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What is Midnight?

Midnight is a privacy-focused partner chain of Cardano. It uses zero-knowledge proofs and the Compact language for programmable privacy, with a dual-ledger model that supports both shielded (private) and unshielded (public) state. Midnight separates value from network capacity: NIGHT is the unshielded native utility and governance token, and holding NIGHT generates DUST, a shielded, non-transferable resource consumed to pay transaction fees. The network inherits security properties from Cardano through the partner-chain framework while running its own consensus and application layer.

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Key Features

  • Programmable privacy: Zero-knowledge smart contracts written in Compact
  • Dual ledger: Shielded and unshielded state on the same network
  • NIGHT + DUST: NIGHT for utility/governance; DUST for fee payment
  • Cardano partner chain: Linked to Cardano for settlement and staking-related flows (including cNIGHT registrations)
  • UTXO-style unshielded outputs: Public UTXO tracking alongside private ledger events

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Midnight Data on Dune

Midnight data on Dune is a custom (non-EVM) schema under midnight.*. Tables cover blocks, transactions, ledger events, contract actions, unshielded UTXOs, DUST generation, cNIGHT registrations, and stake-pool / committee metadata.

Blocks

Block headers, height, author, and protocol version.

Transactions

Transaction records linked to blocks, including variant and hash.

Regular Transactions

Fee and merkle-tree details for regular (user) transactions.

Ledger Events

Ledger events emitted by transactions (variant, grouping, attributes).

Contract Actions

Smart contract actions with address and attributes JSON.

Unshielded UTXOs

Public unshielded UTXO creates and spends.

cNIGHT Registrations

Cardano ↔ Midnight cNIGHT / DUST address registrations.

DUST Generation Info

NIGHT UTXO state used for DUST generation.

SPO History

Stake pool operator status history by epoch.

SPO Identity

Stake pool identity keys and pool IDs.

SPO Stake History

Live and active stake snapshots for pools.

SPO Epoch Performance

Expected vs produced blocks per SPO per epoch.

Committee Membership

Committee membership and expected slots by epoch.

Pool Metadata Cache

Cached pool display metadata (name, ticker).

Midnight documentation

Official Midnight developer and protocol documentation.

Network overview

High-level overview of Midnight network design and tokenomics.