Title: Miden · Vendor · EthSystems

URL Source: https://original.es-internal.pages.dev/vendors/miden/

Markdown Content:
---
description: Polygon Miden is a privacy focused Ethereum rollup (zk-zk-rollup) that prioritizes throughput and privacy over full EVM compatibility. It uses the Miden VM, a STARK-based virtual machine designed for client-side proving.
title: Miden · Vendor · EthSystems
image: https://original.es-internal.pages.dev/og.png
---

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# Miden – Privacy Rollup

## Fits with patterns

* [Shielding](/patterns/pattern-shielding/) \- Confidential balances and shielded transfers
* [Private ISO 20022 Messaging & Settlement](/patterns/pattern-private-iso20022/) \- Private messaging & settlement
* [Privacy L2s](/patterns/pattern-privacy-l2s/) \- Privacy-native rollup execution

## Not a substitute for

* Fully private EVM
* High througput but public rollups

## Architecture

* Execution model: Actor Model (Concurrent). Unlike the EVM (sequential global state), every `Account` and `Note` is an isolated "Actor" with a local state. Transactions between independent accounts can be executed and proven in parallel, as they don't require locking shared global state.
* Hybrid State Model
  * Accounts hold persistent state (like a wallet or DeFi pool).
  * Notes (UTXOs) carry assets and scripts between accounts.
* Smart contracts are written in Rust (compiling to Miden Assembly/MASM).
* Proof system: zk-STARKs (via Winterfell). Quantum-secure, transparent (no trusted setup), and optimized for recursion.
* DA model: Rollup posts data to Ethereum L1 (utilizing EIP-4844 blobs).
* Settlement: L2 validity proofs are verified on Ethereum L1.

## Privacy domains

* **Private transfers**: Default shielding of token amounts, counterparties hidden from public chain.
* **Programmable confidentiality**: Hybrid model enables both public and private state.
* **Client-side execution**: Users execute transactions locally and submit proofs, keeping transaction details private from public but efficiently provable.

## Enterprise demand and use cases

* Financial institutions: private stablecoin transfers and settlement.
* Asset managers: confidential DeFi strategies and portfolio movements.
* Corporate treasuries: cross-border payments with regulatory audit but hidden competitive data.

## Technical details

* A "transfer" is creating a Note. The recipient must execute a transaction to "consume" the Note. Notes carry their own scripts (e.g., "Only consumable if Oracle X says price > $100").
* The user _is_ the prover, from its own client or through delegated proving. This allows for infinite horizontal scaling because the network does not re-execute complex logic, it only verifies the proof.
* A high-performance STARK prover (Winterfell) used to generate proofs for the Miden VM.
* L1/L2 communication bridging still to be defined.
* Native account abstraction at the protocol level; accounts are smart contracts with updatable code.
* Because users generate the proofs, the Sequencer is lightweight: it only aggregates proofs and builds blocks, preventing the "bottleneck" seen in EVM rollups.

## Strengths

* Massive Concurrency: Parallel transaction processing prevents "gas wars" between unrelated apps, resulting in privacy with high throughput.
* Privacy by Design: Local execution naturally hides user data without complex "add-on" privacy mixers.
* Quantum Security: Relies on hash-based STARKs.

## Risks and open questions

* Audit/Disclosure, path for regulators still unclear.
* Developer Friction, high learning curve (Rust/MASM + Actor model vs. Solidity/EVM).
* Data Availability, if a user loses their private local state (and didn't back it up), they may lose access to their Private Account.
* Wallet Complexity, Wallets must be "smart" enough to track, discover, and consume Notes automatically for a good UX. Client-side proving requires either local compute resources or delegation to a proving service.

## Links

* [Polygon Miden Docs](https://docs.polygon.technology/miden/)
* [Polygon Miden GitHub org](https://github.com/0xMiden)
* [miden-base (core components)](https://github.com/0xMiden/miden-base)
* [crypto (hashes & primitives)](https://github.com/0xMiden/crypto)
* [Note Types (public/private/encrypted)](https://docs.polygon.technology/learn/miden/note%5Ftypes/)
* [Polygon Miden Alpha Testnet v6 blog](https://blog.polygon.technology/polygon-miden-alpha-testnet-v6-is-live/)
* [Awesome Miden (community resources)](https://github.com/phklive/awesome-miden)

Used in

[ Private Bond Issuance & Trading Privacy L2 ](/approaches/approach-private-bonds/#privacy-l2)[ Private Trade Settlement Privacy L2 Native DvP ](/approaches/approach-private-trade-settlement/#privacy-l2-native-dvp)[ White-Label Infrastructure Deployment Vendor-Managed Deployment ](/approaches/approach-white-label-deployment/#vendor-managed-deployment)[ White-Label Infrastructure Deployment Institution-Controlled Deployment ](/approaches/approach-white-label-deployment/#institution-controlled-deployment)[ White-Label Infrastructure Deployment Consortium Deployment ](/approaches/approach-white-label-deployment/#consortium-deployment) 

#### Referenced by

approaches1
* [White-Label Infrastructure Deployment](/approaches/approach-white-label-deployment/)
building blocks2
* [Modular Privacy Stack](/patterns/pattern-modular-privacy-stack/)
* [ZK Proof Systems](/patterns/pattern-zk-proof-systems/)

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