Mikan 🍊: The ZK Friendly DA Layer for Bitcoin L2s

DOCS | FRIDA PAPER | FRIEDA LIB

Mikan is a ZK-Rollup friendly data availability layer built on the Malachite consensus framework. It provides strong data availability guarantees using STARK-friendly cryptographic primitives without requiring a trusted setup.

It is design to be particularly friendly to ZK-Rollups, specifically on Bitcoin, by providing a DA layer that is compatible with the FRI commitment scheme, and by eliminating the need for a trusted setup.

Name origin 🍊 (蜜柑):

Officially known as a Citrus unshiu or unshiu mikan, mikan is a type of mandarin orange and citrus fruit that originated in southern Japan approximately 400 years ago.

Bitcoin goes necessarily with the orange color, so naturally a DA layer for Bitcoin L2s should be orange, and the Japanese connection is a Satoshi style touch.

💼 Table of Contents

• Mikan 🍊: The ZK Friendly DA Layer for Bitcoin L2s
  • 💼 Table of Contents
  • 🔧 Key Features
  • 📐 Architecture
    • 🔑 Cryptographic Components
  • 🎮 Getting Started
    • Prerequisites
    • Run a local testnet
      • Build the app
    • Setup the testnet
    • Spawn the nodes
  • Usage for Rollups
  • 🤝 Contributing
  • 🗺️ Roadmap
  • 📝 License
  • 📚 References

🔧 Key Features

• No Trusted Setup: Unlike solutions using KZG commitments, Mikan relies on transparent cryptography based on the FRI protocol, eliminating the need for trusted setup ceremonies.

• ZK-Friendly Proofs: Mikan generates succinct proofs of data availability using the M31 field (Mersenne prime 2^31-1), which is STARK-friendly and can be efficiently verified inside ZK proofs.

• Fast Consensus: Built on the Malachite BFT consensus framework, which provides high throughput and quick finality.

📐 Architecture

Mikan consists of the following components:

1. Consensus Layer: Based on Malachite BFT, handling block production and agreement.
2. Data Availability Layer: Uses FRI commitments and proofs for data availability sampling.
3. Network Layer: Ensures quick propagation of proposal parts across the network.
4. API: Allows rollups to submit data and retrieve availability certificates.

🔑 Cryptographic Components

• FRI Protocol: Fast Reed-Solomon Interactive Oracle Proof for data availability.
• M31 Field: Uses the Mersenne prime 2^31-1 for efficient field arithmetic.
• Merkle Trees: For efficient commitments and proofs.

The core primitives for the Data Availability Sampling are implemented in FRI Extended for Data Availability: a FRI-based Data Availability Sampling library, written in Rust..

🎮 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.71.0 or later
• Cargo

Run a local testnet

Build the app

cargo build

Setup the testnet

Generate configuration and genesis for three nodes using the testnet command:

cargo run -- testnet --nodes 3 --home nodes

This will create the configuration for three nodes in the nodes folder. Feel free to inspect this folder and look at the generated files.

Spawn the nodes

bash spawn.bash --nodes 3 --home nodes

If successful, the logs for each node can then be found at nodes/X/logs/node.log.

tail -f nodes/0/logs/node.log

Press Ctrl-C to stop all the nodes.

Usage for Rollups

Rollups can submit data to Mikan via its API:

1. Submit Data: Rollup submits transaction data to Mikan nodes
2. Receive Commitment: Mikan returns a cryptographic commitment to the data
3. Verify Availability: Anyone can verify data availability by sampling

The FRI commitment can be included in the rollup's state transition proof, creating a seamless integration between the rollup's validity proofs and data availability guarantees.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

🗺️ Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

📚 References

• FRI Extended for Data Availability: a FRI-based Data Availability Sampling library, written in Rust.
• FRIDA: Data Availability Sampling from FRI
• A Guide to Selecting the Right Data Availability Layer
• M31 arithmetic opcodes for efficient STARK verification on Bitcoin
• Malachite - Flexible BFT consensus engine in Rust

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Started with love by AbdelStark 🧡

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