Cardano founder to extend midnight privacy to XRP and Bitcoin

Charles Hoskinson is working on the latest Midnight Protocol for Cardano over the bond chain.

Instead, Cardano's founder envisioned a privacy-focused platform as a common infrastructure layer that would provide programmable privacy to rival blockchain networks, including Bitcoin and XRP Ledger.

Hoskinson moves beyond Cardano in the cross-chain privacy game

In a Dec. 27 post on X at midnight, Hoskinson argued that zero-knowledge proof architectures enhance capabilities rather than displace competing environments.

Sponsored

Integrating Midnight with the XRP Ledger will enable the network to challenge legacy banking systems by enabling private, compliant decentralized finance, he said. Midnight extended the argument to Bitcoin, saying it offers programmable privacy features that Bitcoin currently lacks.

Hoskinson also produced Midnight as an inspiration for Cardano himself. He pointed out that the protocol could help Cardano's monthly active users and total value locked up by expanding the ecosystem service beyond the generation chain.

“Midnight makes what it touches better. Adding Midnight to XRP DeFi will blow legacy banks out of the water. Adding Midnight to Bitcoin is the satoshi of the world. Adding Midnight to Cardano will cost our DeFi ecosystem a lot and we'll charge MAUs, transactions and TVL 10 because we can trade private DeFi first,” he said.

Beyond communication, Hoskinson pointed out the scale of opportunity in real-world property simulation. He says the estimated $10 trillion market for real-world assets benefits greatly from midnight privacy design.

In that context, he criticized traditional financial institutions for continuing to partner with Canton Network, a permissioned blockchain, arguing that partial solutions fall short of the need for institutional adoption.

“There are no half measures or half technologies. You need an end-to-end strategy, great partners and great communities,” Hoskinson said.

This strategy marks a shift for Hoskinson, who is focused on building within the Cardano ecosystem.

As it improves on other Layer-1 blockchains by introducing Midnight as a privacy layer, Hoskinson is looking to tap into liquidity and user base beyond the Cardano network.

That pivot coincided with rising speculative interest in midnight's native token, overnight.

According to data from CoinGecko, the asset recently surpassed Bitcoin and Ethereum in search volume on the platform's trending list.

However, the token has traded with high volatility since its launch earlier this month. According to BeInCrypto data, the token price has dropped by more than 80% to $0.08.