Why is it now like getting onto Ethereum in early 2017 at @0xMiden?

First, Miden, as a project that has emerged independently from the Polygon ecosystem, has just completed a $25 million funding round led by a16z, 1kx, and Hack VC. Its positioning is to serve as an edge blockchain specifically for institutions, focusing on local execution + programmable privacy.

Second, the technical barrier has been lowered sufficiently. The overall architecture of Miden is very hardcore: the STARK series zkVM, client-side execution, and only verification on the chain, but it tries to maintain "syntax friendliness" for developers. You can write business logic in Rust, compile it into Miden Assembly to run on the chain, and the official toolchain, wallet, and demo have all been open-sourced on GitHub and the official website. For Web3 veterans, the learning curve is much friendlier than learning a new DSL from scratch.

Third, the narrative is perfectly positioned at the right moment. Compliance privacy, institutional funds, RWA, payments, gaming—these are all main themes that will definitely be repeatedly discussed in the next two to three years. The Miden official white paper directly describes itself as "the programmable privacy network for the next generation of compliant finance," naturally placing it at the center of the big story.