I think Secret Network had the most interesting idea in the privacy space before Midnight arrived. Programmable privacy through encrypted smart contracts. Data inputs and outputs kept private while computation executes on chain. That was genuinely novel and it attracted real developer interest for good reason.
But Secret Network relies on trusted execution environments. Hardware based security. Which means the privacy guarantee depends on trusting that the hardware has not been compromised and that the manufacturer operates in good faith under all circumstances.
That is a different trust assumption than pure cryptographic privacy. And in an environment where geopolitical pressure on hardware manufacturers is a real and growing concern it is a trust assumption worth examining carefully.
Midnight's zero knowledge proof approach does not rely on hardware assumptions. The privacy guarantee lives entirely in the mathematics. No trusted hardware. No manufacturer dependency. No single physical point where the guarantee can be pressured.
Same problem, Different foundation and the foundation matters more than most people currently realize.