Securing the future of privacy and identity with Midnight’s fourth-generation technology

Building on the momentum of Fahmi Syed’s Midnight Summit keynote, Founder of Input Output Charles Hoskinson began by focusing on the significance of the Midnight Summit venue, at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, one of the centers of securing the world’s commerce centuries ago. Then he moved to the question everyone has been asking: “wen Midnight”.

Through the NIGHT token distribution, millions of people around the world across different ecosystems have participated in Glacier Drop and Scavenger Mine. This model of fair distribution has made NIGHT tokens available to everyone, giving NIGHT to people who want to use the network, build on it, and see it succeed.

Charles framed the network's philosophy through the lens of Cooperative Economics, a model designed to bring people together across different communities and ecosystems. This summit marks the culmination of six years of focused development to build this new infrastructure.

This cooperative, interoperable vision was a core theme, describing the goal as giving "people an extension of what they already have," allowing them to "use Midnight as if it's a Layer 2 for everyone." The network is engineered not to replace existing ecosystems but to provide an essential, missing capability, rational privacy, to all of them.

And to answer the question, “wen Midnight” Charles laid out the upcoming Midnight ecosystem roadmap which outlines the delivery of core network capabilities over the coming year. The roadmap is organized into four distinct phases, each named for a phase of the Hawaiian moon, guiding the network's path from its current stage to a fully realized mainnet.

Hilo: The First NIGHT

Hilo is the first moon in the cycle, signaling new beginnings and visible growth. For the Midnight network this phase represents the foundational steps of the ecosystem and the network, setting the stage for everything that follows.

This stage is already in progress. The necessary smart contracts are built, the NIGHT tokens have been minted on the Cardano network. Midnight draws on the stability, security and reliability of the Cardano network, to launch the NIGHT token and onboard an active ecosystem.

This phase is focused on achieving widespread accessibility. The distribution of 4.5 billion tokens is the critical first step in opening the network, laying the groundwork for the token's eventual listing on exchanges.

Hilo brings liquidity and stability to Midnight — giving the world access to NIGHT and builders a dependable testnet to begin preparing real applications.

Kūkolu: Launching from a safe port

Kūkolu is a phase of the moon that represents a period of development, strengthening and building.

With the NIGHT token launched and liquidity established in the prior phase, Kūkolu is the "safe port" from which the ecosystem’s applications can deploy. This is the stage for activating the first privacy enhancing DApps, marking a new focus on the partners and builders who have been architecting solutions.

The technical milestone of this phase is the Genesis block. This is the first block in a network engineered from the ground up to support sophisticated, private-by-default applications. This phase transitions the network beyond testing environments, cultivating an active and expanding community of builders using Midnight’s privacy-enhancing technology.

Kūkolu delivers a stable Midnight mainnet operated by a core set of trusted validators, supporting live, privacy-first applications and use cases on the network.

Mōhalu: Broadening network participation

Mōhalu is a moon phase that embodies expansion and opening up. For the Midnight network, this phase involves the progressive scaling up of the federated mainnet. As the moon approaches its brightest, this stage is designed to reveal the network's capabilities, inviting the global community to explore and participate in its growth.

This period of expansion is also a critical opportunity to identify areas for network improvement, strengthening its long-term resilience as mainnet becomes available for all to build on.

A primary goal of this phase is to test the network at scale. This is marked by the milestone of block producer activity alongside a wider set of network participants to directly support the network’s operation and security. Participation in the network is recognized through the Scaled Incentivized Testnet. This phase also includes the launch of the DUST capacity exchange.

Mōhalu invites the community to actively validate and run the network — letting future SPOs test and prove the system at scale alongside the federated mainnet.

Hua: Emergence of Hybrid DApps

Hua is the moon phase that signifies the arrival of abundance, where hard work and solid planning produce tangible results. For the Midnight network, this phase represents a culmination of growth and the delivery of key technical capabilities.

This stage introduces Hybrid DApps. These applications allow Midnight’s privacy-enhancing technology to complement the strengths of other chains.

At this phase, Midnight's privacy-enhancing technology can be embedded into existing applications without fundamentally changing the user experience. This model provides the full benefits of Midnight's programmable privacy without competing with other ecosystems for users or technical resources. It allows developers to integrate new, private features while remaining on their native platforms.

This hybrid capability acts as a bridge, empowering a truly cooperative ecosystem. The launch of these DApps signifies the start of sustained, community-driven innovation and builds momentum for further decentralization.

Hua completes the journey to delivering Midnight as a decentralized, privacy-first network built for long-term resilience.

The journey to fourth-generation blockchain

In outlining the journey from the first bitcoin transaction to Midnight’s fourth-generation technology Charles explained how we got to the fourth generation of blockchain: "Satoshi gave us good money; Ethereum gave us programmability; Cardano brought the third generation of interoperability, scale and good governance. Midnight gives us our identity and privacy back”.