Mina (MINA) is the native coin of a lightweight blockchain by the same name. Its main innovation is data compression. The blockchain is just 22 kilobytes, no greater than a handful of tweets. By comparison, the Bitcoin blockchain is more than 400 gigabytes in size, and every node must download a complete copy of it. To achieve its small size, Mina uses zero-knowledge technology – a privacy-preserving data-compression technique that processes transactions with minimal metadata.

Mina’s was conceived in June 2017 by U.S. blockchain software development company O(1) Labs, and it went live in the first quarter of 2021. Trading of the network’s tokens commenced in May 2021 following the sale of 75 million tokens for 25 cents each that raised almost $19 million.

MINA reached a high of $4.55 a few days after it started trading. The price, though, fell sharply to about $1 by July 2021. MINA then rode the autumn 2021 crypto market surge. It hit an all-time high of $6.15 in September 2021 and reached a market cap of $1.7 billion in November 2021. By March 2022, however, MINA’s price had fallen to $1.70.

The platform launched with an annual inflation rate of 12% to encourage stakers. It plans to reduce that rate to 7% by 2026, where it will remain thereafter.

Mina is a proof-of-stake blockchain, similar to Tezos and Solana. It achieves its unusually small size through zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography, a data compression technique that uses advanced mathematics to confirm transactions based on minimal metadata. Mina’s specific application of ZK proofs is called “recursive zk-SNARKs.”

The Mina protocol allows an unlimited number of block producers to validate its blocks. Its small size means that each user can afford to operate as a full node. In contrast, proof-of-stake blockchains delegate their coins to someone else who has set themselves up as a validator, which is often an expensive process to initiate.

Unlike most blockchains, Mina can interact privately with websites to integrate their data into smart contracts. Teller Finance, for instance, has partnered with Mina to provide real-world credit scores.

MINA is used for transactions. The blockchain issues new MINA to block producers as a reward for creating new blocks. And because of its zero-knowledge system, transactions are private.

Mina, which was first called Coda Protocol, was rebranded in August 2019 following a lawsuit filed by enterprise blockchain company R3, whose protocol is also called Coda.

The company raised $3.5 million in May 2018 and $15 million in April 2019. Backers include payments company Circle, Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, FTX Ventures and Three Arrows Capital.

The blockchain is now overseen by the Mina Foundation, a nonprofit that governs the network – similar to the Ethereum Foundation. Evan Shapiro, the foundation’s CEO, is a former software engineer at Mozilla, the creator of the Firefox browser.

Also on the board of directors are Josh Cincinnati, a former executive director of the Zcash Foundation; Jill Carlson, a principal at Slow Ventures; and Tess Rinearson, crypto engineering lead at Twitter (TWTR).