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Midnight

<p>In today’s digital economy, data is either harvested in secret or exposed on fully transparent ledgers. Both extremes are unsustainable.</p>
<p>Midnight is built around the idea that people, businesses and regulators all need verifiable transparency without forcing everyone to put their lives on public display.</p>
<p>It achieves this by making privacy the default and enabling controlled, auditable disclosure only where it’s genuinely needed.</p>
<h2 id="what-is-midnight">What is Midnight?</h2>
<p>Midnight is a fourth-generation blockchain designed specifically for data protection and rational privacy.</p>
<p>It provides an execution environment where sensitive commercial and personal data can be processed, proved and audited without being publicly exposed on a block explorer.</p>
<h3 id="the-problem-of-privacy">The Problem of Privacy</h3>
<p>Most digital systems today sit at one end of the spectrum of privacy.</p>
<p>On one side, Web2 platforms and ad-tech stacks quietly collect and trade enormous volumes of personal data, usually via “opt-in by default” settings that few people ever meaningfully review.</p>
<p>On the other hand, early public blockchains hard-wired radical transparency into their design: Every transaction, balance and interaction is visible forever.</p>
<p>That might work for simple payments, but it is incompatible with regulated workloads like healthcare records, HR systems or private B2B deals.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, from a user perspective, it is both practically challenging and legally implausible to maintain absolute privacy when interacting with Web2 or Web3 products and services.</p>
<h3 id="the-rational-privacy-standard">The Rational Privacy Standard</h3>
<p>Midnight’s answer is rational privacy. Instead of “share everything or share nothing,” rational privacy treats disclosure as a programmable choice.</p><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/8329e9aede194d0cb89a142be5e51523.jpg">
<p><em>Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/MidnightNtwrk/status/1993349463612469418" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Midnight</a></em></p>
<p>Developers can build applications that keep all sensitive data shielded by default, then selectively reveal only the fields needed to satisfy a business rule, regulator or counterparty. For example, proving that a user is over 18, a transaction is compliant, or a credential is valid, without exposing full identity or raw documents.</p>
<p>To achieve this, Midnight combines zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosure and a smart-contract architecture built for privacy-first applications.</p>
<p>Its design explicitly targets the “privacy trilemma”: delivering privacy, programmability and compliance at the same time, instead of forcing builders to sacrifice one of the three.</p>
<h3 id="unlocking-real-world-adoption">Unlocking Real-World Adoption</h3>
<p>Midnight’s rational-privacy model enables a range of real-world use cases that traditional, fully public chains struggle to serve:</p>
<ul>
 <li><strong>Enterprise &amp; finance:</strong> Confidential bids, private order books, and policy-gated disclosure for audits and KYC.</li>
 <li><strong>Healthcare:</strong> Privacy-preserving patient data sharing with verifiable compliance trails.</li>
 <li><strong>Identity &amp; governance:</strong> Private voting, attestations and reputation that can be verified without exposing personal data.</li>
</ul>
<p>Crucially, Midnight is not trying to replace existing ecosystems.</p>
<p>Architecturally, it is engineered to behave like a privacy layer or “L2 for everyone,” giving other chains an easy way to plug into rational privacy and selective disclosure while keeping their existing user bases and liquidity.</p>
<p>The result is a privacy-preserving blockchain that lets people and organizations prove what’s true, comply with the rules, and still keep what’s sensitive out of public view.</p>
<h2 id="the-night-token">The NIGHT Token</h2>
<p>NIGHT (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/midnight-network/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">NIGHT</a>) is Midnight’s native utility and governance token, designed around a community-first, cooperative economics model. The distribution has been structured to bring in users and builders from many ecosystems rather than concentrating ownership in a small early group.</p>
<p>That philosophy is visible in the Glacier Drop, Midnight’s multi-phase token distribution.</p>
<h3 id="token-distribution-schedule">Token Distribution Schedule</h3>
<p>In Phase 1, self-custodied holders of ADA (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/cardano/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ADA</a>), Bitcoin (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">BTC</a>), Ether (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ETH</a>), SOL (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solana/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">SOL</a>), XRP (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/xrp/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">XRP</a>), BNB (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bnb/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">BNB</a>), AVAX (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/avalanche/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">AVAX</a>) and Basic Attention Token (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/basic-attention-token/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">BAT</a>) could claim NIGHT from a cross-chain snapshot, resulting in over 3.5 billion tokens claimed by 170,000+ addresses.</p>
