Hoskinson Confirms Midnight Mainnet Launch in March

TheNewsCryptoPublished on 2026-02-12Last updated on 2026-02-12

Abstract

Charles Hoskinson, founder of Input Output Global (IOG), announced that the Midnight privacy-focused blockchain will officially launch in the last week of March. The announcement was made during his keynote at Consensus Hong Kong. Midnight uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable selective data disclosure, allowing users to share specific information while keeping the rest private. It will function as a partner chain to Cardano, balancing privacy and regulatory compliance. Hoskinson also revealed the Midnight City Simulation, an interactive platform demonstrating how the network handles transaction privacy and scalability. The test involves AI-driven agents simulating real-world demand, proving the network’s readiness for mainstream use. Key partners include Google and Telegram.

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of a leading blockchain and research company, Input Output Global, publicised on February 12 that Midnight, the highly anticipated privacy-focused blockchain of the company, will officially roll out in the last week of March.

The announcement came amid the keynote speech of Hoskinson at Consensus Hong Kong, indicating a significant step forward in IOG’s efforts to take data protection and regulatory compliance to decentralised systems.

In the announcement, he stated that, “We have some significant partnerships to help us run it, and Google is one of them, and Telegram is another. We are highly excited there is more that will come.”

The Midnight City Simulation

Midnight leverages zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to permit selective disclosure. Think of it as a smart curtain for blockchain data, permitting users to share only what they select while keeping the remainder private.

It acts as a partner chain to the smart contract platform Cardano and offers privacy and regulatory compliance for decentralised applications. Along with the mainnet timeline, Hoskinson revealed Midnight City Simulation, an interactive platform providing a glimpse of how Midnight offers scalable privacy via selective disclosure.

Rational privacy makes sure that transaction data is still private by default, while particular information can be shared with authorised parties when needed. This flexibility helps in balancing transparency and confidentiality on the blockchain via different disclosure views, specified as public, auditor, and god, each having a different access level.

The simulation, organised at Midnight City, became functional at 10:00 a.m. Hong Kong time Thursday; however, public access to the simulation stays prohibited until Feb 26, as per the press release.

The simulation, operating on the Midnight network and enrolling AI-driven agents that collaborate to make a steady flow of transactions, indicates how finely the blockchain can perform real-world demand and scales according to it.

IOG mentioned that this test shows the capability of the network to keep generating and processing proofs at scale, a significant step in proving it is ready for real-world use.

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