What does Ethereum's merge mean for Mina's ZKP?
The Ethereum merge will prove that the Web3 community has the capability to achieve a highly complex and meaningful decentralized network.Author: Phil Kelly
The Ethereum merge is expected to be completed in the next 24 hours, and O(1) Labs along with other members of the Mina ecosystem are preparing to celebrate. This is a good time to explain why we care so much about the successful merge of Ethereum, and also to illustrate how Mina, as a global zero-knowledge layer for privacy and proofs, will collaborate with Ethereum after the merge.
First, let's review the technical connections between Mina and Ethereum, which will be updated in the recent roadmap:
- SnarkyJS will be able to verify Ethereum-compatible signatures online. This allows developers to build zkApps that verify account ownership on Ethereum or any other EVM-compatible chain.
- The Mina state root will be stored and updated in a dedicated smart contract on the Ethereum mainnet, jointly sponsored by the Ethereum and Mina foundations. This work was initially announced as a "bridge," but more accurately, it facilitates the transfer of data from one chain to another without any new security assumptions, making Mina a part of the Ethereum ecosystem.
- MetaMask will collaborate directly with Mina through MetaMask's Snaps API.
Some examples of data flow and smart contract activities in the future:
- Providing proofs for activities related to identity/reputation scores on Ethereum: SnarkyJS circuits will read relevant states on Ethereum (such as NFT holdings, DeFi protocol interactions, 'OG'-ness), provide proofs for relevant statements (like "top 5% of most active users"), then verify and store the proofs on Mina. The Mina state will then bridge to Ethereum, and the proofs will be available to support native Ethereum activities, such as differential fees for DeFi protocols—based on previous DeFi activities (ultimately read from multiple chains), or airdropping users based on their NFT history at the time of NFT issuance.
- Privacy anonymous chat based on Ethereum activities (Gated anonymous chat): Mina zkApps written with SnarkyJS will read relevant states on Ethereum (such as NFT holdings, DeFi protocol interactions, 'OG'-ness), provide proofs for relevant statements (like contributors to a Gitcoin fund), verify the proofs and store them on Mina, then provide the proofs to privacy chat services to enable access.
What changes will these plans undergo after the merge? The roadmap remains unchanged.
We launched Mina over a year ago as the first succinct, ZK-based blockchain and Web3 state layer. The SnarkyJS framework for building zero-knowledge smart contract ZK circuits (zkApps) went live in June. The main advantages of using SnarkyJS include:
- TypeScript-based, easy to use, even developers who are not cryptography experts can get started
- Circuits do not require trusted setup (via Kimchi, based on Plonk15)
- Ability to build infinite "recursive" routines that allow an unlimited number of transactions to be aggregated into a constant size proof
- Optimized with custom gates and WASM for efficient operation in the browser
Currently, zkApps can be deployed on the Mina QA network, and we are rapidly moving towards the final incentivized test network for zkApps.
O(1) Labs has welcomed a new batch of ZK builders this week, who will be added to the existing zkApp list as part of the zkApps Builders Program. Additionally, we have been collaborating with SnarkyJS launch partners since June to gather feedback on the framework and assist them in delivering code.
Finally, we are very much looking forward to this merge, which will demonstrate the Web3 community's capability to achieve a highly complex and meaningful decentralized network. At the same time, it will also bring us substantial sustainability benefits, which some blockchains (like the Mina Protocol using PoS consensus) are already enjoying.
If you are interested in building zkApps, please reach out to us; we welcome any questions about how to use zkApps in Ethereum. If you are not familiar with this yet, please check the links below and join our ZKP movement.
Learn the basics with the materials from SnarkyJS Launch Week, and if you are a developer, start building zkApps here.
Read our announcement related to the launch partner program here, as Web3 privacy and authentication innovators like Brave Browser, SISMO, and DIA use SnarkyJS to build ZK smart contract code and provide feedback.
Stay tuned as we move towards the incentivized testnet.
