Deep Dive
1. Purpose and privacy technology
Midnight is a Cardano partner chain for building applications that need both privacy and verification. It uses zero-knowledge proofs, which let someone prove a statement is true without revealing the information behind it. For example, an app could verify an eligibility requirement without exposing a user’s full personal details. (Midnight overview)
2. NIGHT and DUST
NIGHT is publicly visible; it is not itself a privacy token and is not spent directly on transaction fees. Instead, holding NIGHT generates DUST, a private, non-transferable resource that is consumed to pay fees. The network’s total NIGHT supply is capped at 24 billion. NIGHT is also intended to support governance, though governance features may develop over time. (Token guide)
Conclusion
Midnight is infrastructure for apps that need selective privacy, while NIGHT supports the network by generating its fee resource, DUST. How well can its applications make privacy useful without sacrificing verifiability?
