The Crypto Online

• Mina protocol is the lightest blockchain, with a network size of only 22 KB.
• It uses zk-SNARKs to maintain privacy, security, scalability, and decentralization.
• The participants in the Mini Protocol are verifiers, block producers, and snarkers.

The Mina protocol involves the functioning of the lightest blockchain compared to any other blockchain-based cryptocurrency. It is for the efficient running of decentralized apps because of the scalability factor. Further, it uses the zk-SNARKs cryptographic method, which adds more benefits to the protocol for conserving private and sensitive information from different industries and sectors on the public ledger. 

What is the Mina Protocol?

Mina is the lightest blockchain (succinct blockchain) that is built to curtail computational requirements for running dApps efficiently. It remains balanced in terms of decentralization and security. It was initially named Coda Protocol, which changed to Mina in October 2020. The network size of Mina is around 22 KB, which is negligible compared to Bitcoin’s 300 GB blockchain. 

The Mina protocol uses zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge). zk-SNARK is a cryptographic method or technique that allows users to conduct private transactions on a public ledger database. In this, the prover proves the validity of a statement to the verifier without disclosing specific details of transactions. It is incorporated into a groundbreaking platform called Aleo. 

Succinate blockchains have two major functions; verifying and updating. Verification deals with consensus, blockchain summary, and blocks, while the update function interacts with consensus and chain summary. The three major roles of the Mina protocol include verifiers (who deal with consensus information), block producers (miners that earn block rewards), and snarkers (who produce zk-SNARKs for verifying transactions).  

Why is the Mina Protocol Beneficial?

Since it uses the zk-SNARKs cryptographic method or technique, the benefits include data privacy, privacy-preserving transactions, efficiency and scalability. 

1. Data Privacy

These can be applied to protect other forms of data as well, apart from financial transactions on the blockchain. Sensitive information, such as confidential business data, medical records, etc., can be protected and securely stored. The data or information is verified in the form of mathematical proof and confirms the exact password without actually revealing it. 

2. Privacy-Preserving Transactions

It enables private transactions on a public ledger (Blockchain). Users can obscure the recipient, sender, and transaction amount while conducting transactions on Aleo. The applications of zk-SNARKs go beyond financial privacy; they have reached other industries as well, such as healthcare, governance, supply chain management, etc. 

3. Efficient and Scalable

These are relatively small in size and the verification process is fast, which consumes minimal computational resources. It also increases the speed of transactions per second. 

Conclusion

zk-SNARKs allows the verification of the Mina protocol without exposing the content of blockchains. It maintains the constant size of the network, which further allows decentralization, scalability, and security. The protocol functions get streamlined because of the presence of various participants such as verifiers, snarkers, and block producers. The size factor of Mini makes it more beneficial and efficient than other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.