<p>Phase 2, Scavenger Mine, opened participation to anyone with a standard computer and internet connection, adding 1 billion more NIGHT claimed across over 8 million addresses, making it one of the largest community distributions in the industry.</p>
<p>A variety of exchanges (including Kraken, OKX and Bitpanda) have received an allocation of NIGHT tokens to distribute to their users.</p>
<p>Together, the two phases of Glacier Drop form the core of a distribution that continues with a long-running Redemption period and a final Lost-and-Found phase, ensuring late but eligible participants still have a path to recover a portion of their allocation.</p>
<h3 id="token-resource-model">Token-Resource Model</h3>
<p>Economically, Midnight uses a token-resource model:</p>
<ul>
 <li><strong>NIGHT</strong>: A fixed-supply (24 billion) utility and governance, unshielded token that represents long-term participation in the network, incentivizes usage and development, and acts as the generator for network capacity.</li>
 <li><strong>DUST</strong>: A renewable, shielded resource used to pay for smart-contract execution and privacy-enhancing operations. DUST “recharges” automatically over time based on the amount of NIGHT held, enabling self-funding DApps and removing transaction-fee friction for end users.</li>
</ul>
<p>Following the token launch on Cardano (the Hilo phase), the redemption process has begun: Claimed NIGHT from Glacier Drop and Scavenger Mine unlocks gradually over a 360-day thawing schedule, which then can be redeemed through an official portal into freely transferable tokens. These will later be mirrored onto the Midnight mainnet.</p>
<p></p><react-video url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn39DYe1otU"></react-video>
<h2 id=""></h2>
<h2 id="future-vision">Future Vision</h2>
<p>Midnight positions itself as a fourth-generation blockchain: If Bitcoin gave sound money, Ethereum added programmability, and Cardano focused on governance and scalability, Midnight’s role is to restore privacy and identity to the stack.<a href="https://midnight.network/blog/state-of-the-network-november-2025" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> </a></p>
<p>Its <a href="https://midnight.foundation/news/securing-the-future-of-privacy-and-identity-with-midnights-fourth-generation-technology?utm_source=CoinMarketCap&amp;utm_medium=sponsored_content&amp;utm_campaign=Midnight_NIGHT_InDepth_Dec2025" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">roadmap</a> is organized around four Hawaiian moon phases:</p>
<ul>
 <li><strong>Hilo</strong> (the first NIGHT): The NIGHT token launches on Cardano, liquidity and governance foundations are established, and builders gain a stable environment to prepare applications (in progress).</li>
 <li><strong>Kūkolu</strong> (safe harbor): The Midnight mainnet Genesis block goes live, and the first privacy-enhancing DApps launch on a federated, production-ready network.</li>
 <li><strong>Mōhalu</strong> (expansion): Participation scales through a Scaled Incentivized Testnet and the DUST capacity exchange, bringing more validators and operators into the network’s day-to-day security.</li>
 <li><strong>Hua</strong> (hybrid applications): Privacy technology from Midnight is embedded directly into apps running on other chains, enabling cooperative, cross-ecosystem DApps rather than siloed competitors.</li>
</ul>
<p>Across these phases, Midnight aims to behave like a privacy and compliance layer for the broader Web3 ecosystem: interoperable, developer-friendly and capable of meeting real regulatory requirements without recreating surveillance capitalism.</p>
<h2 id="closing-thoughts">Closing Thoughts</h2>
<p>Midnight is a privacy-preserving, fourth-generation blockchain that makes privacy the default while allowing precise, programmable disclosure for compliance and real-world business needs.</p>
<p>Its rational privacy model solves the tension between transparency, usability and regulation, opening the door to enterprise, healthcare, identity and financial applications that can’t live on fully public ledgers.</p>
<p>The NIGHT-DUST token-resource economy — delivered through the massive, community-driven Glacier Drop and a carefully staged Redemption process — aligns long-term network ownership with actual users and builders.</p>
<p>NIGHT has been listed on multiple tier-one exchanges, including Binance Alpha, KuCoin, Kraken and Bybit.</p>
<p>Dive into Midnight’s <a href="https://midnight.network/?utm_source=CoinMarketCap&amp;utm_medium=sponsored_content&amp;utm_campaign=Midnight_NIGHT_InDepth_Dec2025" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">website</a>, <a href="https://docs.midnight.network/?utm_source=CoinMarketCap&amp;utm_medium=sponsored_content&amp;utm_campaign=Midnight_NIGHT_InDepth_Dec2025" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">documentation</a> and <a href="https://midnight.network/blog/guide-to-the-night-token-launch-and-redemption?utm_source=CoinMarketCap&amp;utm_medium=sponsored_content&amp;utm_campaign=Midnight_NIGHT_InDepth_Dec2025" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">token launch guide</a> to explore how rational privacy benefits you.</p>
<p><em>(Sponsored)</em></p>

Introducing Midnight: The Compliance-Ready, Privacy-First Blockchain

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