What is Midnight (NIGHT)

I. Project Introduction

1. What Is Midnight?

Midnight ($NIGHT) is a privacy-focused Layer-1 blockchain developed by Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Cardano. It leverages Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZK) technology to provide practical utility while maintaining robust data protection and ownership. Midnight is designed to safeguard user, business, and transaction data along with metadata. This is achieved through a protocol featuring a dual public–private ledger secured by ZK proofs and a two-part tokenomics structure designed to protect metadata.

2. How Does Midnight Work?

1) Midnight is a privacy-focused blockchain that combines public verifiability with confidential data processing. Users can build applications using Midnight's selective disclosure and ZK proofs for the following purposes: verifying correctness without revealing sensitive data, sharing only the information they choose to disclose, and proving compliance while keeping private records confidential.

2) Data Protection Blockchain: Midnight maintains two parallel states:

Public State: Traditional blockchain data stored on-chain and visible to all network participants. This includes transaction proofs, contract code, and any information deliberately made public.

Private State: Encrypted data stored locally by the user and not exposed to the network. This includes personal information, business data, and any sensitive content that must be kept confidential.

3) Zero-Knowledge Proofs: The bridge between the public and private states is Zero-Knowledge Cryptography. By utilizing zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge), Midnight can achieve several key functions: verify outcomes of computations without accessing the underlying data, generate concise and efficient proofs regardless of computational complexity, and validate proofs on-chain in milliseconds.

4) The Compact Programming Language: Midnight introduces Compact, a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) based on TypeScript. It is designed to make writing privacy-preserving smart contracts accessible to mainstream developers. Developers do not need specialized cryptography; they simply write familiar code which is then automatically compiled into Zero-Knowledge circuits.

3. Who Founded Midnight?

1) Fahmi Syed: Chairman of the Midnight Foundation, former CFO of Input Output (IOHK) Midnight and Parity Technologies, and Treasurer at Marshall Wace. Holds a Bachelor's from UCL.

2) Sebastien Guillemot: CTO of the Midnight Foundation, co-founder of ShinKai Network, Paima Studios, and dcSpark.io (where he was also CTO). Previously served as Co-VP of Engineering and Cardano Product Manager at Emurgo, Head of R&D Engineering at Emurgo, and a Microsoft Developer.

3) Jenna Peterson: COO of the Midnight Foundation, a strategic advisor at Arancione LLC, and a member of the Cosmos Cartel. Previous roles include CEO of the Injective Foundation, Senior Advisor at OnMinverva, Director of Technology at Stevens Capital Management LP, IT Manager at Waterfront International Ltd, and Analyst at Trout Trading Company.

Funding: Undisclosed.

4. Midnight Tokenomics

Total supply of Midnight tokens: 24 billion. Token allocation is as follows:

Glacier Drop: 14.78%

Scavenger Mine: 4.17%

Lost-and-Found: 1.05%

Midnight Foundation: 35%

Reserve: 25%

On-Chain Treasury: 4.75%

The community-allocated tokens will enter circulation according to the Glacier Drop Vesting Schedule, which begins on December 10, 2025. The schedule is as follows:

Four Equal Installments: Each allocation will be released in four equal installments (25% per installment).

Random Start Date: Each destination address will be assigned a random start date between December 10, 2025, and early March 2026 (the first 90-day window).

Quarterly Unlocks: Following the specific start date, the remaining three installments will unlock every 90 days.

Vesting Countdown: A countdown will be displayed on the redemption portal showing the number of days until the user's next claim.

5. Token Utility

Midnight introduces a dual-component tokenomics system comprised of NIGHT and DUST.

NIGHT is the core utility and governance asset, and its primary functions include: generating DUST resources to facilitate transactions; participating in network governance, including fund allocation and protocol upgrades; staking NIGHT via validator nodes to secure the network and earn rewards (Note: These last two features will not be live at mainnet launch and will be introduced in future upgrades based on governance decisions).

DUST is a protected, non-transferable resource required to execute private transactions: it is generated automatically by holding NIGHT; it allows for effective, free transactions without any capital expenditure, provided the NIGHT holder possesses enough tokens to generate the required minimum DUST; it is used to execute data and metadata-protected transactions, ensuring wallet addresses, transaction amounts, and timestamps are never exposed on the public ledger; it is non-transferable, making it suitable for compliant private computation and other uses.​

II. Token Information

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