What is Midnight (NIGHT)?

What Is Midnight?

(Source: MidnightNtwrk)

Midnight is founded on the principle of Rational Privacy. Leveraging a fourth-generation blockchain architecture, it delivers a decentralized network that seamlessly integrates practical utility and privacy. Midnight eliminates the need to choose between transparency and privacy. Users can verify outcomes, participate in governance, and build reputation without exposing personal data, reviving the original vision of freedom in the crypto space.

Midnight’s Mission

Midnight aims to restore the foundational intent of cryptographic technology—empowering people to connect, collaborate, and participate freely, without surveillance or tracking. Its core philosophy centers on three fundamental freedoms:

1. Control Your Voting Rights
   You can verify the fairness of governance outcomes, but your individual vote remains confidential. This means you can engage in governance and exercise oversight without revealing your stance.
2. Control Your Identity
   On Midnight, you can prove your qualifications, credentials, or permissions without uploading personal data to the blockchain. Your identity information always stays on your device, so you don’t have to worry about third-party collection, access, or tracking.
3. Control Your Reputation
   Your historical record can be used across different applications, but it isn’t permanently tied to your wallet. Others see your contributions and value within the Midnight ecosystem, not a trackable transaction address.

Midnight introduces a new standard for privacy utility—enabling participants to build trust without compromising personal information.

How Does Midnight Safeguard User Data?

Midnight utilizes Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology, which allows the system to validate information without disclosing it. This means Midnight can authenticate transactions, credentials, or actions while keeping sensitive data private and secure.

Core Technology: ZK-SNARKs

Zero-knowledge proofs come in various forms, each with unique performance and assumptions. Midnight’s architecture primarily employs ZK-SNARKs to distinctly separate public and private data sources in applications, ensuring that sensitive information remains on the user’s device—not on the blockchain or external servers.

This approach delivers several key benefits:

• Personal data never leaves the user’s device
• Applications can verify information without exposing it
• Designed to meet compliance requirements, making it ideal for regulated Web3 applications

Midnight provides robust infrastructure that combines privacy, security, and verifiability, enabling developers to create applications that protect personal and business data efficiently, safely, and in line with regulatory standards.

Why Is Midnight Seen as a Next-Generation Data Protection Chain?

In today’s blockchain landscape, where most data is public by default, Midnight’s architecture marks a true paradigm shift. Its strengths include:

• Developers can rapidly build DApps that comply with regulatory standards
• Both personal and business data are protected end-to-end
• Greater potential for enterprise-level Web3 adoption
• Preserves the transparency and verifiability of decentralized networks

Midnight enables Web3 to move beyond the transparency-versus-privacy dilemma, delivering both in a next-generation blockchain ecosystem.

Tokenomics

NIGHT is the native token of the Midnight network and serves as the foundation for its entire ecosystem. The token is designed to prioritize community engagement, privacy-centric applications, and sustained governance.

Main uses for NIGHT include:

• Network Operations: Payment for transaction fees and operational costs within the network
• Ecosystem Incentives: Rewards for developers, users, and nodes that contribute to ecosystem growth
• Governance: NIGHT holders can participate in system governance and adjust network parameters
• Privacy Applications: Serves as a core utility and rights token in privacy-focused solutions

NIGHT has a total supply of 24 billion tokens, distributed through multi-stage and multi-layered processes to ensure a fair and decentralized allocation.

Token Distribution

NIGHT is distributed in three main phases, with adjustments based on community participation to maximize user access. The overall structure is as follows:

Phase 1: Glacier Drop (Multi-Chain Wallet Airdrop)

This is NIGHT’s initial large-scale distribution, targeting multi-chain wallets with the following allocation ratios:

• Cardano (ADA) users: approximately 50%
• Bitcoin wallets: approximately 20%
• Other chains: approximately 30%

Claimed tokens are released quarterly, with about 25% unlocked each quarter. The final allocation totals 3.547 billion NIGHT, which remains unchanged after final adjustments.

Phase 2: Scavenger Mine (Redistribution of Remaining Tokens)

Unclaimed tokens from the Glacier Drop are redistributed, with part reserved for Phase 3. The Scavenger Mine allocation increased from 626 million to 1 billion tokens due to higher-than-expected participation, allowing more community members to join the network early.

Phase 3: Lost-and-Found (Reclaim After Four Years)

This phase targets eligible old addresses that missed the Glacier Drop. Four years later, these addresses can reclaim a portion of tokens at a set ratio. The final allocation was reduced from 626 million to 252 million, reflecting more tokens being reallocated to the first two phases and TGE, leading to a more balanced community distribution.

Core Network Resources and Fund Allocation Adjustments

Based on the final Launch Allocation, to increase the community’s share of tokens, those originally slated for the On-Chain Treasury and Reserve were reallocated to TGE and community distribution.

The final adjusted distribution is as follows:

• Midnight Foundation: 8.4 billion (unchanged)
• TGE: increased from 2.4 billion to 3.66 billion
• Reserve: reduced from 7.2 billion to 6 billion
• On-chain Treasury: reduced from 1.2 billion to 1.141 billion

Additionally, a portion of tokens will be allocated to major exchanges, which will distribute them to their users to further expand participation.

To learn more about Web3, click to register: https://www.gate.com/

Summary

Midnight is more than just a privacy chain—it represents the revival of Web3’s spirit of freedom. In an environment where excessive transparency often forces personal data onto the blockchain, Midnight offers a new alternative: you can be verified and trusted without being exposed. By combining zero-knowledge technology, rational privacy architecture, and a comprehensive token distribution model, Midnight builds a more advanced and resilient privacy layer for Web3. Looking ahead, Midnight is positioned to become a key gateway for enterprise-level Web3 applications and redefine privacy and freedom standards in the decentralized world.