Sarah_cc

Have you ever had the feeling that mobile apps seem to "eavesdrop" on your conversations? Just after chatting about a certain product, targeted ads pop up; the cost of using free software is that your contact list, photo album, and location information are ruthlessly scanned. In this era where "data is the new oil," each of us is continuously "running naked." However, a blockchain company named SIGN is trying to fundamentally reverse this situation through a privacy computing framework based on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), allowing data ownership to truly return to users for the first time.

"We generally do not invest in purely privacy projects, but Midnight is different." It was early 2025, and Midnight had just completed a $55 million Series B financing, with leading investors including a16z Crypto, Paradigm, and Coinbase Ventures—the most coveted 'three giants' in the Web3 investment circle.
But what is perplexing is that this financing was unusually low-key, without a barrage of press releases, no Twitter frenzy, and even the lead investor placed Midnight in an inconspicuous position on their portfolio page. What investment logic is hidden behind this 'abnormally low-key' approach? I spent two months understanding six investors who participated in or followed this round of financing, piecing together a surprising story.

Recently, there was a piece of news that many people may not have noticed: Kyrgyzstan officially approved the pilot construction of the central bank digital currency 'Digital Som' system, and the company responsible for developing this project is a Chinese blockchain technology service provider - SIGN. This is quite interesting, why does a Central Asian country seek a Chinese blockchain company for digital currency? What capabilities does SIGN actually possess?
Kyrgyzstan faces a classic paradox in digital transformation: it must maintain 'sovereign independence' while achieving 'international connectivity'. Traditional centralized systems are easily subject to human control, while completely decentralized public chains may cause the country to lose control over its financial system. The 'SignStack' full-stack solution provided by SIGN precisely addresses this dilemma.

As a developer who frequently participates in Web3 project development, I have used various public chain DApp scaffolds multiple times, and the DApp project scaffold officially launched by Midnight has provided me with an experience that can be described as 'efficient and convenient'. Upon first use, with just one command, I can complete the basic framework of a privacy DApp within 3 minutes, without the need to manually configure the development environment, RPC interfaces, testing tools, and other tedious steps, greatly saving project startup time. In the subsequent development process, the built-in contract templates, front-end UI framework, and testing environment of the scaffold allow me to develop without starting from scratch; I can directly carry out secondary development based on the templates. For example, to build a basic framework for a privacy DEX, I only need to modify a few parameters to complete the adaptation of core functionalities. What satisfies me the most is its built-in automatic deployment feature. After debugging, I can deploy the project to the Midnight testnet with one click, while automatically completing wallet adaptation and transaction simulation, significantly lowering the threshold for launching privacy DApps. Even small development teams can quickly launch prototypes of privacy applications.

After a week of using the Compact compiler and SDK launched by Midnight for privacy smart contract development, my biggest feeling is "subverting cognition." As a developer familiar with TypeScript but only having a superficial understanding of zero-knowledge cryptography, I can quickly start writing privacy contracts without spending a lot of time tackling the obscure principles of ZK circuits. The compilation process is smooth and efficient; about 500 lines of Compact code take only 1-2 minutes from writing to compiling into ZK circuits. During debugging, I can accurately locate the risk of privacy data leaks and even receive automatic prompts for variables that are not explicitly public, completely breaking my inherent impression that "privacy development = high difficulty." The most surprising aspect is the compatibility of its accompanying SDK, which can seamlessly interface with the React frontend framework. By simply calling the API, I can achieve interaction between privacy contracts and frontend pages, greatly shortening the development cycle of privacy DApps and allowing developers without a cryptography background to easily enter the privacy Web3 field.

My fingers hovered over the send key for ten minutes, and in the end, I deleted that carefully edited tweet. The content was about a Layer2 project that I have been quite optimistic about recently. I researched their technical architecture and genuinely found it promising. But I know that once it’s sent out, this tweet will become another investment suggestion or call signal in my social graph. People will come and ask me, 'Have you gone long?', and a bot will automatically label me as a promoter, and my likes will instantly be alienated into a position waiting to be sold. I’m tired, really.
The social capitalization of Web3 has turned expressing likes into a high-risk, high-consumption performance. You must shout loudly, you must create volume, you must empower the things you like with your social influence; otherwise, your likes don’t count and don’t deserve a return. We are not exchanging opinions; we are conducting a social mining, overextending our credibility and relationships in exchange for potential future gains. My timeline increasingly resembles a noisy, competitive investment promotion conference, where everyone is shouting hoarsely, and sincerity is drowned in the bubbles of traffic.

If you ask a Web3 developer what is the most frustrating, privacy development definitely ranks in the top three. It's not that they don't want to do it, it's just that they really can't—those cryptographic terms are dazzling, and writing zero-knowledge proof code drives people to despair.
Let's start with some hard truths. Before Midnight, if you wanted to develop a privacy application, you had to overcome three major obstacles: the cryptographic scripture, zero-knowledge proofs, homomorphic encryption, secure multiparty computation...
Just looking at these terms is enough to make you drink a pot. Not to mention having to understand the mathematical principles behind them. I've seen many developers eagerly wanting to do a privacy project, but after reading papers for two days, they give up.

In the crypto world, when people hear the two words 'privacy', what often pops into their minds are anonymous transactions or evading regulation. But let me tell you, if you view Midnight this way, your perspective is really narrow. As an analyst, I've studied so many projects, and Midnight is the first one that makes me feel like it's seriously discussing data sovereignty.
In this internet age, our data is actually the lifeline. But the awkward thing is, this data is either in the hands of giants or on transparent public chains. In Midnight's view, privacy is not for hiding, but for control.

Every day shouting about institutions entering the market, but why would institutions enter?
We insiders always have a kind of mysterious confidence, thinking that as long as the public chain TPS is high enough and the Gas fees are low enough, the old money from Wall Street will rush in with trillions of dollars to take over. Pure nonsense!
I have talked with a few friends from traditional VCs and investment banks, and their biggest concern about Web3 is not volatility, but the leakage of commercial secrets. Imagine if Apple used Ethereum to settle accounts with suppliers, then Samsung could just spend a few bucks to check the on-chain data and see Apple's supply chain completely exposed: who was paid, how much was paid, and when it was paid. This kind of fully transparent ledger is a disaster in the business world!

To be honest, with the recent market trends, many people are anxiously watching the face of Bitcoin and Ethereum, asking daily in groups if the bull is still around. I just want to say that in a real bull market, what truly allows you to leap across classes is not chasing high market caps, but rather preemptively positioning in those nuclear weapons equipped with foundational narrative innovations. And the Midnight Network, which has been cultivated in the Cardano ecosystem for a long time, is such a bona fide nuclear weapon.
Many retail investors might first react with 'slow' when they hear Cardano. But this is precisely the biggest cognitive bias of retail investors! This group from IOG, being academic, usually does not make a sound until it surprises everyone. What exactly is Midnight? In simple terms, it is a ZK sidechain focused on data protection.