Jumping from traditional finance into the crypto world, I was initially attracted by decentralization and transparency. But after years of exposure, I’ve discovered an interesting paradox: complete transparency in finance is actually a double-edged sword.

When dealing with real assets—stocks, bonds, private equity, RWA—what institutional investors and high-net-worth clients really want is not full visibility across the network. They need a balance of privacy and compliance: regulators and auditors should see what they need to see; but on the other hand, competitors and ordinary retail investors should have their holdings and transaction details completely hidden. That’s true financial-grade privacy.

The Dusk project is designed to meet this demand. It’s a Layer 1 blockchain, but not in the usual way—it natively integrates confidential smart contract functionality. Its core technology combines zero-knowledge proofs with an innovative Byzantine isolation consensus mechanism. Simply put, it allows sensitive data like transaction amounts, asset ownership, and contract logic to be selectively disclosed. You can prove that something happened without revealing the specific details. Network security, transaction throughput, decentralization—none of these are sacrificed, while privacy is maintained at a professional level.

This is not just a technical showcase, but a key to enabling traditional financial institutions to enter the on-chain world. By early 2025, my confidence in this direction has grown even stronger.