After running in the wave of altcoins for many years, I have seen countless projects. Some shine brightly during bull markets and quietly retreat during bear markets. Dusk Network (now referred to as Dusk) follows a trajectory of 'quiet rise.' Looking back to the end of 2018, when most were debating which blockchain would be the next hundredfold beast, the founding team of Dusk quietly started during the most difficult times of the bear market. In the crypto world, there was a prevailing strategy of 'celebrating once on board,' and many people at the time could not understand this path. Some complained, 'Why not pump? Why not hype?' They, however, did not respond, focusing solely on their work. Looking back today, it is precisely this kind of 'quiet dedication' that has created Dusk's seemingly bottomless moat.

Looking back at that time, the 'hardcore' style of the Dusk team was impressive. Most projects chose to lay low and be perfunctory during the bear market, with some even running off with funds. But the Dusk team went 'against the tide': they did not easily copy Ethereum's open-source code to make money, but instead focused on technology during the coldest times. As an observer put it: 'The team insists on taking the hardest path - Privacy Layer-1 + Compliant RWA', even successfully developing a dedicated virtual machine called Piecrust, even when no one cared, their GitHub continued to receive code submissions night after night. Those years, the Dusk team, under an environment of zero attention, solidly pieced together cutting-edge technologies like zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption into a moat: one after another, they launched core modules such as the Hedger privacy engine (mixing homomorphic encryption + zero-knowledge proofs), XSC confidential smart contracts, and SBA consensus. Some admitted that such 'hard work' is too rare in the crypto circle.

And it was during this difficult period that the Dusk community was also gradually growing. The early community atmosphere was not enthusiastic, and discussions were more about technical details or speculating on application scenarios. At that time, there were doubts: 'Why are they not hyping or marketing?' The team never argued, just silently cultivated. Slowly, as waves receded, those who had once 'cursed' began to fade away, and the remaining community members became more rational and pragmatic. Some summarized that the Dusk community is not like the group of retail investors chasing trends, but more like like-minded partners, calm yet full of expectation. There was a saying online: 'The market will always reward those who buy when no one cares and sell when it is bustling. Hold onto your chips and wait for the wind to blow.' This sentiment resonates with many old coin friends who find resonance in Dusk: after ups and downs, enduring it, only then do they see the dawn.