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Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson says Midnight won't chase Monero, ZCash users
Midnight will target "billions who don't know they need privacy" rather than privacy maxis as mainnet launch nears in March, he said.
Feb 12, 2026, 4:52 a.m.
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What to know:
- Charles Hoskinson said Midnight won't actively recruit Monero and ZCash users, calling them a "different demographic" that already cares deeply about privacy.
- Midnight will rather target "billions of people that don't know they need privacy" with default privacy protection instead of optional features.
- Hoskinson argued privacy isn't a binary "light switch" like privacy coins suggest, criticizing the on/off approach of Monero and ZCash.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said that privacy-focused blockchain Midnight doesn't have plans to onboard privacy maxis from the zcash and monero communities to the Midnight chain.
"You don't try to get anybody from Monero or ZCash over," he said during a Q&A session at Consensus Hong Kong on Thursday.
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"They certainly will come in their own time, but they're a different demographic," he said. "Those are people that wake up every day and they really care about privacy, and they matter and they're important, but what we're going for is the billions of people that don't know they need privacy but give it to them by default."
Midnight announced Thursday that its mainnet will go live in March as a partner chain to Cardano.
Hoskinson then claimed the ethos of privacy is not as simplistic as the monero and zcash communities often allude to.
"What Monero and ZCash have been trying to convince people is it's like a light switch. We're private. The switch is on. Everybody else is not. The switch is off. That's not how that works," he said.
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