Cardano’s Midnight project, a groundbreaking data protection-focused protocol, welcomes blockchain industry veteran Anthony Day to its leadership team.
In a press release shared with CryptoGlobe on May 3, 2023, blockchain technology firm Input Output Global (IOG), one of the builders behind the Cardano (ADA) blockchain, announced that Anthony Day, former blockchain leader at Deloitte, is set to spearhead the go-to-market strategy for their latest initiative, the Midnight project. Day’s LinkedIn profile says his official title is Head of Strategy and Marketing for Midnight.
Day is not new to the blockchain arena. Having held key leadership and advisory roles at IBM, Deloitte, Parity Technologies, and Hedera Hashgraph, he has been instrumental in various blockchain deployments, including supply chain management, business operations, sustainability, and healthcare. Day also hosts the podcast “Blockchain Won’t Save the World,” which features stories of real-world change driven by blockchain technology.
Day’s appointment follows a series of high-profile hires by IOG. Among them are Eran Barak, former COO of Symphony and founder of FINOS, who now serves as Midnight’s CEO, and Dr. Vanishree Rao, the head of applied cryptography, responsible for leading the practical application of existing research and exploring untapped technology innovations.
Midnight, announced at the end of last year, is a new blockchain protocol designed to incorporate principles and integrity into applications on a global scale. Targeted at a broad spectrum of users, including developers, companies, governments, and individuals, Midnight employs a data protection-first programming model. The platform will leverage zero-knowledge cryptography (ZK Proofs) and a blend of private and public computation to establish a trustless ecosystem that safeguards sensitive personal and commercial data while also meeting compliance needs. Potential use cases range from financial workflows to healthcare records and supply chain operations.
As a sidechain of the popular Cardano blockchain, Midnight will inherit its security and decentralized attributes, significantly enhancing Cardano’s utility and opening up new use cases for users seeking to transact, publish, or share sensitive data.
Eran Barak, CEO of Midnight, expressed excitement about Day’s appointment, stating that his experience and passion for driving meaningful change through technology represent a considerable asset for the project. Day himself is excited about Midnight’s potential to address large-scale data privacy challenges, emphasizing its open design that allows anyone to develop applications capable of securely sharing mission-critical information without fear of leaks, censorship, or safety concerns in a connected world.
IOG Co-Founder and CEO Charles Hoskinson shared exciting details about the upcoming confidentiality platform, Midnight, during an interview on the YouTube series “Corey Costa’s Crypto Coins” on 8 December 2022. Hoskinson explained the regulatory hurdles in using blockchain systems for privacy and shared his solution for a confidentiality network.
He said:
“Instead of having a privacy coin, what you do is you have a confidentiality network, you have smart contracts that are private…It’s the hardest product we’ve ever worked on, and it makes Cardano look like kid’s play.“
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