In an announcement this week, cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange OKEx is listing the native token of the Mina Protocol, MINA. OKEx has been unveiling support for the MINA token throughout the week and is now presently supporting MINA deposits, spot trading for MINA/USDT, and MINA withdrawals.
The MINA Token
The Mina Protocol token is described as “a minimal ‘succinct blockchain’ built to curtail computational requirements in order to run DApps more efficiently.” MINA’s focus is on being the world’s lightest blockchain, as the chain supports growth scalability without increasing in size. The Mina Protocol also emphasizes security and decentralization, and strives to “build a privacy-preserving gateway between the real world and crypto”.
The project initially started in 2017 as one of the first-ever “compressed” platforms. The chain’s lightweight design allows for quick syncing and verification, and the entire blockchain is immensely small – only roughly 22kb. Additionally, the chain utilizes a “consistent-sized cryptographic proof”, allowing it to position itself in the market with the aforementioned ‘scalable with consistent size’ perspective.
The protocol also leverages “zero knowledge of proofs”, which are micro-certificates that verify transactions privately and efficiently. The Mina Protocol looks to avoid the bulkiness of cross-channel transactions verified at the beginning of every network, replacing this with the concept of nodes storing small proofs. These proofs are called ‘zk-SNARKs’, and capture the full state of the blockchain as “a lightweight snapshot”. Rather than sending the full chain around for verification, the chain sends along the snapshot – resulting in quicker and lighter computational efforts. Once another block in the network is created, a new snapshot is created, with the previous snapshot of the chain in the background. The team at Mina states that this also allows for proof of an infinite amount of information while allowing the snapshot to remain at the same size.
In October 2020, the protocol was rebranded from Coda Protocol to Mina.
Initial issuance of MINA stands at 1B tokens, with initial inflation of 12% annually. Within the first five years, annual inflation will steadily decrease to 7%, and remain constant at 7% from then on.
About OKEx
Established in 2013, OKEx is now a host to exchanging hundreds of tokens, and routinely engaging in 10s of billions of USD in 24-hour trading volume, and billions of USD in futures trading daily. Along with futures, the firm offers spot, margin, options, DeFi, lending, mining services, lending, and perpetual swaps. OKEx is host to millions of users across the globe. The Seychelles-based firm is growing rapidly, and quickly establishing itself as a world-leading digital asset exchange.
The support service of MINA comes less than a month after a number of different tokens have been implemented on the platform for support, including special voting processes that enabled spot trading for meme tokens AKITA and KISHU. OKEx continues to grow support across a variety of emerging tokens at a rapid pace.