MINA Protocol — The world’s lightest blockchain, powered by participants

5 min readMar 9, 2021

By design, the entire Mina blockchain is and will always be about 22kb — the size of a couple of tweets. So anyone with a smartphone will be able to sync and verify the network in seconds.

The Mina protocol (former Coda protocol) will be supported by 9 different staking providers due to our research updated in February 2021. Find more details in our blog article. We are updating our research on a frequent basis. The company behind Mina protocol is 01Labs.

What is Mina Protocol?

Mina Protocol is a next-generation proof-of-stake (POS) blockchain that stores transactions in succinct form. The Mina blockchain is only 22KB in size. It is noteworthy that the size of the blockchain is immutable no matter how long it is used. Mina Protocol provides fast synchronization of nodes supported by famous delegators and staking providers, like Chorus One.
Mina operates on succinct proofs of state or SNARK-based compressed proofs of state. With that approach, it is possible to achieve such compression. This combination is very innovative.

What Makes Mina Unique:

Unlike first-generation blockchains, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, with heavy chains, Mina uses a chain that is, and always will be, 22 kb so participants can sync the entire chain in seconds.
Mina is also the first production system to implement a recursive zk-SNARK with no trusted setup, an achievement that has advanced the entire blockchain ecosystem.
The deployment of this mathematical proof is what allows Mina to scale while retaining the highest levels of resiliency, privacy, and security while not compromising decentralization.

These 5 characteristics describe the vision of the Mina protocol pretty well:

Easily Accessible, Now & Always

Other protocols are so heavy they require intermediaries to run nodes, recreating the same old power dynamics. But Mina is light, so anyone can connect peer-to-peer and sync and verify the chain in seconds. Built on a consistent-sized cryptographic proof, the blockchain will stay accessible — even as it scales to millions of users.

2. Truly Decentralized, with Full Nodes like Never Before

With Mina, anyone who’s syncing the chain is also validating transactions like a full node. Mina’s design means any participant can take part in proof-of-stake consensus, have access to strong censorship resistance and secure the blockchain.

3. Light Chain, High Speed

Other protocols are weighed down by terabytes of private user data and network congestion. But on Mina’s 22kb chain, apps execute as fast as your bandwidth can carry them — paving the way for a seamless end-user experience and mainstream adoption.

4. Private & Powerful Apps, Thanks to Snapps

Mina enables an entirely new category of applications — Snapps. These SNARK-powered decentralized apps are optimized for efficiency, privacy and scalability. Logic and data are computed off-chain, then verified on-chain by the end user’s device. And information is validated without disclosing specifics, so people stay in control of their personal data.

5. Programmable Money, For All

Mina’s peer-to-peer permissionless network empowers participants to build and interact with tokens directly — without going through a centralized wallet, exchange or intermediary. And payments can be made in Mina’s native asset, stablecoin or in user-generated programmable tokens — opening a real-world of possibilities.

Relevant links for the Mina protocol:

Here you will find a few of the block producers:

Here you will find an overview of the investors behind 01Labs:

Here you will find an extract of the Mina protocol advisers:

MINA Token Distribution

The Mina Protocol economy is designed so that block validators use their MINA tokens to buy proof of snarks on the marketplace. This ensures that new work appears as fast as it gets done.

Most cryptocurrencies and tokens have limited emission, and all coins are generated either in advance or during the process of mining, staking or minting. MINA tokens operate on the principle of inflation, not deflation, and have unlimited emission.

During the launch of the mainnet, 1 billion MINA tokens will be distributed, but they will be fully unlocked only after 8 years. Although the emission is unlimited, the token inflation rate will decline annually from 12% until it reaches 7%.

The image shows the planned distribution of Mina tokens for the first 8 years.

The sale of tokens for the Mina Protocol community will start on April 13, 2021. Find more information at Coinlist.

Latest updates:

As always, do your own research and due diligence before you use any crypto service provider, blockchain solution, exchange or other networks & protocols — This is no financial advice!