Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain, Midnight, is making notable strides as highlighted in the latest “State of the Network” report for March 2025. This report outlines recent advancements, community feedback, and new partnerships. Although the full launch of the protocol is still in progress, the burgeoning ecosystem is unmistakable, as evidenced by ongoing hackathons, new collaboration announcements, and enhanced documentation.
What’s Up With Cardano’s Midnight?
The Midnight team emphasizes that while a protocol outlines rules, it is the community of participants that shapes the network on a daily basis. Between December 2024 and January 2025, Midnight conducted a survey that captured the diversity within its community. Twelve percent of respondents identified as blockchain developers, while thirty-nine percent considered themselves seasoned pros in the space. Additionally, forty-six percent viewed themselves as somewhat experienced, leaving the remaining fifteen percent still in the learning phase.
A significant highlight from Midnight’s development journey was the ZK Identity Challenge, which explored real-world applications of zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. A standout submission from Brick Towers, led by Sergey Kisel and Imants Firsts, illustrated how Midnight’s smart contracts can uphold consumer privacy within an online wine sales framework. In this instance, as a customer places an order, the transaction request is privately logged on the blockchain. Instead of needing to upload sensitive identification documents, buyers can generate a ZK proof from their ID to verify they meet the legal drinking age, while maintaining their personal details’ confidentiality.
If the verification process fails, users receive a local notification without revealing any on-chain data. When verification succeeds, the transaction is finalized, confirming on the ledger that the purchase was made, payment completed, and that the buyer satisfied the age verification requirement through a trusted identity provider. This innovative approach enables merchants to comply with age-restricted sales ethics while safeguarding sensitive user data, thereby ensuring a seamless and secure identity verification process on-chain.
In addition, OpenZeppelin—recognized for securing over $21 trillion in on-chain value—is collaborating with Midnight to develop a Compact smart contract library, along with tailored frameworks and starter applications. This partnership is anticipated to equip developers with familiar yet robust tools, accelerating the design and launch of privacy-centric decentralized applications (DApps) on the network.
Moreover, Midnight has formed a partnership with Zoniqx, which is set to introduce its enterprise-grade DyCIST (Dynamic Compliant Interoperable Security Token) framework into the sidechain. This initiative allows financial institutions and enterprise developers to create robust and compliant real-world asset (RWA) tokenization solutions, eliminating the need to overhaul existing infrastructures. By integrating built-in compliance oracles, identity management, and Midnight’s privacy features, these applications can effectively serve industries involved with assets such as real estate, private equity, insurance products, and carbon credits.
To enhance user experience, Midnight’s documentation portal has undergone significant updates. A newly launched release overview page centralizes all vital details about each component, including quick summaries of recent updates and direct links to critical resources like Docker images and Node packages. This consolidation provides developers with essential insights into new features, bug fixes, and instructions for upgrades.
A network compatibility matrix has also been established to help prevent integration or version conflicts. This matrix enables developers to ascertain the compatibility of various components—whether Node, Indexer, Wallet SDK, or DApp APIs—ensuring smooth interoperability with each software release.
Despite the ongoing positive progress, the full launch of Cardano’s Midnight Protocol remains a work in progress. A testnet was launched in 2024, with Midnight designed to safeguard sensitive data through a multi-token model wherein NIGHT tokens facilitate governance and DUST tokens support shielded transactions. The overarching aim is to unify the cryptocurrency ecosystem and promote widespread enterprise adoption. As detailed by the team, DUST tokens will be accessible to retail users via a relatively low-effort distribution method termed the Glacier drop, and a portion of NIGHT tokens will be allocated to stakeholders across various networks, inclusive of ADA holders.
As of the latest updates, Cardano is trading at $0.6786.
