Ashley Cooper

Earlier, we delved into the internal logic of Dusk. Today, let us widen our perspective and place it within a broader industry coordinate system, examining the real competitive landscape it faces: is it struggling in a crowded red sea, or does it occupy a unique advantageous position?

First, in the core battlefield of 'RWA asset issuance', Dusk is surrounded by giants. Represented by public chains like Ondo, Polygon, and major traditional financial giants directly collaborating (such as Ethereum, Stellar), they have become the preferred choice for standard assets like government bonds and money market funds on-chain due to their established ecosystems, deep liquidity, and strong brand reputation. Dusk does not have an advantage if it competes for such 'transparent' assets.@Dusk
Secondly, in the traditional field of 'privacy protection,' it also has to face mature predecessors like Monero and Zcash. These projects have stronger brand recognition for anonymity and community consensus, but under the current global regulatory wave, their survival space is being squeezed, which in turn creates a timely opportunity for Dusk's 'compliance privacy' narrative.
Therefore, Dusk's real strategy is 'flanking maneuver' rather than direct assault. It precisely targets a critical intersection that is still blank but has clear demand: serving those with strong privacy needs who must also accept strict regulation, non-standardized RWA assets. This includes private equity, non-public bonds, complex structured products, etc., which traditional RWA platforms find difficult to reach due to transparency issues, while established privacy coins cannot serve this 'niche market' due to compliance issues.$DUSK
Its core competitive barrier is the deep integration of 'compliance licenses' and 'auditable privacy technology.'
1. License Advantage: Through in-depth equity cooperation with the regulated Dutch exchange NPEX, Dusk has obtained a 'ticket' to directly access the regulated financial system, which is not easily replicable at the technical level. 2. Technical Integration: Its privacy is not an external module but is natively designed from the consensus layer (SBA) to the execution layer (Hedger, DuskEVM), providing a smoother and safer experience.
For $DUSK , this competitive positioning means: its value does not depend on whether it can become the first in a single track, but on whether it can establish an unshakeable first-mover advantage and network effects in the 'compliance privacy finance' niche market it has pioneered. If successful, it will enjoy a profit zone with relatively mild competition and very high customer stickiness.

Tomorrow, we will temporarily set aside optimism and calmly examine the potential risks and challenges that Dusk must face on its path to its vision.
#dusk

Dříve jsme se zabývali vnitřní logikou Dusk. Dnes rozšíříme naše perspektivy a umístíme jej do širšího systémového koordinátu v průmyslu, zkoumáme skutečnou konkurenceschopnou krajinu, kterou čelí: snaží se v přeplněném červeném moři, nebo zaujímá jedinečnou výhodnou pozici?
Nejprve, v jádrovém bitevním poli 'emise RWA aktiv', je Dusk obklopen obry. Reprezentováni veřejnými řetězci jako Ondo, Polygon a velkými tradičními finančními obry, kteří přímo spolupracují (jako Ethereum, Stellar), se stali preferovanou volbou pro standardní aktiva jako státní dluhopisy a fondy peněžního trhu na řetězci díky svým zavedeným ekosystémům, hluboké likviditě a silné reputaci značky. Dusk nemá výhodu, pokud soutěží o taková 'transparentní' aktiva.@Dusk

