I understand that Midnight devnet is not just a blockchain testing environment. It is a playground for developing privacy. Devnet started in 2023 and is designed in such a way that both advanced blockchain developers and non-technical users can experiment with privacy-preserving smart contracts. I am very interested in the fact that it is open to individuals with little or no experience in blockchain. Business logic can be tested locally by developers and then deployed on a public blockchain. The tools are very user-friendly. Midnight is developing a smart contract language called Compact, similar to TypeScript. TypeScript is easier to start with because many developers are familiar with TypeScript. In Compact, you clarify what is private and what is public in a contract. It has also removed some of the more advanced TypeScript features to simplify verification, but the language is still easy enough to know that you do not need to be a deep cryptography expert to develop applications. Once you have written a contract, you can assemble it and send it directly to devnet. Then, you can play with it using a browser wallet and even share the application with other testers. A special developer token called tDUST exists in devnet, only. Testers can access tDUST on a faucet and pay transaction fees or transfer shielded assets during testing. The entire atmosphere encourages experimentation. Users can operate Midnight assets using a Chrome extension, generate zero-knowledge proofs using a local worker, read blockchain data using a pub-sub service, and develop applications using a VS Code extension. The good thing about this design is that all these tools can be executed directly on the developer's machine. Building and testing do not require sensitive data to be sent to a remote server. The proving server is usually a Docker container running on port 6300, and the Lace wallet communicates directly with this local service. Due to such an arrangement, developers can build applications that comply with strict data protection regulations. Personal or financial data can still be kept off-chain while still proving that rules or compliance checks have been passed. After touring devnet, I realized the reason why Midnight promotes programmable privacy. The tools lower the barriers to building privacy applications. Midnight does not make privacy overly technical or difficult as it once was, but rather makes privacy practical for ordinary developers. Zero-knowledge applications continue to exist as a concept and become a reality. I think the best part is devnet, as it allows developers to manage the flow of information, which impresses me the most with my non-mainstream taste. It is not just about hiding information. It is about making choices about what to disclose and what to keep secret. $NIGHT
