Mina

Mina Protocol has three main participant roles: Verifiers: These are Mina users whose devices can handle the 22 KB blockchain size and perform the necessary processing to verify the consensus information using zk-SNARKs. Block Producers: These are the stakers or miners who earn block rewards and transaction fees for bundling transactions into blocks. They are responsible for ensuring that the number of transactions they include in a block is matched by an equivalent number of zk-SNARKs (either self-produced or acquired from snarkers). Snarkers: These are specialized participants who produce the zk-SNARKs used to verify transactions. Block producers pay fees to snarkers to use their zk-SNARKs, creating a competitive market where snarkers bid to provide the lowest-cost proofs.

The key innovation behind Mina is its use of Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge (zk-SNARKs), a cryptographic proof system that enables users to verify the platform's state from the genesis block without revealing the entire transaction history. This approach addresses the challenge of impracticality in large blockchain networks, where tracing the platform back to its genesis block can be infeasible.

The transaction process on Mina Protocol is as follows: A user initiates a transaction, which is then added to the mempool (a pool of valid but unconfirmed transactions). Snarkers generate zk-SNARKs for the transactions in the mempool. A block producer is selected to bundle the transactions into a new block. The block producer chooses the lowest-cost zk-SNARKs from the snarker bids to include in the block. The block producer adds the block to the blockchain, and the transactions are considered confirmed. This process allows Mina to maintain a constant blockchain size and enable efficient verification, even as the network grows in usage and transaction volume.