The privacy-preserving, layer-1 blockchain enables businesses and consumers to reap the benefits of a public network for an array of financial applications compliant with legal requirements.
Dusk Network, an Amsterdam-based fintech company, has successfully launched its testnet called DayBreak today. With the launch of the testnet, the public can interact with the network for the first time.
Dusk Network is a layer-1 blockchain protocol capable of powering privacy-preserving smart contracts that satisfy business compliance criteria. The network is secured by a novel and fast proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus with settlement finality guarantees — an important requirement for financial use cases. This opens up new opportunities for communities and organizations that are looking to embrace blockchain for business and use it to address the inefficiencies of traditional finance.
Compliance and a real-world solution
Traditional financial institutions, such as banks or brokers, are keeping a watchful eye on the rapid developments in the blockchain industry. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt the status quo, but only if it can comply with the financial market directives and legislation.
Carving its own path, Dusk Network was designed and built from the ground up to satisfy the requirements of a regulatory, compliant, distributed ledger. The team pushed the boundaries of the current technology by researching and delivering novel techniques and algorithms in the realm of peer-to-peer networking, distributed computation and zero-knowledge cryptography. By tailoring its network specifically to the requirements of the financial sector, Dusk Network aims to make blockchain relevant in promising sectors currently largely untapped.
“Most of us know that public blockchains are completely transparent by nature. This presents a real blocker for large financial institutions that are looking to adopt the technology.
They need the tools to satisfy compliance criteria whilst keeping sensitive data — such as their clients’ balances, ownership registries and asset movements between venues — confidential. I am beyond excited to launch DayBreak, knowing that we are pushing technology that addresses the needs of the real world,” said Jelle Pol, founder and business director of Dusk Network.
Technological breakthroughs
By utilizing Plonk, the lightning-fast standard in zero-knowledge technologies, all transactions on Dusk Network benefit from confidentiality. The network acts like a public record with smart contracts that store relevant information in a confidential fashion, thus solving the shortcomings of similar platforms, such as Ethereum, which are incapable of fulfilling the privacy-compliance requirement.
“Succinct Attestation” is a unique PoS consensus mechanism that delivers much-needed settlement finality. This is essential for regulatory compliance in financial applications. On Dusk Network, completed transactions are final and irreversible as soon as they are processed, providing legal certainty of ownership. In addition, PoS is more environmentally friendly than proof-of-work, as it doesn’t rely on the power-intensive computation of mining.
Dusk Network’s confidential smart contract platform Rusk opens up the development of a new breed of powerful decentralized applications and enables anyone to program privacy-enabled smart contracts. This sets Dusk Network aside from existing privacy blockchains.
These three technological innovations allow Dusk Network to service regulatory-compliant financial applications based on blockchain technology.
“The testnet is a huge milestone, and I am incredibly proud of launching a network that fulfills a vision that many considered too ambitious even for multi-billion dollar projects. With Dusk Network, we are creating a state-of-the-art blockchain in every sense of the word; the components underpinning the network, such as Plonk, Kadcast and Rusk, are true marvels of innovation that pave the way for a new standard in both traditional finance as well as emerging decentralized finance. With the delivery of DayBreak, we are entering an exciting new chapter that signals our confidence in the network’s capabilities as well as our readiness to progress to the next steps featured in our roadmap toward our vision of a truly fair and efficient financial market,” said Emanuele Francioni, founder and technical director of Dusk Network.
Testnet DayBreak
With its launch, the network is now open for public scrutiny. Users can visit the block explorer to inspect the network’s block times and learn more about the ongoing activities. Those who are looking to contribute can apply for the waiting list, which is currently boasting over 2,500 sign-ups. Tech-savvy users can install the command-line interface (CLI) wallet from the portal and start executing transactions on the network.
The block explorer and CLI wallet can be found on portal.dusk.network.
About Dusk Network
Dusk Network is an open-source blockchain for financial applications. Data protection and privacy preservation play a major role in Dusk Network, as well as its design for regulatory compliance. The blockchain is eco-friendly; thanks to its instant-settlement finality and smart contract functionality, it is finally possible to service regulatory-compliant financial applications based on blockchain technology.
Official Dusk Network links:
Media contact:
- Sabine de Witte — [email protected]
