Foundational knowledge about Midnight Network zero-knowledge blockchain technology, privacy mechanisms, and architecture. Use when users need to understand zero-knowledge proofs, privacy mechanisms like Zswap and selective disclosure, partner chain architecture, real-world use cases for private DeFi and voting, when to use Midnight for privacy-preserving applications, and core concepts of the Midnight ecosystem.
Comprehensive guide to Midnight Network's foundational concepts, privacy technology, and architecture.
Midnight is a zero-knowledge partner chain to Cardano that enables privacy-preserving blockchain applications. It solves the fundamental tension between transparency and privacy in blockchain technology through advanced zero-knowledge cryptography.
Key Innovation: Selective disclosure - applications can choose exactly what information to make public and what to keep private, while maintaining verifiability.
THE foundational smart contract architecture. See kachina-protocol.md for:
Midnight's unique hybrid architecture. See ledger-models.md for:
Mathematical techniques that prove computations were performed correctly without revealing the underlying data. See zk-proofs.md for detailed explanation.
See privacy-mechanisms.md for complete details.
See architecture.md for technical details.
Midnight enables entirely new categories of blockchain applications:
See use-cases.md for detailed examples.
Use Midnight when building applications that require:
Use scripts/concept-explainer.py to explore concepts interactively with examples.