A SNARKy Examination of Mina Protocol — the World’s “Lightest” Blockchain

Mina Protocol aims to solve a list of problems that have plagued the cryptocurrency industry since the beginning. Their end game is to create a “privacy-preserving gateway between the real world and crypto.”

Data security, network congestion, transaction costs, ease of use, and ease of integration into traditional services have all played a role in limiting progress in cryptocurrencies and fintech in general. But is Mina Protocol up to the task of solving them all?

First, let’s take a 20,000-foot overview of how the protocol works.

Disclaimer: This article is not a promotional piece or an attack on Mina Protocol or the technology behind it. I’m merely a non-math-savvy nerd poking around the fringes to understand better what makes this ship seaworthy. The writer of this article has no stake in Mina Protocol at this time.

👉 Revision Notes (Friday, June 25, 2021) — Published via Notion 👈

Table of Contents

• A Tl;Dr Of Mina Protocol’s Value Proposition
• Summary
• The Magic Sauce: Zero-Knowledge Proofs
• A Key Benefit — More Access For Builders
• About that constant blockchain size