In case you missed it, CEOs of o1Labs and Mina Foundation, Brandon Kase and Josh Cincinnati recently joined an X space to answer the community’s most frequently asked questions about recent changes in the Mina ecosystem.
You can find a summary below, and we invite you to add any other questions you have to the thread!
What is the status of the web node and Rust node?
The Rust node implementation is approaching production readiness in parts. Rather than waiting for the complete implementation, o1Labs proposes to take an incremental approach by releasing well-tested, high-confidence components of the Rust codebase. This strategy will deliver gradual performance gains, memory improvements, and overall node quality enhancements while development continues for the full Rust implementation.
Regarding the web node, this remains a core vision for Mina—enabling nodes to run on phones, fridges, cars, and everywhere. The web node team has done excellent work on this front. The Rust implementation is crucial for this vision, but we recognize that a “big bang” release of an entirely new client is impractical right now. Instead, o1Labs proposes to follow a measured, incremental integration approach that prioritizes safety and long-term success.
How is Project Untitled related to Mina Protocol?
Project Untitled was born directly from needs within the Mina developer community. The project’s cryptography originated from Mina research, and its engineering shares code with Mina, resulting in consensus upgrades that benefit both. Projects like Tileville, WrdHome, and Nori all require the features that Project Untitled provides.
Additionally, there are projects in the AI agent space that need state management capabilities, and o1Labs is exploring opportunities to bring them into the Mina ecosystem.
What’s the status of the Economics Design tokenomics partnership?
The Tokenomics Report from Economics Design has just been published and is now available on Mina Research. Moving forward, we want to collaborate with the community by establishing a working group to determine what changes to propose as an MIP. Community members have already put forward some proposals, and we encourage everyone to review the report and share their thoughts.
What’s being done to solve performance bottlenecks and ecosystem tooling limitations?
o1Labs has been working to identify priorities for the next protocol upgrade which should improve L1 performance. Key features under consideration include:
- Reduced slot time, which impacts finality, throughput, and zkApp responsiveness
- Increased zkApp account update limits
- Various other features that we’d like community feedback on (please share your thoughts on Mina Research after reviewing the full details)
The next stage will be writing up the MIPs. Before they are released, o1Labs would appreciate feedback on the priorities for the upgrade.
See this blog post for status updates on ecosystem tooling like bridges, DEXes, and wallets.
Are there plans to expand beyond TypeScript to support mobile SDKs or simplified front-end integrations?
The short answer is no. While we’ve created early versions of o1rs, we’ve decided to narrow our scope and focus on delivering critical protocol components first.
What will happen to ecosystem projects running out of resources? Are there new grant management plans?
Our original grant programs aimed to spark a “Cambrian explosion” of zk applications using o1js. Despite various grant initiatives, recruitment strategies, and hackathon sponsorships, this didn’t materialize as expected, in part due to toolkit readiness and mismatched expectations about what could be built with Mina.
Over the past year, we’ve optimized spending and reduced the number of teams in our grant programs. This has left us with a core group of extremely committed builders. Support for these teams will continue as o1Labs and Mina Foundation discuss shifting responsibilities to o1Labs, handled on a case-by-case basis.
Mina Foundation continues to bring in new builders through direct recruiting rather than public-facing grant programs.
What is your realistic strategy for adoption beyond the crypto-native audience?
There’s significant opportunity within the crypto-native audience that we need to capture before expanding elsewhere. Infrastructure across web3 is shifting toward zk-native architecture, and applications will follow. We’ve anticipated this trend and have developed the right technology to serve these needs. We expect to see numerous variations of projects like Nori emerging across web3 next year.
zkVot is a good example of an application addressing a real-world problem today—providing anonymous and censorship-resistant voting. While the broader world hasn’t fully recognized its value yet, it represents the kind of systems we expect to see adopted in the future.
Can you update us on previously announced partnerships like Celestia and Mirae?
Going forward, o1Labs intends to only announce partnerships where we have high confidence in their success and that are technically focused. This ensures we maintain our focus on improving the protocol and tooling.
Regarding specific partnerships:
- Mirae Assets delivered a proof-of-concept “proof of reserves” zkApp, with more specifics to be shared in an upcoming blog post.
- The Celestia partnership with Geometry was successful and is now powering the SP1 proof conversion work that makes Nori possible.
- We’re currently putting a hold on new proof-of-concept partnerships to focus on existing commitments
What are the marketing and community priorities for Mina in the coming months?
o1Labs will focus on delivering technical promises to the ecosystem while supporting grassroots ecosystem development and marketing. o1Labs’s marketing efforts will explain the vision for Mina, who it’s for, and what to expect from each delivery.
On the Mina Foundation side, the primary focus will be establishing a decentralized treasury that positions the ecosystem for future success.
Is there an update on Ledger signing?
Zondax has completed development, and Auro is currently testing it for their wallet. Implementation will require a merge with Ledger Live, which remains a top priority.