O(1) Labs Raises $10.9M More for Lightweight Mina Protocol

Oct 21, 2020 at 14:00 UTCUpdated Oct 21, 2020 at 17:52 UTC.O(1) Labs' lightweight blockchain project Mina, formerly known as Coda Protocol, has raised $10.9 million in a funding round co-led by Hong Kong-based Bixin Ventures and Singapore-based Three Arrows Capital.

Mina was set for mainnet launch in Q4 but O(1) Labs CEO Evan Shapiro told CoinDesk it has been delayed to early next year because "Launching a blockchain near the holiday season is never a good idea."

Mina's lightweight design - it only takes 22 kb to store a copy of the Mina blockchain thanks to its reliance on zk-SNARKs - is meant to foster widespread adoption.

"Mina addresses the failure of legacy blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum which, over time, pushes users out of participation," Shapiro said.

Before launching on mainnet, Mina aims to finish its adversarial testnet with over 1,000 unique participants by the end of the year.

O(1) Labs previously raised a $3.5 million seed round in May 2018, followed by a $15 million Series A in April 2019 from leading investors including Polychain, Paradigm and Coinbase Ventures.

"Mina presents a lightweight layer one blockchain solution to the cryptographic trilemma of decentralization, scale and security," Three Arrows Capital co-founder Kyle Davis said in a statement.

"As daily blockchain users ourselves, we are particularly excited to support the Mina team and ecosystem."