselves, and are forced to trust increasingly powerful intermediaries. This means that most people can no longer connect point-to-point -- resulting in decentralization, a change in power dynamics, and networks becoming more open to censorship.

The breakthrough was made possible by zK-snarks' neat cryptographic proof. Each time the Mina node generates a new block, it also generates a SNARK proof to verify that the block is valid. Then all nodes can store small proofs instead of the whole chain. Since you don't have to worry about block size, the Mina protocol supports large-scale decentralized blockchains.

Mina is an underlying protocol designed to convey the essence of blockchain -- truly decentralized, scalable and secure. In theory, blockchain is the user's responsibility. When anyone can enforce rules by verifying immutable public ledgers -- power is in the hands of the many, not the few. This decentralized structure also allows people to conduct untrusted transactions on the network. However, this is not the case. With established blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, every new participant must be checked for the correctness of every transaction -- hundreds of gigabytes of data -- since the network's inception. Most people cannot afford the computing power needed to verify these heavy chains themselves, and are increasingly forced to rely on large middlemen. This means that most people are no longer connected point-to-point -- with decentralisation affected, power shifting, and networks less resistant to censorship. Mina offers an elegant solution: replace the blockchain with easily verifiable, constant-size proof of encryption. Mina drastically reduces the amount of data each user needs to download. Instead of verifying the entire blockchain from scratch, participants can fully verify the network and transactions with recursive zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARks). The node can then simply save that proof, rather than the entire blockchain. Because the size of the encrypted proof is constant, Mina remains accessible and allows untrusted access even if it scales to many users or accumulates transaction data over several years. Zk-snarks takes the state of the entire blockchain as a lightweight snapshot and sends it -- not the blockchain itself. It's like sending your friend a postcard of an elephant instead of a live one. When the next block in the network is created, it takes another snapshot of the previous state of the blockchain against the background. The new snapshot becomes the background for the next block, and so on. Most amazing of all, it can contain an unlimited amount of information, and the snapshot size never changes. Back to square one, the world's lightest blockchain can achieve inclusive consensus. Through the transformation of Ouroboros equity proof consensus maximizes consensus inclusiveness. At Mina, all participants can participate in the consensus to protect blockchain security and hold Mina accountable.

Mina is no different from other blockchain native tokens in that it represents ownership of the network. Tokens will be used to pay for transactions and new minas will be minted to pay the block producers for creating new blocks. Such incentives are essential for the various players to coordinate and collaborate in a decentralized manner. In addition to being a native token for the network, MinAs can be used to transfer value, serve as collateral, or do whatever digital native stores of value can do. O(1) Labs imagines protocol-based applications that use tokens in novel and unimagined ways.

Mina uses a consensus protocol that protects against adaptive corruption, does not require a trusted checkpoint service for boot, has adaptive security and, most importantly, simplicity. That is, it only needs succinct information to distinguish between honest and dishonest chains, no matter how far they have branched historically.

1. The entire Mina blockchain can be maintained at a constant rate of about 22KB, equivalent to the size of several tweets. As a result, anyone can quickly synchronize and verify the network. 2. Mina is light compared to other heavy protocols that rely on middlemen to run the nodes, allowing anyone to quickly connect, synchronize and validate the blockchain point-to-point. It is built on a constant-size cryptographic proof that remains accessible even when scaled to millions of users. 3. By using Mina, anyone with a synchronous chain can also verify transactions as if they were full nodes. Mina's design means that any participant can participate in the proof-of-interest consensus, gain strong resistance to censorship, and protect the blockchain. 4.Mina launched Snapps, a decentralized Application based on SNARK, which gives users full control over the verification and sharing of personal data, not just the data itself, even to competitors. Using offline logic, data computing, and online verification, Snapps are easy to scale, high-performance computing, and cost-effective. 5.Mina launched Snapps that can access any website through a private gateway and use authenticated real-world data online. As a result, developers can use real-world information for analysis and decision-making without compromising privacy. 6.Mina is powered by each participant and there is no upper limit to the number of block producers.

With SNARK technology, Mina can verify the accuracy of the block transaction history with a single zero-knowledge proof. In addition to the succinct advantage, it was possible to compress the entire block to the size of a single SNARK proof, which is about 1 KB. The cost of user verification is also quite low. If someone submits an incorrect SNARK proof, anyone's device, such as a mobile phone, can immediately verify and discover it. But this is just the first step. One of the features of blockchain is that each block needs to reference the previous block, because if you just generate SNARK proofs for each block, the overall capacity will grow linearly. So the core of Mina is a technology called "Recursive Zero-knowledge proof". Their solution is to create SNARK (i.e., recursion) for SNARK, then iterate and nest them, and link them together ina recursive structure, which keeps the blockchain at a constant size of about 22 KB. Network Nodes In Mina networks, all nodes are full nodes because each node can accept and verify zero-knowledge proofs. But in addition, there are other types of nodes that provide different services for the entire network to complete the overall architecture, including Archive nodes, Block producers, and SNARK producers. An Archive Node is a Node that stores all historically detailed block data as a persistent data source for easy retrieval. "The data storage pressure on such nodes is relatively high, but since it is easy to verify the validity of the data, the security risk is not too high even if the degree of decentralization is not so high," the team said.

New minas will be minted to pay for block producers to create new blocks. Such incentives are essential for the various players to coordinate and collaborate in a decentralized manner.

Mina's competition lies in the fact that such a lightweight blockchain with a size of only 22 KB and a low-threshold node verification method builds a decentralized public chain platform for users. It not only provides ZK-SNARK privacy service, but also brings a more accessible blockchain network, which is an innovation ina new field. In addition, Mina has built a data privacy ecosystem around zero-knowledge proof. Snapps can implement specific business logic for certain scenarios, and collaborate with other public chains through bridging Bridges to enhance interoperability and mutual benefit across the blockchain ecosystem. For example, currently the Mina Foundation and ethereum Foundation have jointly released EVM compatible development plans. When Mina is compatible with EVM virtual machines, it can interact with other public chains such as BSC, Fantom, AND NEAR, which are highly compatible with EVM.

With the growing demand for data protection and other privacy issues, ZK-SNARK has a wide range of application scenarios and requirements in both centralized and decentralized environments. From anonymous verifiable voting to privacy on a decentralized blockchain, the technology may be the answer to many of the challenges facing blockchain and beyond. According to the application scenario of ZK-SNARK, Mina builds ecological applications around ZK-SNARK, and can provide services for various scenarios in the future ecological development.

With the growing demand for data protection and other privacy issues, ZK-SNARK has a wide range of application scenarios and requirements in both centralized and decentralized environments. From anonymous verifiable voting to privacy on a decentralized blockchain, the technology may be the answer to many of the challenges facing blockchain and beyond. According to the application scenario of ZK-SNARK, Mina builds ecological applications around ZK-SNARK, and can provide services for various scenarios in the future ecological development

Project is the development of a comprehensive, especially chain project, involves the ability of team development, product capacity, capital management, can be a breakthrough in the field of and so on factors, Mina has a technology hardware conditions, with the first mover advantage in the field of capital support and, in the future will grow up to be a good ecological application platform, is worth looking forward to.