FAQ

How is privacy implemented in Miden?

Miden leverages Zero Knowledge proofs and client side execution and proving to provide security and privacy.

Does Miden support encrypted notes?

At the moment, Miden does not have support for encrypted notes but it is a planned feature.

Why does Miden have delegated proving?

Miden leverages delegated proving for a few technical and practical reasons:

  1. Computational: Generating Zero Knowledge proofs is a computationally intensive work. The proving process requires significant processing power and memory, making it impractical for some end-user devices (like smartphones) to generate.
  2. Technical architecture: Miden's architecture separates concerns between:
    • Transaction Creation: End users create and sign transactions
    • Proof Generation: Specialized provers generate validity proofs
    • Verification: The network verifies these proofs
  3. Proving efficiency: Delegated provers can use optimized hardware that wouldn't be available to end-user devices, specifically designed for the mathematical operations needed in STARK proof generation.

What is the lifecycle of a transaction?

1. Transaction Creation

  • User creates a transaction specifying the operations to perform (transfers, contract interactions, etc.)
  • Client performs preliminary validation of the transaction and its structure
  • The user authorizes the specified state transitions by signing the transaction

2. Transaction Submission

  • The signed transaction is submitted to Miden network nodes
  • The transaction enters the mempool (transaction pool) where it waits to be selected to be included in the state
  • Nodes perform basic validation checks on the transaction structure and signature

3. Transaction Selection

  • A sequencer (or multiple sequencers in a decentralized setting) selects transactions from the mempool
  • The sequencer groups transactions into bundles based on state access patterns and other criteria
  • The transaction execution order is determined according to protocol mechanism

4. Transaction Execution

  • The current state relevant to the transaction is loaded
  • The Miden VM executes the transaction operations
  • State Transition Computation: The resulting state transitions are computed
  • An execution trace of the transaction is generated which captures all the computation

5. Proof Generation

  • A STARK based cryptographic proof is generated attesting to the correctness of the execution
  • A proof for the aggregated transaction is created

6. Block Production

  • The aggregated bundle of transactions along with their proofs are assembled into a block
  • A recursive proof attesting to all bundle proofs is generated
  • The block data structure is finalized with the aggregated proof

7. L1 Submission

  • Transaction data is posted to the data availability layer
  • The block proof and state delta commitment are submitted to the Miden contract (that is bridged to Ethereum/AggLayer)
  • The L1 contract verifies validity of the proof
  • Upon successful verification, the L1 contract updates the state root

8. Finalization

  • Transaction receipts and events are generated
  • The global state commitment is updated to reflect the new state
  • The transaction is now considered finalized on the L1
  • Users and indexers get notified/updated about the transaction completion

Do notes in Miden support recency conditions?

Yes, Miden enables consumption of notes based on time conditions, such as:

  • A specific block height being reached
  • A timestamp threshold being passed
  • An oracle providing specific data
  • Another transaction being confirmed

What does a Miden operator do in Miden?

A Miden operator is an entity that maintains the infrastructure necessary for the functioning of the Miden rollup. Their roles may involve:

  1. Running Sequencer Nodes
  2. Operating the Prover Infrastructure
  3. Submitting Proofs to L1
  4. Maintaining Data Availability
  5. Participating in the Consensus Mechanism

How does bridging works in Miden?

Miden does not yet have a fully operational bridge, work in progress.

What does the gas fee model of Miden look like?

Miden does not yet have a fully implemented fee model, work in progress.