Polygon Miden Alpha Testnet v4 is Live

As more pioneers join the Polygon Miden Alpha Telegram group and begin to build sovereign dApps on the Miden zkVM rollup, a quick update: the Miden Alpha Testnet v4 is live, unlocking new features for builders.

Explore the Polygon Miden tutorials and start building on the testnet today.

Miden is an innovative zkVM rollup in testnet phase. It enables users to create and execute their own zero-knowledge proofs,a process called client-side proving. Developers can build dApps that let users prove their local state, offering sovereignty and much higher throughput than existing architectures. 

In the context of an aggregated future via the AggLayer, Polygon Miden unlocks many new use cases, some of which are featured in recent Polygon Miden Pioneers deep dives:

• Composability Labs, building a state-minimized onchain order book
• Keom, reinterpreting DeFi with ZK wheels
• Rize Labs, building onchain ZK-verified poker

Polygon Miden Testnet v4 mainly supports standardized user actions and smart contracts. 

Future updates will enable developers to execute any logic onchain or offchain, in the same way as other general-purpose blockchains. 

So, what new things can developers build with the latest release?

Miden Alpha Testnet v4

1. Alpha release of the Rust compiler: Compile Rust code to Miden Assembly. The first release of the Rust-to-Miden compiler toolchain is still experimental. This marks a significant milestone: The general compilation from Rust/WebAssembly to MAST (Merkalized Abstract Syntax Tree, the “bytecode” of the Miden VM). Developers compile arbitrary Rust code to Miden Assembly. It’s an alpha release, which means a couple of known bugs can cause compilation to fail. Also, many features are still missing, and users cannot yet write their account code or note scripts in Rust. The first “full” version is planned to be released in November. Give it a try: https://docs.polygon.technology/miden/miden-compiler/
2. First release of the Miden block explorer: The team behind StarkScan has built a block explorer for Miden, and you can check the current state of the Miden blockchain at https://explorer.miden.io/. This explorer enables you to check all accounts, notes, and transactions. All details are provided for public notes and accounts. Try to do the tutorial and check if you find your notes. More features will be added in the coming months.
3. Consuming multiple notes in one transaction: A more extensive refactoring in the Miden VM is now complete; see here. It has made it possible to consume many notes in one transaction. That way, many users can be served in a single smart contract transaction. Alternatively, a user could wait until some notes pile up to consume them all simultaneously. 
4. TransactionRequests for custom notes: With the new TransactionRequest, users can now customize their transactions and inject customized notes into the Miden client. You can check out how it works here.
   
5. Miden Web client crate: Run the Miden client in a browser. Compiling the Miden client to WASM will be the basis for many Miden applications. In the upcoming months, the Typescript SDK will significantly improve to get feature parity with the Rust client. A Miden wallet, where users can execute and prove transactions in their browser, will be the first application built with this SDK, and Web-GPU will be coming soon. You can experiment with the Typescript SDK here.
6. Improvement to the Miden client CLI: In the Miden client CLI, users can now also use decimals to specify asset amounts, e.g. sending 1.1 POL. Also, users can export their accounts using the CLI. Exporting accounts can be used to transfer them to another machine or simply store them in a safe place. Additionally, there is a token mapping file to map the faucet account ID to the token symbol.
7. Basic wallet changes: It is now possible to send notes without assets via the basic wallet. The send_asset procedure was split into create_note and move_asset_into_note
8. Further improvements: The increase of the nonce does not require changes in account state anymore. This is helpful if users want to create notes without assets. Also, the `miden_lib::notes::build_swap_tag()` is now public.

Developers and pioneers can look up all changes for the new version in the corresponding changelogs (base, client, node).

This new version focuses on developer-facing features, but includes many other changes, simplifications, and improvements behind the scenes.

What's Next?

In the coming weeks, expect the following:

• A fully working Rust compiler
• Oracle support
• Network transactions 

Tune into the blog and our social channels to keep up with updates about Polygon.

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