In recent days, everyone has seen the situation between the US and Iran, right? Missiles are flying back and forth in the Strait of Hormuz, and the oil pipelines are about to become targets.
In the past, when such a level of physical world smoke appeared, Bitcoin would have been the first to kneel. But this time it's different—ranging from 70,000 to 73,000, then back again, it just didn't go down.
Some say this is the "digital gold" finally coming of age. There’s some truth to that.
When things in the physical world suddenly become unreliable, a string of code that can run in satellite signals indeed seems sturdy. This wave has held up, no doubt.
But here's the problem.
As the war drags on to 2026, it's no longer just missiles that count as weapons. Information is too.
How much money do you have in your wallet, who have you traded with, where does the money come from and where does it go—these things are all public on the Bitcoin chain. Normally, transparency feels good, but when it comes to the game of chance, it’s like showing your underwear to others.
So I've been pondering something called Midnight recently.
It has a rather crafty angle.
It doesn’t take the extreme route of "absolute anonymity" but lets you choose: what to prove, what to hide. You can use ZK to make a proof, telling the other party, "I qualify to do this business with you," but without having to reveal the transaction history of your ancestors.
Technically, it’s quite interesting. A dual-token model, $NIGHT holds the DUST, and DUST is used for transactions. This means you don’t have to consume core assets to pay transaction fees; you just hold it. Charles Hoskinson himself invested 200 million dollars in this project, without letting VCs interfere. Partners include big names like Google Cloud, MoneyGram, and Vodafone.
In short, Bitcoin helps you protect your money, and Midnight@MidnightNetwork helps you protect your information.
It’s not about one replacing the other; in this day and age, you need both.
The more uncertain the physical world is, the more valuable that bit of privacy in the digital world becomes. What do you think?