Mina: Decentralized Cryptocurrency at Scale

Joseph Bonneau; Izaak Meckler; Vanishree Rao; Evan Shapiro

Paper 2020/352

Mina: Decentralized Cryptocurrency at Scale

Joseph Bonneau

Izaak Meckler

Vanishree Rao

Evan Shapiro

Abstract

We introduce the notion of a succinct blockchain, a replicated state machine in which each state transition (block) can be efficiently verified in constant time regardless of the number of prior transitions in the system. Traditional blockchains require verification time linear in the number of transitions. We show how to construct a succinct blockchain using recursively composed succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (SNARKs). Finally, we instantiate this construction to implement Coda (now known as Mina), a payment system (cryptocurrency) using a succinct blockchain. Coda offers payment functionality similar to Bitcoin, with a dramatically faster verification time of 200ms making it practical for lightweight clients and mobile devices to perform full verification of the system’s history.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Cryptographic protocols
Publication info: Preprint.
Keywords: Blockchain Succinct Blockchain Consensus SNARKs Zero-knowledge Proofs Adaptive Security
Contact author(s): jbonneau @ gmail com
izaak @ o1labs org
hrao vanishree @ gmail com
evan @ o1labs org
History: 2026-01-05: revised; 2020-03-26: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2020/352
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2020/352,
      author = {Joseph Bonneau and Izaak Meckler and Vanishree Rao and Evan Shapiro},
      title = {Mina: Decentralized Cryptocurrency at Scale},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2020/352},
      year = {2020},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/352}
}