Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has announced an ambitious target for the Midnight Network to become the world's leading privacy-oriented smart contract platform by the end of 2026. This goal was emphasized amid rapid developer activity, with smart contract deployments increasing by 44.6% in Q3 2025 and new contracts rising by 45.4% in weekly average deployments.
Hoskinson highlighted significant engagement with the native NIGHT token, noting 11,000 redemptions for 250,000,000 NIGHT tokens and a widespread airdrop eligibility spanning 33.5 million accounts across eight ecosystems and seven chains. He stated, "Instead of doing an ICO, instead of going to venture capitalists… I distributed it with an airdrop," underscoring the community-focused approach.
The Midnight Network, which began public testing in February 2024 after a developer preview in late 2023, aims to surpass established privacy chains like Secret Network, Oasis Network (holding ~13.6% market share), and Aleph Zero (~6.1% market share). Hoskinson urged the team to adopt a more aggressive growth strategy, citing potential integration with Brave Wallet's 84 million users to enhance cryptographic protection for web users.
Despite past technical challenges, such as ledger compatibility issues in August 2025, the project's progress signals a push for innovation in decentralized governance and privacy frameworks, potentially influencing liquidity and market dynamics within the Cardano ecosystem.
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