Dusk Network @Dusk Since its inception in 2018, it has adhered to a clear yet highly challenging positioning—creating a privacy-first Layer 1 blockchain for the regulated financial world. While most public chains pursue 'complete decentralization and absolute anonymity,' Dusk goes against the grain by proposing the concept of 'regulated privacy,' attempting to satisfy both institutional compliance needs and user data confidentiality, two seemingly contradictory goals.
After the mainnet officially launched in 2025, Dusk introduced a core protocol stack called Twilight. This protocol combines zero-knowledge proofs (primarily optimized variants of zk-SNARKs and Bulletproofs), Segregated Byzantine Agreement, and a modular three-layer architecture to achieve complete confidentiality of transaction content while retaining on-chain auditable compliance attributes. In simple terms, regulators can see that 'a certain transaction meets KYC/AML requirements and the amount is within the threshold,' but they cannot see the specific addresses, amounts, or asset details of the parties involved in the transfer. This ability for 'selective disclosure' is the biggest difference between Dusk and traditional privacy coins like Monero and Zcash.
Entering 2026, Dusk's on-chain data has shown significant changes. Santiment shows that the number of daily active addresses has surged from dozens at the beginning of the year to over 300, no longer just a single brushing behavior, but rather growth driven by real RWA projects and institutional testnet migrations. It is known that POL Finance and several European security token issuers have completed economic model audits and small-scale deployments on it. Dusk blocks issue approximately 19.86 DUSK per block, with 80% going to validators and stakers' rewards, and the remaining portion used for ecological funds and development. This relatively restrained inflation model has also been recognized by the community.
Meanwhile, Dusk is actively promoting the development of the EVM+ compatible layer, aiming to allow existing Solidity developers to migrate compliant DeFi protocols at low cost, without having to learn Rust or its proprietary contract language from scratch. This combination of "privacy + compatibility" has created a differentiated barrier for Dusk in the RWA (Real World Assets) track. Compared to Centrifuge, which is more focused on the asset onboarding process, and compared to Ondo, which emphasizes liquidity products, Dusk is attempting to become the underlying settlement and issuance infrastructure directly.
Of course, challenges still exist. Privacy public chains naturally face risks in regulatory gray areas, and Dusk's strategy of "actively embracing compliance" has led some fundamentalist crypto users to question its degree of decentralization. However, from the perspective of institutional capital flow and on-chain activity, this "middle path" seems to be validated by the market. In the first half of 2026, if Dusk can realize a few truly scaled security token issuances or compliant stablecoin settlement cases, it is likely to leap from being a "potential stock" in the privacy track to one of the core players in the "institutional essential track."#dusk $DUSK

Pokud porovnáme soukromí veřejných řetězců od roku 2021 do roku 2023 s 'závodem ve zbrojení', kde každý soutěží v tom, kdo má silnější zero-knowledge a důkladnější míchání, narativ soukromí po roce 2025 se tiše posunul na 'Soukromí × Soulad × Programovatelné finance'. Dusk Network
je v čele tohoto nového narativu.
V červnu 2025 Dusk oficiálně oznámil upgrade své hlavní sítě z architektury s jednou vrstvou na třívrstvou modulární strukturu: Základní konsensuální vrstva (SegBA), Vrstva provádění (podporující zk chytré kontrakty) a Vrstva adaptace aplikací (kompatibilní s EVM a vlastními finančními prvky). Tento upgrade výrazně snížil náklady na institucionální přístup—co dříve trvalo měsíce na přizpůsobení logiky souladu, může nyní být nasazeno během týdnů prostřednictvím modulárních pluginů. Během stejného období ukázala data testnetu stabilní TPS mezi 800-1200 (díky paralelnímu provádění a zk kompresi), přičemž náklady na soukromí byly kontrolovány v přijatelné výši.

In early 2026, a seemingly insignificant piece of news circulated in the crypto circle: a European mid-sized asset management company passed part of its private equity fund share through Dusk Network @Dusk Complete on-chain distribution and secondary circulation. This is not a proof of concept, but a real case with funding scale. And this is the watershed moment in Dusk's journey from marginal privacy projects to institutional-level financial infrastructure.

Dusk's core selling point can be summarized in one sentence: it allows institutions to complete on-chain securities issuance, trading, settlement and compliance reporting without exposing trade secrets and customer identities. While traditional blockchains are either too transparent (Ethereum) or too opaque (Monero), Dusk offers a third path ——“controllable transparency + enforced privacy”.
Technically, the Twilight protocol is its largest moat. Transactions use zk to prove that the hidden amount is related to the participants, but the supervisory node can verify whether the transaction complies with the pre-written compliance rules through a preset viewing key (viewing key). This design makes Dusk one of the first public chains to truly meet the MiCA (EU Cryptoasset Regulation), SEC requirements and GDPR data privacy requirements at the same time.
In terms of ecological progress, from the end of 2025 to the beginning of 2026, the activity on the Dusk chain showed a step-by-step increase. The number of daily active addresses exceeded 300, and the number of daily transactions remained stable at thousands. What is more, these increases are mainly due to RWA-type applications rather than speculative brush volume. Several projects have publicly stated that they are migrating some asset issuance processes to Dusk, including but not limited to real estate shares, carbon credits, art income rights, etc.
The token model also stabilized. DUSK's multifunctional positioning as a gas fee, staking, governance and settlement asset is becoming increasingly clear. Compared to some high-inflation projects, Dusk's fixed block output and gradually decreasing ecological distribution show the intention of long-term sustainability. The market also responded——In January 2026, DUSK prices rose rapidly, partly due to the quiet entry of institutional funds.

