What Is Midnight Blockchain? Charles Hoskinson’s Privacy Chain Explained

Midnight is a privacy-focused blockchain developed by Enter Output World (IOG) and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson that makes use of zero-knowledge proofs to allow selective disclosure of information. The platform operates as a companion chain to Cardano and permits customers to show information about their knowledge with out revealing the information itself, addressing a elementary drawback in blockchain adoption: use distributed ledgers whereas sustaining privateness required for regulated industries like healthcare and finance.

Hoskinson introduced throughout his keynote at Consensus Hong Kong in February 2025 that Midnight will formally launch through the ultimate week of March. The undertaking has secured partnerships with Google and Telegram to assist run the community.

When Is Midnight Launching?

The Midnight mainnet is scheduled to go reside within the ultimate week of March 2025. This timeline represents years of growth by IOG, the identical firm behind Cardano’s research-driven method to blockchain expertise.

Alongside the mainnet launch, Hoskinson unveiled Midnight Metropolis Simulation, an interactive platform hosted at midnight.metropolis that demonstrates how the blockchain handles privateness via selective disclosure.

The simulation makes use of AI-driven brokers that work together unpredictably to create a gradual stream of transactions, exhibiting how the community handles real-world demand and scales accordingly. Public entry to the simulation was restricted till February 26, 2025.

The $NIGHT token, Midnight’s native utility token, already launched in December 2024 on a number of exchanges together with OKX, Bybit, and MEXC. The token skilled typical launch volatility however recovered sharply and moved towards a $1 billion valuation in its first weeks. Early token distribution got here via the Glacier airdrop, the primary of a number of launch intervals scheduled via 2026.

How Does Midnight Work?

Midnight operates as a fourth-generation proof-of-stake blockchain that makes use of recursive zk-SNARKs (Zero-Data Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Data) to allow personal computation on public infrastructure. The technical structure separates what will get saved publicly on the blockchain from what stays personal in user-controlled storage.

Twin-State Structure

In contrast to conventional blockchains the place each transaction is completely seen to all individuals, Midnight maintains two parallel states working concurrently.

The general public state features like a standard blockchain. Transaction proofs, good contract code, and any deliberately public data get saved on-chain the place all community individuals can see them. This supplies the transparency and verifiability that make blockchains helpful for coordination between events that do not belief one another.

The personal state consists of encrypted knowledge saved regionally by customers that by no means will get uncovered to the community. Private data, enterprise knowledge, medical information, or any delicate content material stays confidential in user-controlled storage slightly than being broadcast to validators and completely recorded on a public ledger.

The important thing innovation is the bridge between these two states. Utilizing zero-knowledge cryptography, Midnight can confirm computations with out seeing the enter knowledge, show statements are true with out revealing why they’re true, generate compact proofs of simply 128 bytes no matter computation complexity, and validate these proofs in milliseconds on-chain.

Zero-Data Proofs Defined

Zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic strategies that enable one celebration to show to a different {that a} assertion is true with out revealing any data past the validity of the assertion itself.

On Midnight, this expertise allows sensible functions. A healthcare system can show a affected person qualifies for therapy with out revealing their full medical historical past. A monetary utility can confirm an account has adequate stability with out exposing the precise quantity. A voting system can show somebody is eligible to vote with out revealing their identification.

The method works via a particular transaction stream. Customers carry out computations on their personal knowledge regionally, by no means exposing it to the community.

The Midnight runtime generates a zero-knowledge proof of this computation, creating mathematical proof that the computation was carried out accurately with out revealing the inputs. This proof, together with any meant public outputs, will get submitted to the blockchain.

Community validators confirm the proof utilizing the zk-SNARK verification algorithm, which takes solely milliseconds regardless of the complexity of the unique computation.

What Makes Midnight Totally different From Different Privateness Blockchains?

Midnight takes a basically totally different method in comparison with legacy privateness cash like Monero or Zcash, which prioritize whole anonymity. As an alternative of constructing the whole lot personal by default, Midnight allows selective disclosure, permitting customers to decide on precisely what data to disclose and to whom.

Selective Disclosure vs Whole Anonymity

The platform implements what Hoskinson calls “rational privateness” via a number of disclosure views. Public view exhibits what anybody can see on the blockchain. Auditor view reveals extra data to licensed events like regulators or compliance officers. God view supplies full transparency for debugging or excessive compliance situations.

