Recently, when I was browsing industry discussions, I came across a particularly interesting viewpoint, which roughly means:
Now many blockchains are actually using 'investment assets' as consumption currency.
When I first saw this sentence, I was taken aback.
But thinking about it carefully, it seems to be the case.
On most public chains, you need to buy tokens first to do anything:
Transfer
Pay Gas
Deploy Contract
Run Application
The problem is that these tokens are often still investment assets in the market.
Then a rather strange phenomenon occurred.
The coin has risen, and transaction fees have become expensive.
If the coin drops, user assets shrink.
In other words:
The cost of using the network is tied to market speculative prices.
This has always been a somewhat awkward issue in blockchain design.
I first noticed Midnight because it aims to solve this logic.
From what I understand, Midnight Network actually wanted to bypass this issue when designing the economic model.
Many people notice privacy technology first when they see this project for the first time. But if you look at more information, you will find that it has also considered a lot in the fee structure.
The Midnight network mainly has two core resources:
NIGHT
DUST
It sounds a bit like the setting in a science fiction novel, but the logic is actually quite simple.
NIGHT is an asset, while DUST is more like a network resource.
In this system, $NIGHT mainly takes on the role of network value and governance.
It is more like a long-term asset.
And what is truly used to execute privacy transactions, run contracts, and pay computing costs is DUST.
Simply put:
Hold NIGHT
Can continuously generate DUST
And DUST is used to pay for network operations.
This creates quite an interesting effect.
Usage costs and market prices are separated.
If all fees of a chain depend on market token prices, many problems will arise.
For example:
During a market bull run, gas fees can suddenly become very high.
In a bear market, network security and incentives may also decline.
But if the fees are borne by an independent resource, things will stabilize a lot.
Midnight's design is actually about separating the two roles:
Asset value → NIGHT
Network resources → DUST
This way, users do not need to worry about market fluctuations every time they use the network.
This kind of design is also more friendly for developers.
In fact, what many developers fear most is not the technology, but the unpredictable costs.
If you ask people who develop on-chain applications, most will say one thing:
Technical issues can be resolved.
Cost volatility is the most troublesome.
If an application suddenly becomes unusable due to gas price hikes, the user experience will be very poor.
So more and more new projects are thinking:
Is there a way to make network operating costs more stable?
Midnight's answer is:
Design network resources as an independent system.
Combined with privacy technology, things become even more interesting.
Another core capability of Midnight Network is zero-knowledge proof privacy computing.
Many privacy operations actually involve additional computing costs, for example:
Cryptographic verification
Proof generation
Data protection logic
If fees completely depend on market tokens, the system may become very expensive.
And through a resource mechanism like DUST, the network can handle privacy computing costs more flexibly.
This is actually quite a practical design.
I increasingly feel that the crypto industry is entering a new stage.
The most discussed issues in early blockchain projects were:
TPS
Consensus mechanism
Chain speed
But now many projects are starting to think about more realistic issues.
For example:
How to lower the threshold for use
How to stabilize operating costs
How to support real-world applications
These issues may not sound so 'sexy', but they are very critical.
Perhaps truly mature public chains are not just faster.
Many people feel that blockchain evolution is:
Faster
Cheaper
Higher TPS
But if you look closely, you will find a trend:
New infrastructure is beginning to focus more on system design.
For example:
Privacy
Economic model
Developer experience
Midnight Network has made some attempts in these dimensions.
It is not simply making a faster chain, but trying to answer a question:
If blockchain is really to be widely used,
What should the network structure look like?
This issue may be more important than TPS.
Ultimately, the tech world has always been repeating one thing:
From 'usable' to 'user-friendly'.
And it seems that Midnight Network is trying to move in this direction.