Demex Daily #170: Mina Mainnet Launches Berkeley Upgrade for Enhanced Privacy and Programmability

What’s Interesting Today:

Mina, known for its unique zero-knowledge focus, has implemented the Berkeley upgrade on its mainnet, which marks a significant enhancement by adding programmability to its platform. This blockchain maintains a constant size of just 22 kilobytes thanks to recursive zk-SNARK proofs, allowing for efficient verification and minimal storage. It effectively functions as a zk rollup, rolling up multiple transactions into a single proof while keeping computations off-chain. This update is geared towards improving decentralization and privacy, with new Dapps operating like mini rollups. It also incorporates advanced privacy features on higher application layers, contrasting with other projects that focus on base-layer privacy. The upgrade, developed over three years, enables decentralized application frameworks and enhances scalability, while maintaining transparency and privacy through sophisticated encryption techniques.

IOTA has launched a layer 2 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) network focused on DeFi and the tokenization of real-world assets. This new network incorporates smart contracts, cross-chain capabilities, parallel processing, and protection against Maximal Extractable Value (MEV), enhancing the functionality of the IOTA ecosystem. The launch aims to attract institutional investors by adapting features like on-chain KYC for investor identification and creating institutional DeFi trading pools. Additionally, the network is designed to resist MEV by preventing transaction ordering, thus safeguarding transaction integrity and enhancing regulatory compliance. This development positions IOTA to lead in real-world asset tokenization, supported by its registration under Abu Dhabi Global Market regulations.