Mina Protocol (MINA)USD

Mina Protocol is a layer-1 blockchain designed to stay at a constant size of around 22 kilobytes. It uses recursive zero-knowledge proofs, specifically zk-SNARKs, to compress the entire chain into a single small proof. This means any device can verify the blockchain from genesis without downloading its full history, which makes lightweight decentralized applications possible. The project was created by O(1) Labs, founded by computer scientists Evan Shapiro and Izaak Meckler. It was established in 2017 under the original name Coda Protocol and rebranded to Mina in late 2020. The mainnet launched in March 2021, when the on-chain economy and token distribution went live. Mina uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism called Ouroboros Samasika, which is adapted for succinct blockchains and supports full verification using recursive zk-SNARKs. The native token, MINA, is used to pay transaction fees, stake and participate in block production, compensate SNARK workers through a marketplace called the Snarketplace, and take part in governance. MINA has no fixed maximum supply. The initial distribution at mainnet launch was approximately 805 million tokens, and ongoing proof-of-stake rewards have pushed the circulating supply to roughly 1.2 to 1.3 billion MINA in recent figures. Mina Protocol is primarily positioned as a base layer for privacy-preserving, verifiable applications that can run on resource-constrained devices.