Mina aims to transform the current blockchain landscape, in which most platforms need third-party verifiers like miners/stakers and light clients to verify transactions.
Mina provides a new method by involving a number of players, each of whom is responsible for a certain role on the decentralized network.
Verifiers, block producers, and snarkers are the three major roles.
Verifiers work with zk-SNARKS, which are responsible for confirming the consensus data. Each Mina protocol user is deemed a verifier if their equipment can manage a 22 KB chain and can process it in a few milliseconds.
Mina Block Producers
Block producers, also known as stakers or miners, are compensated with block rewards and transaction fees. Surprisingly, the protocol does not reduce block producer incentives. Mina users can delegate their coins to this group of members.
Aside from bundling transactions into blocks, block producers must additionally SNARK an equivalent number of previously committed deals during block generation, as failing to do so will result in incomplete blocks and other nodes rejecting their validity.
A block producer must also SNARK deals from the front of the queue if they wish to include 10 transactions on the chain. They do, however, have the option of producing the S.
Mina Snarkers
Snarkers, also known as provers, create zk-SNARKs, which are utilized in transaction verification.
Snarkers are paid from the overall transaction fees that block producers earn for building new blocks. They must, however, submit bids in order to be eligible for the fees. It’s worth noting that a snarker’s zk-SNARK must be utilized in a block, and the block producer who uses it is in charge of motivating the snarker.
As a result, a business economy emerges in which multiple snarkers can place bids on the same transaction. Block producers, on the other hand, are only interested in making money, thus they will select the offer with the lowest fees. As a result, snarkers are pushed to come up with low-cost SNARKS.
Let’s take a deeper look at how a transaction progresses before it becomes a permanent record on the Mina blockchain.
The procedure begins with a user initiating a trade, which is then sent to the mempool, a pool of valid but unconfirmed trades.
Snarkers then take control by creating proofs, or SNARKS. The next step is to choose a block producer (BP) who will bundle transactions into a block. It’s worth noting that a BP searches the mempool for profitable transactions.
The BP then selects a SNARK based on the consensus mechanism’s rules.A block manufacturer looks through the bids for the SNARK with the lowest price. In addition, the SNARKS order book for newly added transactions has been updated.
The SNARKS must then be included into a block, which must then be added to the chain and the network updated. To keep the protocol’s size consistent, snarked transactions are removed from the chain.
The protocol’s zk-SNARKS are then upgraded by the block producer.
Finally, the new block is permanently added to the chain.
Epilogue
The usage of zk-SNARKS allows the state of the Mina protocol to be verified without disclosing the contents of the blockchain, resulting in a censorship-resistant platform.
Furthermore, zk-SNARKS play an important role in keeping a network with a consistent size, which allows for scalability, security, and decentralization.
The inclusion of several important participants, such as snarkers, block producers, and verifiers, aids in the smooth operation of various protocol functions.