The internet as we know it owes its existence to the interplay between infrastructure and cryptography. The early internet's limitations led to the development of security cryptography that ensured secure communication and privacy (HTTPS). This resulted in advancements such as online payments and banking. Programmable cryptography – cryptography flexible enough for general-purpose computation – will enable a new wave of innovation. Much like how we program computers to perform specific tasks, it can be used to ensure security, privacy, and integrity in deeper and more flexible ways, wherever it’s needed (HTTPZ).
At o1Labs, we're focused on building this programmable cryptography, particularly zero knowledge proofs (ZKPs). ZKPs offer a unique combination of features: they provide privacy by default, operate in truly trusted execution environments, have small certificates, and are self-composable. These properties enable new kinds of applications that are hard to imagine. Here’s one though – proof of non-AI generated content!
Today's digital landscape is plagued by issues of data ownership, surveillance capitalism, and the erosion of trust. As our lives become increasingly intertwined with technology, we're exposed to an unprecedented level of digital manipulation. AI-generated content, disinformation campaigns, and online harassment are just a few examples of the challenges that threaten the integrity of our online interactions.
In this context, programmable cryptography offers a powerful toolset for restoring trust and safeguarding user privacy. By leveraging ZKPs, developers can create applications that ensure data authenticity, detect manipulation attempts in real time, and protect users from unwanted tracking.
There’s lots of talk today of a new, just-in-time internet powered by programmable cryptography where different users can interact with each other all running code locally using different forms of proofs. This enables efficiency, privacy, compression, cost savings, and more. (Read more on this concept in this recent article by 0xparc.)
This internet still requires a core piece of infrastructure to be really effective: a decentralized, censorship-resistant protocol for accessing and building upon these proofs. We still have some work to do, but Mina Protocol is the way to get there. Mina is on track to be the purest form of such an internet. You can safely access it from the web in a full-node capacity. This decentralized, censorship-resistant platform also comes with the most intuitive and advanced SDK for manipulating programmable cryptography with ZK at its core. In addition to the zkVM work we’re doing native to Mina, called o1vm, we’ve also been working with Geometry Labs on a Celestia integration and have completed a working adapter for Groth16 proofs, including SP1 and RiscZero’s zkVMs. We’ll share more soon! And proofs from verification layers like AlignedLayer can be recombined back into Mina - it’s recursion all the way down.
We envision an internet that’s more transparent, secure, and just, where developers use programmable cryptography to create more powerful applications. And that internet needs Mina.
The Journey So Far
At o1 Labs, we've incubated and continue to be a major contributor towards Mina Protocol: a revolutionary cryptocurrency protocol underpinned by a single, continuously updating zero knowledge proof. We're proud to have pioneered the first use of recursive ZK proofs in production and remain one of the pioneering ZK crypto projects.
In our early days, I used to spend the first 5 minutes of every talk explaining what a zero knowledge proof was – a testament to how far we've come! To bring Mina Protocol to life, we had to write massive ZK circuits that encoded an entire proof-of-stake consensus protocol and all transaction logic. This required us to invent one of the earliest programming languages for ZK circuits, Snarky, which now lives on as o1js.
We shipped mainnet, and it’s stable. No unplanned outages so far since mainnet years ago! Then we started on the programmability layer. Our SDK. Protocol changes. We shipped our newest upgrade just a few weeks ago.
Laying the Foundations for Innovation
We have a decentralized platform with the foundations of a better internet – an internet built using programmable cryptography. The next step is to make it more connected. And simpler. We want to help people ship applications. We need to talk to users, developers, node operators. Make that internet faster. Redesign the SDK. Build the internet that you deserve.
Now that the big Berkeley Upgrade is out, we need to accelerate our pace and ship the most impactful changes incrementally, as often as possible. We need to change the way we work.
Accelerating Forward with Community-Centric Engineering
That means changing our company structure. I'm excited to announce a massive realignment of how engineers work on our team.
We identified layers of indirection and the difficulty of acquiring decision-making context as our biggest blockers, resulting in delays and disconnect from the community. So we set ourselves the goal of optimizing the delivery of real value to the community in full, as directly and quickly as possible. We approached this by removing those indirections and empowering engineers to make meaningful decisions.
Handing work over between specialized teams was especially costly and error-prone. So we reworked the teams and gave our engineers exposure to everything from deep crypto codebases to the user-facing SDK. They can now deliver complex, interconnected features with no handovers. And they’re learning a lot.
The engineers building the platform are deeply connected to the needs of developers, node operators, and the wider community. Together with ongoing feedback and collaboration from all stakeholders, our teams are empowered to prioritize and shape the work that delivers the most value. With direct input from the community, we’re able to quickly adapt to changing needs and ensure that everyone’s voice plays a role in the decisions that shape the future of the platform.
We believe that our teams can deliver extraordinary results by following this approach – maintaining tight feedback loops with the community and making real decisions that they’re fully empowered to execute.
The Journey Ahead: Unlocking the True Potential of Mina
I'm filled with an overwhelming sense of excitement and anticipation. We've made tremendous progress in bringing this programmable cryptography-powered internet to life, but we're only just scratching the surface of its potential.
The Mina Protocol is more than just a cryptocurrency platform – it's the foundation upon which we'll build an internet that's truly decentralized, transparent, and secure. It's the key to unlocking new applications, new innovations, and new possibilities for developers and users alike.
As we accelerate our development pace and adopt a more community-centric approach, I'm confident that we'll see rapid progress towards making Mina the purest form of this decentralized and verifiable internet. We'll push the boundaries of what's possible with programmable cryptography, and we'll empower our community to build applications that will change the world.
We envision an internet where developers use programmable cryptography to create more powerful applications.
And that internet needs Mina. At o1Labs, we are committed to making this a reality. But we can’t do it alone. It’s a collective journey. Whether you're a developer, node operator, or simply someone who believes in a better internet, there’s a place for you in this vision. This is more than technology – it’s a movement towards a more just and innovative world. Join us on this journey and help shape the internet of tomorrow.
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If you liked what you read above and want to get involved, we’d love to hear from you! As part of our new community-centric approach, we're actively seeking input from developers, node operators, and Mina community members. Fill out this quick survey to express your interest in contributing your insights or being contacted when we seek community input.