Most L2s still run Ethereum’s original machine: a shared computer that re-executes every transaction so the network can agree on one public state. That design cannot do real finance. Privacy becomes a patch. Independent payments still wait in a global queue. Complex business logic is expensive, and every competitor can watch it. @0xMiden claim is that ZK changes the job of a chain. If a user can execute locally and prove the transition was valid, the network does not need the transaction. It needs the proof. That is an edge blockchain. Your account state lives with you. The chain stores a commitment, not the account. Notes move value between accounts. A transaction is one account updating itself and publishing a STARK. The network verifies the proof, updates commitments, and records nullifiers. It does not replay your payroll or learn your balance unless you chose a public account. This is why they skipped the zkEVM path. EVM-compatibility copies Ethereum cheaper. It still assumes a transparent world computer. You can wrap that in proofs. You cannot make it stop leaking and stop serializing. users keep local state, devices must prove, and shared public state still needs the network. But the thesis is simple. Bitcoin was gold. Ethereum was a public computer. Miden is trying to be settlement for accounts that prove themselves.