Mina Protocol Token

What is Mina (MINA)?

Mina is a blockchain that bills itself as the world’s lightest blockchain, powered by its participants.

One of the main goals of the Mina Protocol is to create an efficient distributed payment system that can scale while retaining a large number of validators. It does this with its model of a “succinct blockchain” that relies less on computation and more on innovation. Thanks to this, it keeps its blockchain at an astonishingly small 22 kilobytes in size.

The Mina protocol delivers decentralization, scale, and security in a compact layer one package. It achieves this by using advanced cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs, also known as zk-SNARKs.

Mina's vision is to create the infrastructure for a secure, democratic future. Its zkApps ensure that users stay in control of their own data and privacy by sharing proofs of data rather than the data itself.

When Was Mina Launched?

The Mina mainnet launched in 2021, after four years of development by the company behind it.

In April 2021, Mina sold 7.5% of its initial distribution through Coinlist to non-US investors following the launch of the mainnet in March. This token sale raised $18.75 million for the project.

Who are the Founders of Mina?

Mina was founded by O(1) Labs, a San Francisco-based partnership registered in Delaware.

O(1) Labs has raised funding from a total of 46 institutional backers, each of whom receives a pro-rata share of MINA tokens. However, in the interest of decentralization, O(1) Labs picked its backers so that no single one holds more than 3.3% of the initial distribution.

In total, O(1) labs sold over 205 million MINA tokens, raising $29.4 million. Its last strategic funding round in 2020 saw investors pay an implied price of $0.25 per MINA token. The company’s initial seed funding round in 2017 saw MINA’s implied price sit at $0.07.

O(1) Labs was founded by Evan Shapiro and Izaak Meckler in 2017.

How Does Mina Work?

At its heart, Mina is a distributed system like Bitcoin. Still, its design is predicated on the assumption that Bitcoin and other major blockchain networks are becoming more centralized as they grow.

In the case of proof-of-work blockchains, network nodes have to confirm the entire history of the chain before new transactions are processed. This results in an increasing data burden, more processing power to handle transactions, and specialized hardware. This hardware becomes a barrier to entry for smaller or newer node operators.

This is where zk-SNARKs come into the picture. They are snapshots of metadata, which can prove the data’s validity without viewing the entire blockchain’s history.

The Mina protocol considers these snapshots valid as long as the blockchain itself is valid. With this property, new snapshots can be made off of existing snapshots, allowing a long chain history to be effectively stored in a small file size.

Mina computes SNARKs incrementally, and each one only goes back a few blocks. Therefore, end users do not check the entire transaction history. Instead, they check just that particular zk-SNARK compressed proof.

What Makes Mina Unique?

The use of zk-SNARKs makes the Mina protocol unique in several ways. One of the biggest distinctions is size, wherein the Mina blockchain is consistently kept at 22KB.

This is extremely significant since blockchains like Bitcoin have run up well over 300GB. As the blockchain size increases, so do the hardware requirements for nodes. As a result, Mina can keep this barrier to a minimum.

Zk-SNARK technology also gives Mina a significant advantage in terms of privacy. Since the network relies on proofs of data rather than the data itself, dApps deployed on Mina cannot access user data.

How does the Mina Protocol Function?

Mina employs a modified Ouroboros proof-of-stake consensus mechanism called Samasika, which was specially designed for succinct networks.

On Mina, all participants act as full nodes, and anyone can take part in consensus, secure the blockchain, and hold Mina accountable.

Along with the usage of a parallel scan state to optimize processing speed, Mina categorizes participants into three major roles that handle specific functions on the network:

• Verifiers. These nodes interact with zk-SNARKs that deal with certifying consensus. Every Mina user is considered a verifier.
• Block Producers. These nodes behave similarly to stakers or miners, earning block rewards and a share of transaction fees. Mina users can delegate their MINA tokens to these block producers.
• Snarkers. Also called “provers,” these nodes produce the zk-SNARKs that are used in verification. Block producers pay snarkers a share of transaction fees when the produced zk-SNARK is used in their block. Snarkers compete with each other by posting bids, allowing block producers to maximize profit by selecting the snarker with the lowest bid.

Once a user initiates a transaction, it goes into a group of unconfirmed transactions called the mempool. Block producers sift through the mempool for profitable transactions, while snarkers create their SNARK proofs.