This structure addresses a crucial drawback that prevented earlier privateness blockchains from mainstream adoption: regulatory compliance.

Frameworks like GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and HIPAA for healthcare require tight management over private knowledge, however additionally they require the flexibility to share particular data with licensed events when legally required. Whole anonymity makes compliance not possible. Whole transparency violates privateness legal guidelines. Midnight supplies the center floor.

The design philosophy acknowledges that public knowledge is usually fascinating and important in decentralized methods. Customers need to be part of good contracts freely, and contracts are designed with out realizing who will use them forward of time. This requires some sharing of information.

An auctioneer needs to indicate what’s being auctioned and maybe the present highest bid, whereas a purchaser needs to maintain their identification secret. An insurance coverage firm might record insurance policies publicly whereas shoppers preserve coverage particulars personal.

Compact Programming Language

Midnight introduces Compact, a domain-specific language primarily based on TypeScript that makes privacy-preserving good contracts accessible to mainstream builders. This represents one of many first efforts to make zero-knowledge growth accessible to non-cryptographers.

As an alternative of requiring deep cryptographic experience to construct privacy-enabled functions, builders write acquainted code that mechanically compiles to zero-knowledge circuits. Compact forces builders to specify what stays personal and what seems publicly on-chain, making privateness choices express within the code slightly than an afterthought.

This accessibility is a sensible requirement if Midnight expects to realize adoption past a distinct segment consumer base of cryptography specialists. Ethereum succeeded partly as a result of Solidity made good contract growth accessible to common programmers. Compact makes an attempt to do the identical for zero-knowledge functions.

What Is The $NIGHT Token?

$NIGHT is Midnight’s native utility token with a complete provide of 24 billion tokens. The token serves a particular technical goal within the community’s financial mannequin slightly than functioning as a easy fee foreign money.

$NIGHT And DUST Mechanism

Midnight implements an uncommon token mechanism the place $NIGHT tokens generate DUST, a renewable useful resource that powers all transactions on the community. Consider $NIGHT as photo voltaic panels that repeatedly generate electrical energy. Simply as photo voltaic panels produce vitality when uncovered to daylight, $NIGHT tokens repeatedly generate DUST when designated to a DUST tackle.

DUST shouldn’t be a token itself however a shielded community useful resource used completely to pay transaction charges. The quantity of DUST you possibly can retailer is proportional to your $NIGHT stability. DUST decays when disconnected from its producing $NIGHT tokens. This mechanism supplies operational predictability. So long as you maintain $NIGHT, you possibly can execute transactions with out worrying about risky gasoline costs like these on Ethereum.

This design solves an issue that plagues many blockchains: unpredictable transaction prices. During times of excessive community utilization, gasoline costs on Ethereum have spiked to tons of of {dollars} per transaction, making the community unusable for a lot of functions. Midnight’s $NIGHT-generates-DUST mannequin ensures that transaction prices stay predictable and proportional to stake slightly than topic to public sale dynamics.

Token Distribution Mannequin

Midnight launched with an unconventional cross-chain allocation mannequin that distributes 100% of $NIGHT‘s provide throughout eight main ecosystems: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Cardano, and three others. This method deliberately pulls customers from a number of blockchain communities right into a shared privateness surroundings slightly than isolating exercise inside Cardano alone.

The distribution occurred via the Glacier airdrop to eligible addresses throughout these ecosystems, with extra allocation mechanisms together with computational duties referred to as the “scavenger hunt” the place individuals remedy issues for token rewards.

The undertaking launched a MiCA-compliant whitepaper for its token distribution, addressing European regulatory necessities from the outset.

What Can You Construct On Midnight?

Midnight targets use instances the place privateness is legally required or commercially needed, opening blockchain expertise to functions that can’t function on totally clear ledgers.

Healthcare And Regulated Knowledge

Healthcare methods face strict rules round affected person knowledge beneath frameworks like HIPAA in the US and GDPR in Europe. Conventional blockchains make compliance not possible as a result of they completely expose all transaction knowledge to anybody working a node.

On Midnight, healthcare functions can change affected person knowledge utilizing policy-based entry guidelines. Good contracts implement who can see what data, whereas zero-knowledge proofs verify eligibility, participation, or compliance.

Delicate medical information by no means seem on-chain, however proofs confirm required situations like therapy eligibility or insurance coverage protection with out revealing full medical histories.

