After a lot of work on Mina Video Simplification Part1, I had to take a break from those complex things and work on others.
I'm determined to finish Simplification Part2 and maybe Part3 if I have the courage.
Little Introduction
We've covered the fundamental concepts of the Mina protocol, including its unique decentralized system, zk-SNARK technology and how it ensures lightweight, secure transactions.
Now, let's dive into Mina's practical mechanisms, we’ll see the different functionning of mechanism in Mina.
In Part 1, we learned about the general role of Snark Workers. To recap, Snark Workers create proofs to validate transactions without needing to check every detail. Now, let's dive into how they function.
There is a marketplace or pool where different tasks with various conditions and payments are available. Snark Workers can view these tasks and choose whether to accept them. These tasks are treated like transactions, and payment for this work is directly included in the block, just like any other transaction.
Block producers pay for snark proofs through future transaction fees. They constantly assess the profitability of buying snark proofs to ensure the network remains efficient and secure.
Unlike Ethereum, which can be costly and complex due to its verification and storage needs, Mina uses recursive zero-knowledge proofs to minimize these costs. This allows Mina to enable lightweight verification and operate efficiently, even on mobile devices.
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Task Assignment: Imagine the network as a big office where Snark Workers are employees. These employees receive tasks (creating cryptographic proofs) from a task manager. The task manager distributes these tasks automatically, without needing the boss (validator) to intervene.
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Payment: Think of payment for Snark work like getting paid for a project. As soon as you start the project, your payment is recorded as "paid" in the office ledger (the block), even if you finish the project later.
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Coordination and Proof Creation: Snark Workers, acting as full nodes, coordinate tasks and create proofs as soon as a transaction is added to a block. They can start creating proofs for transactions once they are included in a block.
By understanding these key points, you can see how Snark Workers operate within the network, ensuring efficient and secure transaction validation.
In the Part 1, we've seen that the Ouroboros protocol guarantees transaction security through probabilistic finality, where the probability of irreversibility increases with each block added.
Now let's explore how Ouroboros secures the network at a more fundamental level through its consensus mechanism, which uses random election and a minimum block density rule to prevent attacks and ensure network reliability.
Ouroboros, used by Mina, is a consensus system where each token holder has a chance to create a block through a random draw. This makes the system more flexible and resilient than other methods.
Ouroboros monitors the number of blocks added to the chain to prevent anyone from controlling the network by creating too many blocks. This helps ensure that the most honest and reliable chain is chosen.
Alice, Bob and Charlie are three network participants, each holding tokens from the blockchain.
Each participant has an equal chance of being selected to produce the next block.
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Block 1: The network selects Alice to produce the first block. This block contains recent transactions, including one from Alice to Bob.
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Block 2: The network selects Bob to produce the next block. Bob adds a new transaction and references Block 1.
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Block 3: Charlie is selected to produce Block 3, adding further transactions.
Suppose an attacker tries to create a parallel chain to modify a transaction. To succeed, the attacker must produce enough blocks before the main chain is considered the longest and therefore the most reliable.
Minimum block density: Ouroboros sets a minimum block density to ensure that the main chain remains the most honest. If the density of blocks in a chain is insufficient, the protocol considers that chain to be less reliable.
Thanks to the random election of block producers and the verification of minimum block density, the Ouroboros consensus ensures that the most honest and reliable chain is the one validated by the majority of the network. Attack attempts are thus limited, and network security is strengthened.
We will see different concept, in particulary the archive node and zkApps.
The archive node is used only to store old transactions and versions of the main node.
It is very useful for specific applications requiring historical data and for network transparency, of course.
Consensus does not need the archive node to work.
The applications created on Mina are called zkApps, and we're going to find out what they really are.
These applications natively use zero-knowledge proofing and offer many advantages. Let's take a look!
The zkApps on Mina use zero-knowledge proofs to validate updates without executing code directly on the chain.
Situation: Alice wants to send 10 units to Bob via a wallet application on Mina.
Validation: The zkApp uses a zero-knowledge proof to confirm that the transaction is valid without executing any code on the blockchain.
Result: The proof is added to the blockchain, showing that the transaction is correct without revealing details or overloading the chain.
DApps : Normally, for the transaction to be validated, the application would have to run complex code on the blockchain to verify the transaction. This can be costly and slow.
zkApps: Instead of executing code directly on the blockchain, the zkApp uses a zero-knowledge proof. This proof confirms that the transaction is valid (for example, that Alice has the required 10 units) without revealing the full details of the transaction or executing the code on the chain.
Transactions in zkApps are designed as account updates.
Before applying an update, certain conditions must be met.
Cryptographic proofs are used to verify that preconditions are met before allowing updates.
Preconditions:
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Check that you have enough money in your account.
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Confirm that you are authorized to send the money.
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Make sure the transaction details are correct.
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Check that your account is not blocked.
Side effects:
Once all the conditions have been met, the money is transferred from your account to your friend's.
Conclusion
We are at the end of the second part of the Mina video. This simplification covers the second hour of the video.
Please give me your feedback in the comments or on Twitter to let me know if this simplification was effective or if I should make it even simpler.
Thank you for reading this article, and subscribe to my newsletter to receive the next part!
0xJayS_eth
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