Midnight Launches Testnet in Major Step Toward Transforming the Approach to Data Governance

Midnight, partner chain to Cardano, unlocks seamless ZK dApp development, empowering developers to build data protection, compliant applications.

Tuesday, October 1st, 2024, Midnight, a data protection blockchain that can function as an L1 or L2, launching as a partner chain to Cardano and designed to be compatible with other chains.

The Midnight testnet launched, quickly following the recent publication of the Midnight ‘Nightpaper,’ detailing the project’s innovative smart contract design and use of ZK technology to protect data and metadata. Midnight’s infrastructure ultimately grants new levels of programmability to developers building large-scale applications and enables them to design them to comply with local regulations. The testnet launch signals a major step in Midnight’s roadmap to solve the threefold challenges faced when building dApps for widespread adoption:  data protection, ownership, and utilization.

Learn more about how to participate in testnet in the official blog post and by visiting Midnight’s developer hub page and Discord. The Nightpaper can be found here.

Midnight empowers developers to build data protection applications by basing its programming language, Compact, on TypeScript, one of the world’s most popular programming languages. Developers across the web are invited to take part in Midnight’s testnet to build future-proof applications ahead of the network’s mainnet launch.

Midnight’s innovation lies in its unique smart contract design, inspired by the Kachina whitepaper, which can alternate between public and private ledgers using zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. The use of ZKPs, specifically ZK SNARKs, enables Midnight to provide transparency while safeguarding sensitive information through the use of selective disclosure, a novel capability that gives developers flexibility when deciding which data to make public.

Specifically, selective disclosure allows for the shielding of wallet addresses and transaction metadata, unless one party should decide to reveal that information to another. More information on the technology and its intended use cases are also detailed in the Nightpaper.

Benjamin Beckmann, CTO of Midnight, said: “ZKPs are complex to build correctly, and yet they are critical to unlocking data protection dApps that are able to meet regulatory requirements while ensuring safe and secure data handling. We believe these are key to blockchain’s wider adoption, which is why Midnight’s programming language was designed to empower developers committed to building enterprise-ready dApps through familiar tooling. With testnet launch, we’re looking forward to seeing the innovative projects that result, while continuing to support developers, users, and ecosystem members interested in engaging in the fourth generation of blockchain technology.”

Eran Barak, CEO of Midnight, added: “Midnight is committed to bringing Web3 innovation to the masses via community collaboration and technological interoperability with other ecosystems. For this reason, as detailed in our Nightpaper, we’re working to enable any Web3 project to leverage Midnight’s capabilities to meet their needs, no matter which chain they call home. Through this flexible design, Midnight seeks to make programmable data protection and selective disclosure available to all use cases.”