Once a block producer is selected, it chooses a SNARK by scanning the available bids and picking the one with the lowest price. The block producer then incorporates the SNARK into their block, adds it to the chain, and updates the network.

Snarked transactions are removed from the chain, keeping its size constant. Finally, the block producer upgrades the protocol’s zk-SNARKS, making the new block immutably part of the chain.

What is the Use of MINA?

The MINA token is the native token of the Mina Protocol and is mainly used to execute network transactions.

MINA can be used as a medium of exchange on the network. It can also be staked to secure the network while also earning stakers a share of the token’s inflation.

MINA is the payment medium used within the network, incentivizing block producers to create blocks and rewarding snarkers that prove validity.

MINA tokens are also used to interact with “Snapps” or “zkApps,” which is what decentralized applications on the Mina network are often called.

Who Controls Mina?

Mina is a community-controlled blockchain project under the stewardship of the Mina Foundation. The Mina Foundation proposed Mina’s genesis block and coordinated the initiation of block producers on the network.

The Mina Foundation’s mission is to maintain Mina as a vibrant, decentralized network and currency powered by participants. It supports initiatives to decentralize and improve the protocol via grants and open-source projects.

How Much Is MINA In Circulation?

MINA is an inflationary cryptocurrency without a defined maximum supply. However, all tokenholders can stake or delegate MINA to receive a proportion of the inflation without any lockup or bonding. There are currently over 690 million MINA tokens in circulation.

The MINA inflation target is set at 12% for its first two years, before reducing in 1% increments every 6 months. From month 48 onwards, MINA inflation will stay steady at 7%. However, community-proposed hard forks could see these targets changed in the future.

Up to 1 billion MINA tokens were distributed at genesis, although these tokens remain out of circulation with an 8-year release schedule.

The Mina community was allocated over 42% of this initial distribution, with core contributors given over 23% and backers given 20.5%. O(1) Labs was endowed with 7.5% of the supply, and the Mina Foundation received 6%.

How Do You Buy MINA?

MINA is available on several top-tier exchange platforms and is commonly traded against stablecoins like USDT or BUSD. You can also trade MINA for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or fiat currencies like USD, EUR, or GBP.

Is It Possible to Buy Mina Instantly?

Buying MINA or any cryptocurrency on a cryptocurrency exchange is instant. However, you may experience delays when withdrawing your MINA to your wallet.

Many exchanges have to complete KYC or AML measures before releasing transactions, and these can take a while. Once they’re complete and the exchange gives your withdrawal the green light, transaction speed will depend on blockchain congestion, if any.

How Do You Store MINA?

As mentioned, you can buy MINA on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, where you can also keep them. However, if you prefer to take custody of your tokens, you can store them in your wallet.

A private wallet will allow you to help decentralize the Mina protocol by staking or delegating MINA yourself rather than letting an exchange do it for you. As long as you keep your wallet keys safe, you aren’t dependent on a third-party custodian.

After all, while most exchanges keep your coins safe (or safu!), there have been plenty of instances in cryptocurrency where centralized custodians have failed. The Mt. Gox hack is a notable and often-quoted example, but platforms like Celsius and Voyager have also recently had a lot of trouble.

Clorio and Auro are two of the most popular wallets in the Mina ecosystem.

Mina Energy Consumption

The Mina protocol uses proof-of-stake consensus, which makes it an energy-efficient network. It’s also an extremely size-efficient blockchain, which ensures that hardware requirements are kept to a minimum when it comes to running a node.

Is MINA a Good Investment?

Mina is an exciting project for many, given that it tackles scalability in an exciting new way. Reducing blockchain size is a novel approach to keeping things manageable and enhancing decentralization by allowing anyone to run a node.

Zk-SNARKs enable this compactness but also enhance privacy by ensuring that user data is kept hidden. This is also in line with many users’ expectations for a cryptocurrency, keeping Mina in line with some of the original founding principles of Bitcoin.

However, from an economic perspective, MINA is inflationary. This lack of maximum supply is seen as negative by some, but the inflation of the token is controlled and decided by the community.

Furthermore, this inflation is an incentive for holders to stake MINA, both securing the network and allowing holders to claim their share of newly created MINA tokens.