General Update

zkIgnite

• zkIgnite is a program to support developers and entrepreneurs in building real-world applications and businesses on Mina Protocol - from formulating project proposals, pitching them, receiving funding to bootstrap their projects, to helping connect them with potential backers for further development.

• A team of independent electors chosen by the community is responsible for reviewing proposals, giving feedback, and ultimately deciding which proposals receive funding. Electors are Mina community members, technical experts, and zkApp builders.  

• As a reminder, community Electors voted to fund 26 projects for Cohort 1 of zkIgnite back in May. In early August, zkIgnite Cohort 1 teams presented their completed projects to a team of Electors. Those Electors were responsible for voting if the teams successfully delivered the milestones they had originally proposed. You can watch the milestone presentations here. Electors voted that 22/26 projects successfully delivered their milestones. There were a few cases where projects had pivoted and changed milestones throughout the program, so the Electors reviewed them on a case by case basis, and voted ‘yes’ if the projects delivered, in Electors’ opinion, equivalent or increased value to the Mina ecosystem (compared against what was originally proposed). You can see a full list of milestones delivered here. These 22 projects then received the MINA token portion of their grant (reminder that USDC grants are paid upfront). 

• Cohort 2 proposers submitted a total of 93 projects for Elector review. The community Electors independently reviewed the proposals and voted to fund 24 projects based on their impact, scalability and growth potential, team, feasibility, and architecture. Cohort 2 funded teams have now been matched with 1-2 mentors and will be working toward a milestone delivery date of January 12, 2024.
  

Road to Upgrade

• Testworld Mission 2.0: Track 3 Protocol Performance Testing
• The 3rd track of the Testworld Mission 2.0 (ITN launch) commenced effective October 17th.
• Additionally, a "Road to Upcoming Upgrade" Discord event took place on October 4th, providing an opportunity for our community to engage and discuss relevant topics in advance of the ITN launch.

Key Platform Metrics

Mina Accounts

Mina Accounts Growth by Month

Delegation

In Q3 of 2023 there were 35,365 accounts delegating stake in the Mina protocol.

Block Production

Block Producers by Month

SNARK Workers per Month

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Protocol Development

There were a total of 2,915 commits to the Mina Github repositories in the first 9 months of 2023 with 73 unique contributors.

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Delegation Program Update

As mentioned in the Foundation’s Delegation Policy, the Foundation has delegated the voting power relating to the MINA tokens it holds to third-party block producers in an effort to promote decentralization within the Mina Protocol ecosystem. 

The third-party block producers participating in the Foundation’s Delegation Program consisted of 1.3% US-based block producers and 98.7% non-US based block producers.
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Issues

• Automated emails contained inaccurate information
• Uptime user scores impacted by drop in tracking service

Remediation

• Missed tracking data removed from uptime calculations
• MinaFoundation to host regular Discord events for the Delegation Program, starting in Q4, which will cover updates, issues and fixes for the community
• Migration of Delegation Program external support services to Mina Foundation
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Use of Tokens to Date

Treasury

The Foundation defines Treasury as cash and token distributions that are primarily intended to promote and support the administration and operations of Mina Foundation.

The Foundation’s Treasury (as of September 30, 2023): 

• 48m MINA Tokens
• 26m USD and Stablecoins (USDC & USDT)

The Foundation has spent approximately 1.1m MINA from its treasury during the period covered by this report.

Grants

The Foundation defines Grants as cash and token distributions that are primarily intended to support the Mina ecosystem and encourage development in the Mina Protocol community.

The Foundation’s Grant (as of September 30, 2023):

• 98m MINA Tokens
• 11m USD and Stablecoins (USDC & USDT)

The total number of MINA token grants that the Foundation has paid during the period covered by this report is 4m MINA, with an additional 1.2m MINA committed to Grant programs with future payout dates. These grants include, among other things, grants from the Crucial Contributions grants, team token grants, Incentivized Testnet activities and zkIgnite.

As of October 13, 2023, based on publicly available information from CoinGecko, MINA’s trading volume is 0.76% US-based and 99.24% non-US-based.

Note: the token balances referenced in the Use of Tokens to Date section includes Block Rewards received by the Foundation from the Foundation’s Delegation Program.

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Disclaimer: All tokens held by Mina Foundation, Inc. are held by its wholly owned subsidiary - Mina Foundation, Ltd., which is a British Virgin Islands company.

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