Hoskinson says Midnight won’t try to poach Monero and Zcash users

Privacy is back on the crypto agenda, but the word often covers very different ideas. Monero and Zcash were built so transaction details are hidden by default. For some users, that’s the entire point. For exchanges and regulators, it can be a risk factor, which is why these assets are frequently restricted.

Midnight is trying to carve out a different lane. The project lays it out as “rational privacy”: users can keep data private, but still prove specific facts or attributes when needed. The pitch is that privacy should work in real-world use cases where reporting and compliance matter, not only in communities that want maximum secrecy.

The token structure follows the same logic. Midnight separates the governance NIGHT token from DUST, a resource used to pay for actions on the network that isn’t intended to trade freely. The project frames this as a way to give private smart contracts “fuel” without turning that fuel into a transferable coin built for anonymous value transfer.

Speaking at Consensus Hong Kong, Hoskinson said Midnight isn’t planning to specifically recruit Monero and Zcash users. In his view, that’s a different audience with hardline expectations around privacy, and Midnight isn’t going to reshape the product to match them. If people from those communities end up interested, he said, they’ll arrive on their own, but Midnight’s core strategy is different and aims to be as compatible as possible with regulatory frameworks.

Hoskinson’s comments also come as debate continues over what U.S. crypto regulation should look like. In January, he sharply criticized Trump, arguing that politicizing the topic and making decisions “for the benefit of specific players” undermines trust in the industry.

For Midnight, the next test is practical. The project needs to show that selective disclosure is genuinely useful for developers and everyday users, and that privacy features can be built into apps without creating constant compliance friction. If the ecosystem sees real use cases, Midnight may be able to grow without fighting for the audience of legacy privacy coins.