Hiding zero-knowledge latency is a UX problem

Proofs take seconds. Players will not wait seconds.

Mina Mastermind is a guessing game where every move is verified on-chain with a zero-knowledge proof. The cryptography is the point, and it’s slow. The design problem wasn’t making the game fun; it was making the wait disappear.

Spend the wait before the player notices

We moved proving out of the critical path. Setup compiles circuits while the player reads the rules. Warm-up puzzles run during the slowest step. By the time a real move needs a proof, most of the work is already done, and the result feels instant.

Latency you can’t hide, you narrate

When a wait is unavoidable, the worst thing is a dead spinner. A line of honest copy (“proving your move”) buys more patience than any animation. People wait for things they understand.