Buy Midnight (NIGHT)

What is Midnight (NIGHT)?

NIGHT is the native utility and governance token of Midnight, a privacy-focused sidechain within the Cardano ecosystem. It is designed to power Midnight’s confidential smart contract platform by enabling decentralised governance, network access, and the generation of a secondary resource token called DUST.

Midnight and the NIGHT token were developed by Input Output Global (IOG), the blockchain research and engineering firm best known for building Cardano. IOG was founded by Charles Hoskinson, a prominent figure in the crypto space and one of the original co-founders of Ethereum. Under Hoskinson’s leadership, IOG launched Midnight as part of its broader mission to deliver scalable, secure, and regulation-friendly blockchain infrastructure.

How does Midnight (NIGHT) work?

NIGHT plays a central role in the Midnight network through three core functions:

• Governance: NIGHT holders will participate in protocol governance, including voting on network upgrades, treasury usage, and policy changes.
• Network access: NIGHT acts as a gateway for engaging with Midnight’s private smart contract ecosystem, enabling users and developers to interact with confidential dApps.
• Resource generation: Holding NIGHT passively generates DUST, a shielded, decaying resource used to pay for private transactions and computations. This mechanism ensures that network activity is tied to active participation rather than passive accumulation.

The token operates within a dual-token model, where NIGHT underpins governance and access, while DUST enables private execution on the network.

What are the potential use cases for Midnight (NIGHT)?

Within the Midnight ecosystem, NIGHT has several key applications:

• Decentralised governance: NIGHT will eventually allow token holders to shape the future of the protocol through on-chain voting.
• Access to privacy services: Users may need NIGHT to deploy or interact with privacy-preserving smart contracts and applications on Midnight.
• Earning DUST: By holding NIGHT, users generate DUST over time, which is required for executing shielded transactions—encouraging long-term engagement with the network.
• Capacity markets (future use): NIGHT may be used to participate in multichain privacy capacity marketplaces, enabling other blockchains or applications to access Midnight’s privacy layer.

NIGHT is critical to ensuring a sustainable, privacy-focused blockchain that remains aligned with regulatory and enterprise requirements.

What is the history of Midnight (NIGHT)?

NIGHT was introduced in late 2022 alongside the public announcement of the Midnight sidechain by Input Output Global (IOG). The token was developed as part of a broader solution to bring confidential smart contracts and regulatory-aligned privacy to the Cardano ecosystem.

Key milestones in the history of NIGHT include:

• The official announcement of Midnight and its dual-token architecture featuring NIGHT and DUST.
• The release of the Midnight litepaper ("NIGHTPAPER"), outlining the vision, governance model, and technical foundations of the project.
• Publication of the Midnight tokenomics and incentives whitepaper, detailing how NIGHT supports governance, DUST generation, and future ecosystem growth.
• Strategic positioning of NIGHT within the Cardano staking ecosystem, where ADA stakers are expected to benefit from NIGHT and DUST distributions.
• Continuous development under IOG’s leadership, with support from founder Charles Hoskinson, who has actively championed privacy, decentralisation, and compliance as foundational principles.

As development progresses, NIGHT is set to become the backbone of Midnight’s decentralised governance and privacy-preserving infrastructure.