Fahmi Syed, President of the Midnight Foundation
When it comes to blockchain, transparency has long been both its greatest strength and its greatest barrier to mass adoption. While it enables trustless systems and verifiability, it also introduces a critical challenge: the absence of data privacy.
This limitation has prevented banks, fintechs, and payment providers from committing fully because they cannot afford to expose sensitive transactions, internal capital flows, or client metadata on a public chain. Imagine a high-stakes M&A transaction, a payroll run for thousands of employees, or collateral transfers , all visible to everyone. That’s a compliance nightmare, a security risk, and a breach of fiduciary trust.
In traditional systems organisations rely on strict internal controls over data visibility to keep sensitive data confidential. But today’s blockchain infrastructure offers no protection. It makes no distinction and treats all participants the same. Whether you’re a DeFi protocol or a regulated bank, your data gets the same level of public exposure.
As a result, blockchains are often too transparent for serious institutional use, leading organisations to choose between innovation and confidentiality.
It’s not just the institutions that are affected. Developers and DevOps teams that are building the decentralized systems of the future are also impacted. On public chains, every line of smart contract logic (open sourced or proprietary), transaction flow, and deployment configuration is exposed. For engineering teams, that means no ability to control when or how sensitive logic is revealed once deployed, which jeopardizes competitive advantages..
Institutions Still Matter- But They’re Not the Whole Story
Whether you’re an indie dev, a startup in stealth mode, an open-source contributor, or part of a DevOps team building in sectors like healthcare, supply chain, or public services, the lack of privacy tools makes it difficult to build responsibly and compliantly in Web3. Developers don’t need another transparent chain but one where privacy is part of the toolkit.
If DeFi and Web3 are going to scale, the needs of builders and not just institutional stakeholders must also be addressed.
That’s where Midnight comes in. As a privacy-first chain developed by Shielded Technologies (a spinout of Input Output Global, the firm behind Cardano), Midnight offers what the developer community has been asking for: programmable, composable, and scalable privacy that fits seamlessly into the modern development workflow. It’s not privacy as an add-on feature or workaround but privacy as infrastructure. This is what the ecosystem wants and needs.
In its 2024 developer community survey, Shielded Technologies uncovered that developers wanted privacy as a foundational layer with over 78% of respondents viewing it as a core value of blockchain, not an optional feature. But even more telling, a significant portion of those surveyed admitted to avoiding building certain types of applications such as financial tools, healthcare apps, or enterprise protocols because the current blockchain infrastructure simply doesn’t support private operations.
That makes sense. Every time a developer writes a smart contract, they have to assume that the whole world is watching. That’s fine for some things, but not when you’re handling sensitive data or testing novel logic. Overcoming this challenge isn’t just about protecting users but also protecting the builders themselves, from IP theft and exploit vectors to the reputational risks of deploying on infrastructure that can’t offer the confidentiality they need.
Midnight’s Proposition: Privacy as Code
Midnight responds with a bold proposition: privacy is not an afterthought but an intentional design choice. Its architecture empowers developers to use zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography via smart contracts, written in Compact, a TypeScript-like language. That’s another win for development teams: 65% of survey participants cited language familiarity as a barrier to entry in Web3. Midnight bridges that gap, eliminating the need to learn obscure domain-specific languages.
By allowing developers to define who sees what, and under which conditions, Midnight offers rational privacy at the contract level. Applications can shield transaction data, logic, metadata, or user credentials, all while keeping the overall application verifiable and auditable. This is huge for teams that need to balance privacy and regulatory transparency—something both developers and institutions want but rarely get.
More DevOps Pain Points: Midnight’s Direct Responses
There are other recurring frustrations that engineers face when trying to build on existing Layer1 and Layer2 chains – and which Midnight is actively addressing. They include:
1. Security Concerns from Transparent Execution
Transparent smart contract execution has a risk that could be exploited. With ZK technology, Midnight enables developers to define logic and transactional intent that drastically reduces the attack surface, providing additional privacy to both the application and its users.
2. Complex Tooling and Steep Learning Curves
Blockchain tooling is notoriously fragmented. Developers complain about disjointed dev stacks, inconsistent documentation, and arcane syntax. Midnight, in contrast, prioritizes developer experience (DX). TypeScript smart contracts, unified software development kits (SDKs), and familiar Web2 tooling mean that Web3 development no longer requires a paradigm shift. It lowers the barrier for developers and engineers alike.
3. Need for Modular, Composable Infrastructure
Developers increasingly want modular tools that play well together. Midnight supports composability, enabling developers to build privacy-preserving components that can integrate across dApps. This aligns with the survey’s finding that interoperability and integration were top developer demands.
4. Uncertainty Around Governance and Upgrades
Developers are cautious about building on chains with unclear upgrade paths or centralized governance. Midnight will provide a transparent governance model where community requests, protocol updates, and smart contract templates are openly discussed. This transparency is vital for teams planning long-term integrations or services.
Real-World Applications: Built with Midnight in Mind
Midnight’s architecture unlocks an entirely new class of applications that were previously too risky or too complex to build on public chains. With Midnight the applications below are possible.:
- Private DAOs where votes are cast confidentially but verified cryptographically
- Decentralized payroll platforms where employee compensation stays private but compliant
- Supply chain dApps where suppliers can prove certification or inventory data without revealing trade secrets
- Identity management systems that allow for selective disclosure of user credentials
Each of these solves a real problem flagged by developers, specifically how to operate securely in the open.
A Major Change is Underway
Midnight is a representation of how Web3 development is maturing. The priorities are no longer speed and hype but security, control, usability, and privacy to support mass adoption.
DevOps teams now expect the same things from blockchain infrastructure that they get from cloud providers: permissioning, access control, sandboxing, modularity, and privacy. Midnight delivers that—without sacrificing decentralization.
And most importantly, it gives developers agency. They don’t need more coins. They need platforms they can actually build on
Midnight is answering that call.
Future of Web3: Privacy is Infrastructure
Privacy is a needed foundation of Web3 applications. Without it, developers are limited in what they can build, users are exposed, and institutions stay on the sidelines.
Midnight proves that privacy can be rational: programmable, composable, and developer-friendly. It transforms privacy from a barrier into an enabler—for businesses, regulators, and most crucially, for builders and users.
In a blockchain world that has pushed the virtues of transparency without addressing the challenges this brings, Midnight offers balance. It’s not just for suits. It’s for developers. And that’s exactly who will shape the next wave of adoption.
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About the Author
Fahmi Syed is the President of the Midnight Foundation, the organization dedicated to supporting the ecosystem development and global adoption of Midnight, a privacy-first blockchain protocol designed for compliance and selective disclosure. Midnight is built by Shielded, a spin-out of Input Output (IO), the engineering firm behind Cardano, founded by Charles Hoskinson.
About Charles Hoskinson
As one of the most influential voices in blockchain, Charles Hoskinson continues to shape the future of Web3 through pioneering work on decentralised governance, scalable infrastructure, and real-world applications of blockchain. He will be attending Rare Evo 2025 to share insights on where the industry is headed and how Midnight fits into the next phase of digital infrastructure.
About Rare Evo
Rare Evo is a premier blockchain conference that celebrates interoperability and the convergence of Web3 with traditional industries. It brings together projects, thought leaders, developers, investors, and enthusiasts from across ecosystems for high-impact networking, education, and collaboration. The event is designed as a hybrid experience, blending the best of global blockchain summits into one annual gathering.
