Mina Protocol: The world's "lightest" Layer 1 public blockchain

Blockchain technology, as an innovative distributed ledger technology, demonstrates tremendous potential in various fields such as finance, social networking, the Internet of Things, identity verification, and digital copyright. However, with the increase in usage, blockchain faces severe scalability challenges.

Currently, the Bitcoin blockchain has exceeded 400 GB, while the Ethereum blockchain has surpassed 600 GB. This means that ordinary users find it difficult to participate directly in the blockchain network and have to rely on centralized service providers, which not only undermines the decentralized spirit of blockchain but also reduces its security and reliability.

To address this issue, some projects have adopted a layered architecture, but this approach also increases system complexity and reduces data integrity and interoperability. In this context, Mina Protocol emerged, aiming to provide an efficient, lightweight, and scalable blockchain solution.

Mina Protocol is a "succinct" blockchain based on zero-knowledge proof technology, dedicated to providing efficient, secure, and privacy-preserving decentralized applications. Its biggest feature is that through recursive zero-knowledge proofs, it keeps the blockchain size consistently around 22 KB, regardless of how many transactions or users are in the network. This allows ordinary smartphones to synchronize and validate the Mina network, greatly enhancing the ease of node deployment and the decentralization of the network.

Mina uses the Ouroboros Samasika proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, which allows an unlimited number of validators to participate, and nodes can dynamically join and leave. This not only enhances the security of the network but also lowers the threshold for running nodes.

In addition to achieving the simplicity of blockchain, Mina Protocol also offers an innovative decentralized application development platform called zkApps. Based on zero-knowledge proofs, zkApps can realize functions such as data privacy protection, cross-chain interoperability, and real-time network connectivity.

The development team of Mina Protocol, O(1) Labs, was founded by Evan Shapiro and Izaak Meckler in 2017. The team consists of world-class cryptographers, engineers, PhDs, and entrepreneurs. Since its establishment, Mina Protocol has completed four rounds of funding, raising a total of approximately $48.15 million, and has received support from well-known investment institutions including Coinbase Ventures and Polychain Capital.

Currently, the block height of Mina Protocol has reached 294908, with 178 super nodes, a circulating token supply of 981,582,723, a total of 221,479 transactions, and an average transaction fee of $0.014.

As an innovative blockchain project, Mina Protocol demonstrates unique advantages in efficiency, security, privacy protection, and interoperability, promising to bring new breakthroughs to the development of blockchain technology.