Of course, Dusk is not without risk. Privacy technology itself is complex and difficult to audit; compliance routes may also encounter different interpretations in different jurisdictions; and the EVM compatibility layer still needs time to be polished. But when you pull the timeline back to 2026, you discover a fact: it is precisely the richest institutions that need privacy the most. And Dusk is becoming their most likely choice for a privacy settlement layer.
If several tens of millions of euros worth of on-chain securities issuance are seen in the second half of 2026, Dusk is likely to be officially promoted from “an interesting privacy project” to “the underlying standard for RWA and compliant DeFi”.#dusk $DUSK

Before he appeared #dusk developers of blockchain solutions often faced an insurmountable dilemma: complete network transparency or confidentiality of user data. With the implementation of DuskEVM from @Dusk this problem is officially a thing of the past. It is the world's first virtual machine that fully supports sensitive smart contracts, allowing the construction of complex decentralized applications where execution logic and wallet balances remain hidden from prying eyes.

For the ecosystem $DUSK this marks the beginning of a real boom in new dApps. Imagine private decentralized exchanges (DEXs) where your strategies are copy-protected, or voting systems where each member's choices are securely encrypted. Importantly, the network remains scalable and fast thanks to the unique Succinct Attestation consensus. Dusk convincingly proves that privacy should not be a compromise for performance, creating a reliable environment for next-generation developers.

The market for real-world tokenized assets (RWA) is predicted by experts to reach incredible proportions in 2026, and @Dusk builds the necessary infrastructure to transfer this capital online. The main obstacle for RWAs on traditional public blockchains has always been the lack of privacy and the difficulty of going through KYC procedures without the risk of data leakage. Citadel protocol developed by the team #dusk , addresses these issues by allowing users to verify their identity with ZK certificates without actually transferring sensitive personal data.

Token $DUSK becomes a key tool for access to this new market. It ensures the stability and security of the network, where stocks, bonds and real estate can be exchanged instantly, privately and in compliance with the law. We see Dusk becoming the gold standard for issuing regulated digital securities. It's not just a technological superstructure, it's a complete rethink of ownership and access to global investment, where every participant is protected by state-of-the-art cryptography.

After the previous discussions, we clarified that Dusk aims to provide an 'auditable privacy' on-chain environment for high-value RWA assets. Today, we focus on its first and most critical heavyweight application — the DuskTrade platform, examining how it transforms a grand technological concept into concrete business practices and revenue streams.

DuskTrade is not just another decentralized exchange (DEX); its essence is that of a regulated digital asset securities exchange. Its core partner is the Dutch licensed exchange NPEX. This partnership is crucial: NPEX holds a license issued by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), providing the platform with an established, legitimate financial trading venue identity. Dusk's role is to provide blockchain underlying technology support for this compliant venue, particularly its privacy execution environment.@Dusk
The platform's initial goal is to plan to tokenize and migrate over 300 million euros of existing traditional securities (such as small and medium-sized enterprise stocks and bonds) onto the chain by 2026. This means that transactions will be settled on Dusk's blockchain, enjoying instant finality and 24/7 operational efficiency, while all transaction details will be encrypted by Hedger technology by default. For regulators, they can conduct audits through NPEX's existing channels; for irrelevant parties in the market, they will not be able to glimpse specific transaction amounts and counterparties. This perfectly aligns with regulations like Europe's MiFID II regarding transaction transparency and reporting requirements while protecting the commercial privacy of market participants.
From a technical implementation perspective, DuskTrade relies on the complete compatibility of DuskEVM to lower the development and usage barriers. At the same time, its collaboration with the oracle giant Chainlink in cross-chain and data aspects ensures the reliability of on-chain asset prices and liquidations. It can be said to be a showcase of all core technologies of Dusk.

