Intro

As part of our continuous effort to learn more about the communities we operate in, we hosted a Twitter Spaces to explore the results of the Mina zkIgnite cohorts with (0)1Labs CEO Emre Tekisalp, Head of Business Development Phil Kelly and Mina Foundation’s Manager of Community Programs Will Cove.

In this article, we will be sharing our notes from the Spaces!

First things first, what’s zkIgnite?

zkIgnite is a program within the Mina ecosystem that aims to kickstart development. It provides support and guidance to developers who want to create innovative applications. The program offers up to $500k USDC and 500k MINA to fund zkApp businesses and important developer tools that will help push the Mina ecosystem forward.

To date, there have been three cohorts, with cohorts 0 and 1 already completed. Cohort Zero was a virtual hackathon that paved the way for Cohort One. In Cohort One, 160 diverse proposals were competing for funding. The selection process included five weeks of ideation and four weeks of feedback and review phases. The community’s representatives, known as electors, played a critical role in shaping the program’s direction. Cohort One saw the emergence of 26 funded projects, each with an average of around 20K USDC.

What has come out of this program so far?

The ZK Ignite program has presented multiple use cases that highlight the potential and versatility of zero-knowledge applications. Here are some examples:

– Healthcare and Bioinformatics: Biosnarks focuses on tackling the problems of unreliable reproducibility and data isolation in drug development. Their project has gained attention and sparked similar ideas in the second cohort. Users can now share verified molecular docking outcomes while preserving the confidentiality of their drug design.

– Gaming: The Mina Arena project showcases how ZK can improve gaming experiences. It develops a turn-based strategy game that employs SnarkyJS for off-chain computation, removing the necessity for gas fees that are usually present in blockchain-based games. This method increases scalability and provides a user-friendly experience, all while maintaining the trustlessness of blockchain.

– Identity and Attestation: zkHumans focuses on digital identity with a unique approach. It supports multiple authentication factors, including biometrics, while ensuring biometric data never leaves the individual’s device. This project aims to preserve privacy while providing secure identity verification.

Any other alpha?

During the Spaces event, it was announced that (0)1 Labs has been working closely with the Optimism ecosystem’s open-source framework, OP Stack. This framework allows developers to deploy Optimistic Rollups, which is a layer two scaling solution for Ethereum. With the assistance of (0)1 Labs, the framework is being improved by integrating zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) to enhance security and efficiency.

Conclusion

zkIgnite is showcasing the feasibility of multiple use cases using ZK technology and, in this case, the Mina Protocol. It’s exciting to see the projects building on Mina. We will follow the development of the next cohorts and share any updates in our blog.