MinaCon 2024 in Istanbul was an inspiring and productive experience for o1Labs and the Mina community. Set up as an “unConference” in the truest sense, it provided a collaborative and flexible environment for attendees to shape the agenda together. Over the three days, developers, community builders, and ecosystem partners convened in an intimate format, diving into speed runs, hands-on demos, and group discussions to collectively advance Mina Protocol’s development.
This unique approach to a conference emphasized open participation, where critical connections and conversations unfolded organically without panels, talks, or slides. Instead, each participant contributed to discussions that reflected their projects and goals, sparking powerful ideas and aligning on Mina’s future. We’re immensely grateful to have been part of this experience and to have received invaluable insights and feedback from community members and partners.
In this recap, we’ll share the key takeaways from our conversations and the next steps we plan to take in response to the community’s needs. From enhancing documentation to creating more transparent communication channels, MinaCon provided both guidance and inspiration for our development priorities.
Enhancing Community Interactions
Feedback
A key takeaway from MinaCon was the community's strong desire for more accessible communication with o1Labs engineers. Developers across various projects, including Viable Systems, which is working on implementations like Open Mina (a Rust-based version of the Mina node), emphasized the importance of regular check-ins, code reviews, and deeper technical insights to better support their efforts.
Next Steps
To address this, we proposed a dedicated protocol-development communication channel on the Mina Discord, to facilitate check-ins and code reviews for core contributors like Viable Systems or anyone else contributing to the protocol or onlookers. This has since been set up and is a public channel that you can join! This workspace will ensure our community has support and visibility, and their valuable insights can be incorporated into Mina’s development in real-time. Furthermore, the o1Labs team is committed to being more present in the Discord server, so join us as we work together to advance the Mina Protocol.
zkApps & o1js documentation
Feedback
During the unConference, o1js was a significant point of interest to the community of zkApp builders in attendance. We specifically heard about the need for clearer documentation, particularly around the Provable class in o1js. This class provides various utilities, including methods that enable developers to benchmark constraints in provable code and optimize circuit efficiency with a “compute, then constrain” approach. The lack of detailed explanations has led to gaps in understanding, particularly for advanced zkApp developers.
Next Steps
In response, we plan to expand the zkApps documentation to provide comprehensive explanations of the Provable.constraintSystem and Provable.witness APIs. Our Exploration team is currently working to integrate these improvements into the main documentation, and we plan to streamline navigation within the broader Mina docs, ensuring developers can quickly locate the information they need. By improving the documentation experience, we hope to empower developers to unlock the full potential of zkApps on Mina.
Folding, folding, folding
Feedback
The folding technique was another popular topic, and community interest is clear on two fronts: optimizing protocol performance and enabling zkApp development with Rust. Folding not only holds the potential to enhance proof generation and throughput but also provides a foundation for faster proof times, which are critical to scaling Mina’s SNARK pool.
Next Steps
Our engineering team will continue prioritizing folding initiatives, focussed on reducing proof times to improve transaction throughput and node performance and making Mina’s SNARK pool more efficient. Additionally, by incorporating Arrabbiata’s folding techniques, we aim to support zkApp developers in Rust, making it easier to construct zkApps with multiple circuits and bringing advanced functionality into the Mina ecosystem. Arrabbiata is o1Labs’ generic recursive zero knowledge argument based on folding schemes (initially defined in Nova) over the pasta curves, and using the IPA polynomial commitment, supporting arbitrary custom gates, lookup, and permutation arguments. We’ll share more on this in the coming weeks, and you can follow our progress in our Arrabiata GitHub repo in the meantime!
Building bridges and advancing cross-chain interoperability
Feedback
Bridges represent a significant opportunity for Mina to connect with other ecosystems, enabling interoperable use cases that will be required for Mina to flourish. Consistent feedback from the community was a desire to run arbitrary Rust programs in VMs. Specifically Ethereum light clients like Helios. Supporting these types of programs within the Mina ecosystem will enable computation-based interoperability across chains, making it easier for developers to create verifiable bridging logic. This functionality will be particularly relevant for decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and aggregators, where bridging is essential to maintaining liquidity and cross-chain asset flow.
Next Steps
o1VM is a framework for building VMs. While we’re still working on finishing the MIPS edition, the modular way we’ve constructed o1VM allows us to easily swap out parts and support RISC-V. Take a look at the early work our team has started. One of the core goals is to unlock two-way state bridges between Mina and other ecosystems. Furthermore, Aligned was also at MinaCon, and they announced that support for their Mina->Ethereum state bridge should be ready on mainnet in December!
Rust clients and web nodes
Feedback
The demand for a Rust client and web nodes was high, with ecosystem members expressing excitement about the possibility of running a Mina node on mobile devices. A Rust node will enable a future where more people can contribute to protocol improvements. A clear-cut roadmap and targeted release timeline spearheaded by the Open Mina team will be essential to making this a reality and giving developers confidence in Mina’s future.
Next Steps
By working with interested developers, we will accelerate Mina’s progress toward a Rust client and explore web node possibilities. Not only will this diversify the network, but it will also increase accessibility, making it easier for users to interact with Mina from a wider range of devices.
Potential Certification Program for zkApp Developers
Phil Halsall from the Mina Foundation shared a proposal for a certification program to give developers a benchmark for zkApp proficiency, opening doors to more contributions and collaborations. This initiative would validate developers’ ability to create zkApps, giving them the credentials needed to contribute effectively to the Mina ecosystem.
Next Steps
While still in the exploratory stage, this certification idea holds promise for developer growth within the Mina ecosystem. We will continue to provide input and share zkApp examples, like the Mastermind zkApp, which can be used for the program’s curriculum.
In Conclusion
MinaCon 2024 was a powerful reminder of the passion and innovation that drive our ecosystem. Our team returned inspired by the passion of the Mina community and equipped with new ideas to enhance our ecosystem and increase community support. We are excited to use the insights we gained to shape our next steps as we continue to build on Mina.
We invite everyone in the community to join us on this journey, share feedback, and continue participating in these discussions. Together, we’re shaping the internet of tomorrow—one that’s decentralized, verifiable, and accessible to all.
