This week, the hottest topic in the Cardano community is definitely Charles Hoskinson's direct halt of the allocation plan for 18 million $NIGHT by Liqwid DAO. On the surface, it seems like a governance dispute, but it fundamentally strikes at the core of all privacy public chains—the challenge of finding a balance between privacy and compliance.
I have always felt that most privacy projects on the market are taking the route of 'completely hiding away,' wishing they could weld all transaction data onto the chain. What’s the result? As soon as regulators reach out, they break down; traditional institutions simply dare not touch them. But Midnight's approach of 'rational privacy' really resonates with me: it’s not about hiding, but about having the right to decide who can see and to what extent, which is the kind of privacy that should exist in the era of compliance.
I specifically delved into its dual ledger design, and honestly, it was quite eye-opening. A common issue with public chains is that gas fees and coin prices are tied together; when the coin price rises, users get squeezed out. Midnight uses $NIGHT to generate DUST as fuel, and DUST cannot be traded; once used, it decays—this means that as long as you have a base position, the on-chain usage cost remains stable, and you don’t have to be anxiously watching gas prices every day. This design is truly unique in the privacy race.
There are certainly controversies; having Google Cloud as an infrastructure partner is a bit delicate for a network that emphasizes decentralization. But if we think from another perspective, if Midnight really wants to penetrate the compliance market of traditional finance, large-scale computing power is an unavoidable hurdle. Charles also mentioned that this is just a hardware layer collaboration, and the protocol layer is still decentralized; let’s tentatively believe half of it.
My strategy is straightforward: the $NIGHT I received from the airdrop, I will hold onto it without selling or increasing my position. When the mainnet launches at the end of March, I will focus on ecosystem projects like Bodega Labs—if it can truly achieve a commercial closed loop of 'privacy + compliance', then Midnight will not be just another air coin, but a public chain that can truly land.
#night #MidnightNetwork @MidnightNetwork $NIGHT
