Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, officially announced the launch of Midnight Network's federated mainnet on July 30. Dubbing the week 'Midnight Week', he declared that cryptography is responding to a systemic crisis and that Midnight is the infrastructure the crypto industry needs.
Not a Sidechain or L2: What Is Midnight?
Midnight is positioned as a 'partner chain' to Cardano, developed by IOG and managed by the Midnight Foundation. It integrates deeply with the Cardano main chain but operates independently with its own consensus and fee mechanism. Hoskinson stressed the design is not meant to replace Cardano but to provide a compliant parallel track for institutional use cases requiring privacy.
ZK Zero-Knowledge + Hybrid Ledger: How Privacy Works
The core of Midnight employs a hybrid ledger architecture: only public state hashes are stored on-chain, while all private data is processed off-chain. ZK-SNARKs zero-knowledge proofs are submitted on-chain. Built on the Kachina framework with Pluto-Eris elliptic curves, proofs are generated locally on user devices, ensuring private information never leaves the user. Selective disclosure allows compliance: users can prove age, credit score, or KYC status to regulators without exposing raw data. The smart contract language Compact, based on TypeScript, forces developers to explicitly declare private data at the language level. Official performance claims 1,000+ TPS with block confirmation under 1 second.
Dual Token System: NIGHT for Governance, DUST for Privacy
Midnight uses a dual-token design. NIGHT is a transferable governance and utility token; holders can participate in network governance without consumption. DUST is non-transferable and generated every 7 days by holding or staking NIGHT, used as a privacy resource to pay transaction fees. The separation aims to prevent whales from monopolizing on-chain private computation via NIGHT.
Ecosystem Partners: From Google Cloud to Monument Bank
The launch partners span multiple sectors: cloud infrastructure includes Google Cloud and Blockdaemon; payments feature MoneyGram; communications layer includes Telegram and Vodafone's Pairpoint; fintech includes eToro and AlphaTON. The most notable is the tokenization deal with UK-based Monument Bank, worth £250 million (~$320 million). Hoskinson called it 'one of the most important partnerships ever', covering tokenization of deposit certificates and other bank assets. He also revealed Midnight's architecture can extend to Bitcoin and XRP Ledger, not limited to Cardano.
ADA Drops to $0.24, Community Mocks 'Privacy' of Upside
Amid Hoskinson's declaration of a crypto turning point, ADA fell to $0.24, its lowest since June 2023. Community sarcasm followed: Midnight's privacy tech is so advanced that it kept its upside potential 'watertight' from the market. Hoskinson says cryptography answers a systemic crisis, but ADA holders face another—whether Midnight Network will provide the solution remains to be seen.