Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said Monday at midnight that it is now live, marking the mainnet launch of the privacy-focused network that was one of the best infrastructure bets connected to the wider Cardano ecosystem. In his live broadcast on March 30, Hoskinson said that the chain has been running for a while, with average block times around six seconds, more than 163,000 blocks produced, and a final gap of two blocks.
Midnight Launch Marks Major Milestone for Cardano Ecosystem
The launch itself was officially announced by Midnight on X. The project said the genesis block has been produced and that developers, partners and institutions will now be able to apply and move assets to the network. The release comes from a timeline the team previously outlined in February, where Midnight said the mainnet was planned for late March 2026. It also follows the December 2025 launch of NIGHT, the network’s native token, on Cardano.
Hoskinson characterized the current phase as the introduction of controlled production rather than a quick jump to open decentralization. He described Midnight as a “guarded era,” with a strong integrated network and an active post-launch bug-fixing pipeline that already numbers more than 130. None, he said, were showstoppers, but the team expects to spend the next two to three weeks firming up the system while partners and developers begin building against a live environment.
That feature is similar to the official Midnight release. The foundation said the network is going into production during a phased deployment designed to prioritize stability, performance and security before the later stages of deployment. In this initial setup, the combined node operators operate the underlying infrastructure under clear participation rules, with the long-term goal of moving to a more decentralized and permissionless model.
The midnight launch post highlights a list of integrated partners including Worldpay, Bullish, MoneyGram, Pairpoint by Vodafone, eToro, AlphaTON Capital, Google Cloud, Blockdaemon and Shielded Technologies. That institutional mix is central to Midnight’s pitch: a privacy-preserving public blockchain intended to support live applications without asking businesses to accept the traditional data exposure of transparent ledgers.
Midnight’s technology proposition is built around programmable privacy. According to the project’s presentation materials, the network integrates public and private data by using a hybrid ledger architecture, uses client-side generation of anonymous proofs so that sensitive data remains on user devices, and supports both protected and unblocked assets depending on the application’s needs. The protocol also supports selective disclosure, which allows colleagues, auditors or administrators to view certain records when the logic of the application demands it, without automatically revealing all the underlying transaction data.
Economically, Midnight also tries to differentiate itself from traditional gas token networks. The chain uses a two-part model where NIGHT serves as a non-secure management token and resource, while DUST serves as a renewable transaction resource used by applications. Midnight claims that DUST regenerates over time based on NIGHT’s commitment, with a full recharge achieved in seven days, a design aimed at making operational costs more predictable for businesses and allowing developers to subsidize end-user usage.
Hoskinson used live streaming to pair the launch announcement with a broader educational push. He said he has published a free book, Proving Nothing: A Complete Guide to Zero-Knowledge Proof Systems, aimed at non-technical readers who want a complete overview of how ZK systems work.
On the product side, Hoskinson said that Lace will receive an update tied to Midnight mainnet support, with version 136.2 already submitted for approval to the browser extension store. He added that Lace v2 and the mobile release are both expected in April.
At press time, Cardano traded at $0.24.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
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