For holders of $DUSK , the advancement of DuskTrade means that token demand will shift significantly from 'staking-driven' to 'gas consumption-driven.' Every asset issuance, transaction, and settlement on the platform requires burning DUSK as fuel. If 300 million euros or even larger-scale assets can generate sustained on-chain trading activity, it will create predictable and continuous token consumption demand. This is a key step in whether its economic model can form a value closed loop.
Of course, whether the platform can go live as scheduled and attract sufficient liquidity remains the biggest variable to observe. #dusk

Yesterday we discussed Dusk's technical positioning for 'compliant privacy', and today we want to ask a more practical question: who exactly does this technology serve? The answer points to a currently hot and also traditional field: real-world assets (RWA) worth trillions of dollars.
Currently, the RWA tokenization wave is unstoppable. Standardized assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds and money market funds are being massively put on-chain through the layouts of giants like BlackRock. However, this 'sunshine avenue' is mainly applicable to underlying cash-like assets that require extremely high transparency. When financial institutions attempt to migrate more high-value, non-standardized core assets—such as company stocks, private bonds, risk credit, or even real estate fund shares—onto the blockchain, a fundamental contradiction arises: complete transparency on-chain will expose their most sensitive business secrets.
Imagine these scenarios:
· An investment company is secretly building a position in a certain stock, and publicly available on-chain transaction records would allow competitors to fully grasp its strategy, leading to 'front-running'.
· A company issues a private bond, the exact financing scale, interest rate, and list of subscribers are highly confidential and should not be broadcasted to the entire network.
· In large institutional trading negotiations, quotes, quantities, and counterparty information must be strictly protected before a deal is reached.
The 'full transparency' characteristic of traditional blockchains becomes a fatal flaw in such scenarios. Meanwhile, completely anonymous privacy coin solutions are rejected by institutions for failing to meet financial rules such as 'anti-money laundering' and 'information disclosure'.
This is precisely the key gap market that Dusk is trying to leverage. The core of its solution is that it does not pursue complete anonymity of assets but rather endows each on-chain RWA asset with a 'programmable privacy status'. Through its Hedger module and Confidential Security Token standard (XSC), asset issuers can preset rules: for example, showing details only to counterparties and regulators while displaying only encrypted status to the public; or executing a transaction only when it meets all compliance terms (such as being limited to qualified investors).
Therefore, Dusk's ambitions go far beyond creating yet another privacy token. Its goal is to provide a compliant privacy layer at the protocol level, allowing core assets in traditional finance that are too sensitive to be 'exposed' to safely and compliantly migrate onto the blockchain, enjoying the efficiency revolution brought by blockchain. The value of $DUSK is directly related to whether the future can accommodate the scale of such high-net-worth assets. Its first major application—the DuskTrade platform—will put this blueprint into practice.#dusk @Dusk_Foundation

Včerejší prezentaci jsme zmínili, že Dusk se profiluje jako 'shodná ochrana soukromí' finanční infrastruktura. Dnes se ponoříme do klíčové otázky: Pod tlakem regulací, mají privátní mince stále budoucnost? Odpověď, kterou Dusk poskytl, může být velmi dobře jeho největší hodnotou.

V současnosti čelí tradiční privátní mince bezprecedentní krizi přežití. Příkladem může být Monero, které dosahuje povinné, nesledovatelné anonymity prostřednictvím technologií, jako jsou ringové podpisy, což je skutečně vrchol ochrany soukromí, ale také z něj dělá 'trn v oku' globálním regulačním agenturám. Od nucení k odchodu z několika hlavních burz po nedávné výslovné zákazy obchodování s takovými aktivy na místech jako Dubaj, je jeho vývojový prostor neustále stlačován.