Mina Protocol is preparing for the Mesa Upgrade, a hard fork designed to improve network performance, streamline future upgrade processes, and expand the capabilities of those wanting to build with Mina.
Why ‘Mesa’?
A mesa is a raised plateau — flat, stable, and expansive. It reflects the essence of this upgrade: elevating the protocol’s capabilities while keeping its structure firm and succinct.
Like climbing from a canyon to a mesa, this upgrade lifts longstanding limitations — on block times, zkApp complexity, throughput, and more. Mesa symbolizes a platform for the future, whether for more zkApps, integrations, or continued scaling, all while staying true to the protocol’s north star to empower developers to build apps using programmable cryptography.
This blog post provides an overview of the Mina Improvement Proposals (MIPs) that comprise this upgrade and outlines the process towards implementation.
Five Strategic Improvements
The Mesa Upgrade is currently proposed to include five MIPs, each put forward by o1Labs but designed to incorporate community feedback through the governance process:
Slot Reduction
The first MIP focuses on network performance by reducing slot time to 90 seconds, enhancing transaction throughput and user experience across the ecosystem. It also proposes to remove the zkApp soft limit, allowing blocks to contain more than the current default of 24 zkApp transactions.
Key Benefits:
- Faster Transaction Confirmation: Reduced waiting times for transaction finality
- Improved Network Responsiveness: More frequent block production increases overall network capacity
- Enhanced Developer Experience: Applications will feel more responsive and interactive
- Better User Adoption: Faster confirmations remove friction for everyday users
The technical specifications, performance projections, and implementations details are available here.
Increase On-Chain State Size Limit
This MIP expands the current limit on the number of on-chain state fields that a zkApp account can store, providing developers with more flexibility in application design.
Key Benefits:
- Richer Application State: Store more complex data structures on-chain
- Reduced Off-Chain Dependencies: Less reliance on external storage solutions
- Simplified Architecture: More straightforward application design patterns
- Enhanced Data Integrity: Critical application state remains on the secure Mina blockchain
This proposal has been published for community review and feedback. You can read the proposal details and participate in the discussion here.
Event/Action Limit Increase
This MIP addresses a constraint faced by zkApp developers by increasing the current limits on events and actions that can be included in a single transaction.
Key Benefits:
- More Expressive Applications: Developers can build more complex zkApps that require a higher number of on-chain events and actions
- Improved User Experience: More complex operations can be executed within a single transaction, reducing the number of transactions that end users must approve to complete an operation
- Cost Efficiency: Users accomplish more with fewer transactions
This proposal has been published for community review and feedback. You can read the proposal details and participate in the discussion here.
Account Update Limit Increase
Complementing the expanded events and actions, this MIP raises the limit on account updates per zkApp transaction, to enhance utility of zkApps built with Mina.
Key Benefits:
This MIP has the same key benefits as the MIP about increasing the limit on events and actions: By increasing the account updates per transaction, developers don’t need to split complex logic across multiple transactions and can build more expressive zkApps. Users also have an improved user experience and reduced cost.
Technical specifications and the community discussion forum for this MIP will be available in the coming weeks.
Hard Fork Automation
This MIP introduces a new automation infrastructure for conducting future hard forks, making the upgrade process simpler, less manual and more efficient.
Details on the automated hard fork mechanisms will be available for community review in the upcoming weeks.
The MIP Process
Mina Protocol's commitment to decentralized governance is exemplified in the MIP process, which will also be followed for the Mesa Upgrade. Each MIP follows a structured path that ensures community input, technical review, as well as an on-chain vote, before implementation is finalized.
Participants in the MIP process are:
- Authors: Propose the initial idea, write the MIP, advocate for it, and collect feedback
- Editors: Ensure the proposal follows the process and helps to keep things moving
- Advisory Group: Subject matter experts and stakeholders who review and weigh in on the specifics of the MIP
- Dev Teams: Review technical specifications and implement the finalized MIPs
- Idea
The process begins when the Author shares a proposal on MinaResearch, initiating an open discussion period where community members can review the proposal, raise questions or concerns and suggest modifications. - Draft
Next, the Author submits the fine-tuned MIP to Github, which is then reviewed by Editors for compliance. - Review
This is an extended review period, during which the community, the Advisory Group (which varies by MIP) and Dev Teams look at and provide feedback on the MIP. - Last Call
As the name suggests, this is the final review window for the MIP before it moves to on-chain voting. In the event that a new high-impact issue is identified, the MIP may move back to the prior Review stage. - On-Chain Voting
The community votes for or against the MIP. - Finalization
If a MIP passes the on-chain vote, it is finalized and now ready to be implemented. (More information about on-chain voting can be found here).
For more on how to submit an MIP, check out this Github.
Since the Mesa Upgrade will encompass 5 MIPs, we will go through steps 1-4 of the process outlined above for each MIP, and conduct the On-Chain Voting and Finalization stages for all 5 together.
Current Status and Timeline
The Mesa Upgrade is currently in the early stages of community review, with 3 MIPs already published for community input:
- Reduce Slot Time to 90 Seconds: Completed ‘Final Call’ and closed on Sept 2, 2025
- Increase On-Chain State Size Limit: The proposal was recently published and is open for community discussion for a few weeks. MIP Editors will monitor for input and questions and notify when the MIP is moved to Last Call
- Event/Action Limit Increase: The proposal was recently published and is open for community discussion for a few weeks. MIP Editors will monitor for input and questions and notify when the MIP is moved to Last Call
The remaining two MIPs will be published in the coming weeks, each following the same community-driven review process.
As with any hard fork, the timeline for the Mesa Upgrade will be guided by process and confidence. We’ll move forward only once we’re certain that each step — from community review to technical testing and ecosystem coordination — has been completed successfully. To get there, we’re ensuring adequate time for:
- Comprehensive community input on all five MIPs
- Thorough technical review and refinement
- Proper testing and validation with internal QA and the community of node operators, both on a Mesa-specific testnet and Mina Devnet
- Testing and coordination with exchanges
- Informing wallets and explorers of changes to APIs
- Coordinated on-chain voting process
- Planning exact slots to execute the hard fork and communicating with required parties (exchanges and node operators)
- Multiple upgrade drills on different environments
Get Involved
The Mesa Upgrade represents more than technical improvements—it's an opportunity for the Mina community to shape the protocol's future direction. We strongly encourage all community members to review active MIPs and provide feedback, questions, and suggestions, to help improve the final proposals.
Stay tuned for details about the other MIPs, and when the time comes for on-chain voting, make sure you're ready to participate in this important governance decision. Thank you for being an essential part of Mina Protocol's community-driven future.