The Midnight Network is a fourth-generation blockchain designed to bring rational privacy to the crypto world.
Unlike previous generations, it uses zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) to allow users to prove information without revealing sensitive data. But who is behind this innovative project?
The main visionary is Charles Hoskinson, founder and CEO of Input Output Global (IOG), the company that created Cardano and co-founded Ethereum.
Hoskinson publicly announced Midnight at events like Consensus Hong Kong (February 2026), highlighting that the mainnet would be launched at the end of March 2026 as a partner network of Cardano.
He describes Midnight as “what makes crypto real for millions of people”, the result of more than six years of peer-reviewed research, hundreds of millions of dollars invested, and intense work by the IOG team.
In 2023, Hoskinson brought Eran Barak as CEO of Midnight. Barak, former COO of Symphony (a leading B2B collaboration platform) and an executive with extensive experience in financial services, took on the role to scale the project.
He has already stated: “I believe in decentralization, especially in the care of sensitive data.”
Barak led the transition of Midnight from a lab idea to a blockchain ready for the real world, focusing on regulatory compliance and enterprise adoption.
Technical development is handled by Shielded Technologies, a spinout from IOG specializing in privacy cryptography.
Governance and the ecosystem are managed by the Midnight Foundation, an independent organization dedicated to progressive decentralization and global impact.
Why did they create Midnight?
Web3 promised freedom, but in practice, blockchains forced a choice: either you have utility (fast transactions, dApps, digital identity) or total privacy. Hoskinson and the team saw this as the “last great unsolved problem.”
After the success of Cardano in scalability and scientific research, they wanted to go further: to create a network where utility does not cost data ownership.
The central objective is “rational privacy”: you control exactly what you reveal (selective disclosure). This enables real applications in identity, voting, commerce, and DeFi without surveillance or censorship.
Hoskinson explains in his whiteboards and podcasts that Midnight addresses three final milestones of blockchain: rational privacy, sovereign identity, and cooperation between networks.
It is a direct response to the rise of centralized digital identities and the loss of user control.
With partners like Google Cloud and Telegram, Midnight is not just another chain — it's the privacy infrastructure that Hoskinson dreams of for the entire crypto ecosystem, including Bitcoin and other networks.
The project was born from the same scientific foundation as Cardano (2019 sidechain papers, Kachina protocol, and Minotaur consensus) and is now becoming independent but interconnected.
In summary, the founders of Midnight created the project because they believe that the decentralized future will only be fair if we return data control to the people.
It's a mission of freedom, security, and real innovation — all backed by concrete data: years of research, a proven team, and an imminent launch in 2026.
Midnight is not hype; it's the next logical step that Hoskinson and Barak have built to transform crypto into something truly useful and private for the whole world.
$NIGHT @MidnightNetwork #Night
