Cardano’s creator discloses the midnight launch plan

crypthub

about 5 hours ago

Midnight Network Vision

Charles Hoskinson introduced Midnight as a privacy‑and‑identity layer that extends, not competes with, existing blockchains. It aims to interoperate with Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, XRP and allow payments in each chain’s token. The goal is to give developers new capabilities while preserving user anonymity.

Four‑Gate Launch Plan

The rollout follows four stages: (1) token liquidity and price discovery on Dec 8 2025, (2) a federated mainnet in Q1 2026 with IOG and enterprise nodes, (3) an incentivized testnet to validate a high‑throughput consensus (~5,000 TPS), and (4) a hard‑fork to the final mainnet with broad exchange access. Each gate moves Midnight toward full decentralization and cross‑chain privacy services.

Dual‑Token Model and Use Cases

NIGHT holders earn DUST, a consumable fuel that can be exchanged for other chain tokens or delegated to DApps, enabling free user interaction without prior crypto purchase. Hoskinson claims this mirrors Web2 frictionless payments and addresses AI‑driven privacy threats by allowing zero‑knowledge proof verification of attributes without revealing identity.

Governance and Ecosystem Position

Midnight’s code governance will be hosted by the Linux Foundation and overseen by a KPI‑driven Midnight Foundation, aiming for faster delivery than Cardano’s current model. Hoskinson describes a “crypto triumvirate”: Bitcoin as trust/value, Cardano as computation, and Midnight as privacy/identity. Success depends on meeting the 2026 timeline for each launch gate.