miden

Polygon is leveling up — again. This time, it's not just about scalability or low fees. It's about going deep into institutional-grade infrastructure, and the latest move? Miden, a Polygon spin-off, has secured $25 million in funding to turbocharge speed, privacy, and zk-powered smart contracts.

🧠 What Is Miden?

Miden is a zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup, built specifically for high-throughput and privacy-first applications. It's not just another side project — it's Polygon’s bet on the future of enterprise adoption.

At its core:

It uses ZK-STARKs, enabling trustless computation without revealing sensitive data.

Focused on executing complex smart contracts privately and offloading work from Ethereum mainnet.

Spearheaded by Polygon’s chief ZK researcher Bobbin Threadbare, a heavyweight in the cryptography world.

💰 The Funding Round: Institutional Backing Goes Deep

The $25M round was led by prominent VCs:

🔹 Dragonfly

🔹 Maven 11

🔹 OKX Ventures

🔹 NGC Ventures

🔹 Hashkey Capital

This shows serious institutional appetite for privacy-enhanced Layer 2 solutions. These aren't degens backing a meme — these are funds betting on infrastructure that powers finance 2.0.

🏦 Why It Matters

Institutions want in on crypto — but they demand speed, privacy, and compliance. Miden is aiming to check all the boxes:

✅ Scalable smart contract execution

✅ Enhanced on-chain privacy

✅ Customizable environments for enterprise use cases

Polygon isn’t just fighting Ethereum’s scalability wars anymore. It’s building the rails for private DeFi, CBDCs, and tokenized real-world assets.

🚀 TL;DR: Miden = Polygon’s Institutional Power Move

With this funding, Polygon is signaling loud and clear: we’re not just playing in the L2 space — we’re owning it.

Keep your eyes on Miden. It might just become the Ethereum for institutions.

🟢 #Polygon #Miden #zkrollups #CryptoFunding #EthereumLayer2

Miden isn’t trying to be just another faster chain. It is a rethink a new way to build blockchains for real-world use. By moving execution and state to the user’s device and using zero-knowledge proofs, Miden promises high throughput, built-in privacy, and safer user experiences all without making developers learn a brand-new model.
Below is a clear, third-person overview of what Miden is, why it matters, and how its core pieces fit together.
What is Miden ?
Miden calls itself an edge blockchain. That means most computation happens at the edge on users’ phones or computers not on every node in the network. Users run their transactions locally, create a cryptographic proof that the work was done correctly, and then send that proof to the chain. The network verifies the proof instead of redoing the whole computation.

This simple change reduces work for validators, makes privacy easier, and lets many transactions run at once. The result: better performance, lower costs, and private transactions by default.

A short origin story
Miden began inside Polygon Labs through the AggLayer Breakout program. It later spun out as an independent project backed by a $25M seed round led by major crypto investors. The team includes engineers and cryptographers with experience at places like Meta and Ethereum projects. That pedigree helps explain Miden’s focus on safety, developer experience, and practical privacy.
Key Ideas
Client-side proofs: Users execute and prove transactions locally using zero-knowledge proofs. The chain only needs to verify those proofs.Private and public accounts: Accounts can be fully onchain or private offchain with a small commitment onchain. That lets users keep balances hidden while still proving correctness.Every account is smart: Accounts can contain code, so wallets are programmable by default. That enables features like social recovery, spending limits, and safer UX.Notes (UTXO-like units): Miden’s transactions use notes that act like onchain intents they can be private or public and spent via scripts.Hybrid model: Public contracts still exist for shared state (like AMMs), but many interactions never need to touch that public state, thanks to asynchronous designs.
The Miden VM
The Miden VM is the engine that runs code which can be proven with zero-knowledge proofs. Key points:
It is Turing-complete, so developers can express complex logic.It’s designed to be efficiently provable: programs compiled to run on the VM can be proven with succinct ZK proofs.Developers write code in languages that compile to WebAssembly (Wasm), with Rust being a primary target because it’s safe and familiar to many builders.For low-powered devices, Miden supports delegated proving: a trusted (or permissioned) service can generate the heavy proof work while the user retains control and privacy guarantees.
Believe me, the Miden VM lets complex programs run locally, then produce proofs that the network can check fast.
STARKs vs SNARKs - why Miden picks STARK-like proofs
Zero-knowledge proofs come in flavors. Two common names are SNARKs and STARKs. Here’s how they differ:
Trusted setup:SNARKs often need a “trusted setup” an initial ceremony. If that setup is compromised, security is at risk.STARKs do not need a trusted setup. That makes them simpler and safer in that respect.Cryptography and future-proofing:SNARKs use elliptic-curve math and are less resistant to future quantum attacks.STARKs are hash-based, which is more resistant to quantum threats.Proof size and verification:SNARK proofs are usually smaller; STARK proofs can be larger.STARK verification is fast and scales well when dealing with many transactions.
Miden leans on STARK-style properties for transparency, quantum resistance, and a trust-minimized design trading off bigger proof sizes for stronger long-term guarantees and simpler setup.
Why this matters to builders and institutions
Developers can build complex, private apps without huge gas costs or strange new languages. Rust and Wasm-based tooling reduce friction.End users get safer wallets (social recovery, rate limits), private balances, and simple onboarding.Institutions gain a way to run compliant, private finance on-chain think private fund management, confidential payroll, or OTC trades that remain auditable without public exposure.
Where Miden stands now
Miden moved from Polygon incubation to an independent project with strong funding and public momentum. It is rolling out testnet features like private notes, multisig, and Para-powered onboarding (email/SMS/passkey logins). Partnerships for privacy stacks and developer tooling - aim to make production adoption smoother.
Use cases that shine on Miden

Private DeFi: confidential swaps, private liquidity pools, and fund management.Institutional finance: private settlements, tokenized assets, and secure payrolls.Composable private apps: private wallets interacting seamlessly with public DEXs or oracles.Edge compute-heavy apps: AI inference proofs, gaming logic, or complex order-matching done locally.
Takeaway
Miden changes where work happens in a blockchain. By moving execution and state to users’ devices and relying on strong zero-knowledge proofs, it addresses the three big problems that have slowed broad blockchain adoption: scale, privacy, and safety. Built-in account logic makes wallets smarter and safer. STARK-style proofs give a trust-minimized, future-resistant cryptography backbone.
If privacy and scale are the gates to institutional adoption, Miden is building the bridge. Watch the space - the edge era of blockchains is arriving, and Miden aims to be at its heart.
#Miden