Mina

What is Mina (MINA)?

MINA is a proprietary resource of the platform of the same name. Mina network bills itself as “the world’s lightest blockchain” as its size is consistently maintained at 22 KB. This helps you work faster decentralized applications (dApps). All information about the price of Mina can be seen in the chart above.

Who is behind Mina?

The founding team of the Mina crypto platform includes Evan Shapiro, Isaac Meckler, Brad Cohen, Emre Tekishalpm, Vanishree Rao and Joseph Bonneau. The project was conceived as inclusive and open source blockchain protocol.

Shapiro is the CEO and board member of the Mina Foundation, the organization behind the crypto platform. He is a software engineer who contributed directly to the creation of the Mina protocol. Meckler is a fellow software developer and CTO at O(1) Labs, a provider of Web3 security solutions.

Cohen, Tekishalpm and Rao are also members of the O(1) Labs team, contributing to Mina’s research and development. Bonneau is an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on cryptography, blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

Mina aims to solve one of the biggest problems associated with blockchain technology – scalability. As new information is registered on distributed ledgerThe size of the blockchain continues to grow, requiring more energy and hardware to fully process.

The team began working on a lightweight blockchain in 2017. The project was originally called Protocol Codes. However, in September 2020, following a trademark lawsuit, the name was changed to Mina.

In January 2021, before the launch, the network launched bug bounty program. Its goal was to reduce network vulnerabilities before the release of Mainnet. All participants were entitled to rewards, which at that time amounted to 1% of the total Mina.

Mina mainnet officially launched in March 2021. Around this time, the price of MINA was approximately $4. During its first year on the market, the asset was volatile and experienced frequent fluctuations. Its peak during the first year since its launch was recorded in June 2021, when the asset price almost reached $10.

What are the features of Mina?

The Mina token was launched with a supply of 1 billion. However, there is no maximum supply limit for an asset, and can be produced continuously. The token is inflationary; however, to help correct the price of Mina, the first 1 billion tokens will be gradually unlocked over 8 years.

Mina stands out for her compact network side. The platform was programmed to support a 22 KB blockchain size regardless of recorded transactions. This is dwarfed by Bitcoin, which topped 400 GB in size in 2022 and is growing by about a gigabyte every few days.

Mine short blockchain, which means it always keeps the same size. Like other blockchains of this type, it is used to perform two key functions: check and update blockchain data. The native MINA token is used for transactional purposes.

Due to its architecture, Mina’s developers have taken extra precautions to avoid network exploitation and security breaches. Thus, there are three types of network participants – verifiers, snarers and block producers. All Mina users inspectors by default if their devices are capable of processing lightweight blockchain.

All data on the Mina blockchain is authenticated using zk-SNARK (Non-interactive zero-knowledge arguments). In this way, the authenticity of transaction information is verified without disclosing it. Instead of dealing with the entire history of the blockchain, sarcastic process only the compressed proof of the last few blocks.

Block manufacturers are users who bet their assets to support the network. These users take transaction data and combine it into blocks. They also work with SNARK to compress blockchain data. Producers can receive MINA coins as a reward and incentive to continue contributing to the chain.

On Mina there is a direct connection between block producers and snarkers. Block producers are paid transaction fees for creating new blocks. They then pay the snarkers using a transaction fee at a predetermined price in Mina to obtain reliable data. Block producers typically prioritize transactions with the lowest SNARK prices.

Snarkers process the transaction data and create a lightweight zk-SNARK, which the block producer must then download and use in a new block. In this way, block producers receive rewards from the network while incentivizing attackers in return.

For its network, Mina hires Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm known as Ouroboros Samasika. This algorithm was designed with short-lived blockchains such as Mina in mind. This allows network nodes to verify data directly from the generation unit, thereby streamlining operations and saving space and energy.

The transaction process on Mina includes steps that unique to short networks. First, users must initiate transactions at the MINA price of their choice. Once it is initiated, it enters mempool with other unconfirmed valid transactions. The snarkers then create evidence of transactions called SNARKS.

Once enough SNARKS have been created from multiple transactions, block producers combine them into a new block. The selection of transactions is not automatic, and the block producer has the right to choose their priority. This means that deals with the most favorable Min price for the manufacturer usually have priority.

A new block with verified SNARKS is added to the blockchain and the network is updated with accurate data. The pinned transactions are then removed from the chain, keeping the network size at 22 KB. Finally, the zk-SNARKS network is completely updated to ensure that all validators have access to the same data.

Being a lightweight network, Mina offers fast transactions with low fees. This is achieved through parallel scan state. This is a method of combining unverified blocks into groups and transferring the verification process to parallel reviewers.

Mina is also known for platform compatible with smartphone. The average transaction on Mina lasts about 200 milliseconds, and the state confirmation size is less than a kilobyte. This energy efficiency means that mobile devices can also process transactions and act as network nodes.