A sensible instance: a affected person visiting a specialist may show they’ve the required referral from their main care physician with out revealing their total medical historical past to the specialist’s workplace. The specialist receives cryptographic proof of the referral’s validity with out accessing unrelated medical data.

Finance And Compliant Privateness

Monetary establishments want privateness for aggressive and authorized causes but additionally face regulatory necessities for reporting and auditing. Public blockchains expose transaction quantities, frequencies, and counterparties to rivals and the general public. Personal databases lack the transparency that makes blockchain helpful for coordination between untrusting events.

Midnight allows monetary functions to carry out personal transfers whereas assembly regulatory necessities via selective disclosure.

A financial institution can show it maintains required capital reserves with out revealing particular buyer balances. A buying and selling desk can settle transactions with out exposing its positions to rivals whereas nonetheless offering auditors with required data.

The platform additionally helps decentralized finance functions that want privateness choices. Conventional DeFi on clear blockchains suffers from MEV (maximal extractable worth) the place merchants front-run transactions they’ll see within the mempool. Midnight’s structure permits for personal order submission whereas retaining market costs public.

Governance And Id

Midnight helps selective disclosure credentials and personal voting methods. Customers can show membership, eligibility, or participation with out revealing their full identification or exercise historical past. Ultimate outcomes stay publicly verifiable whereas particular person actions keep personal.

Think about a company governance state of affairs the place shareholders vote on firm choices. On a public blockchain, everybody can see how every shareholder voted, probably creating strain or retaliation.

On Midnight, the system can show every vote got here from an eligible shareholder with the right variety of shares whereas retaining particular person voting choices personal. The ultimate tally stays verifiable with out compromising voter privateness.

How Does Midnight Join To Cardano?

Midnight operates as a companion chain to Cardano slightly than a layer-2 scaling answer. Price noting, companion chains are unbiased blockchains with their very own validators and consensus mechanisms that keep bridges to the first chain for asset transfers.

The community maintains a local bridge to Cardano for shifting belongings between the chains. This allows interoperability the place customers can maintain belongings on Cardano’s clear ledger however transfer them to Midnight when privateness is required, then again to Cardano when transparency is most popular.

Midnight makes use of a hybrid UTXO and account-based structure. At its basis, the blockchain operates on a UTXO mannequin like Bitcoin and Cardano, which allows pure parallelism and privateness options. $NIGHT tokens exist as UTXOs on the ledger. On prime of this UTXO basis, Midnight introduces a sensible contract layer that may function utilizing account-based patterns like Ethereum, permitting builders to keep up complicated state in contracts.

This hybrid method means builders aren’t pressured into one paradigm. They will use UTXO patterns for environment friendly parallel processing and privacy-enabled worth switch, whereas utilizing account-based patterns in good contracts for complicated state administration.

A decentralized change, for instance, may keep its order guide and market-making logic in clear good contracts whereas executing precise token swaps as atomic UTXO transactions that leverage parallelism and optionally available privateness.

Validators take part in Midnight via proof-of-stake consensus, contributing to community safety whereas incomes rewards. The identical validators course of each customary public transactions that perform like conventional blockchain operations and shielded transactions that use zero-knowledge proofs to keep up privateness.

Conclusion

Midnight supplies a privacy-focused blockchain platform that addresses regulatory compliance necessities via selective disclosure slightly than whole anonymity. The platform makes use of zero-knowledge proofs to allow verification of computations with out exposing underlying knowledge, maintains twin private and non-private state structure, and introduces Compact programming language to make privacy-preserving growth accessible to mainstream builders.

With partnerships from Google and Telegram, a March 2025 mainnet launch, and integration with Cardano’s current ecosystem, Midnight enters the market as IOG’s try and convey privateness capabilities to blockchain use instances in healthcare, finance, governance, and identification administration. The $NIGHT token’s distribution throughout eight blockchain ecosystems and its DUST technology mechanism for predictable transaction prices symbolize the technical basis for the community’s operation.

Sources

1. Report by CoinDesk 1: Privateness-focused Midnight blockchain to go reside subsequent month, says Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson

2. Report by CoinDesk 2: Cardano Ecosystem Will get a Privateness Increase as Midnight’s $NIGHT Goes Reside

3. Midnight docs: About Midnight

4. Midnight web site: Basic data