Ecosystem programs and pathways
The Midnight ecosystem provides participation pathways for individuals and teams of every experience level. Whether you’re sharing your enthusiasm across the community and around the world, or building the next killer DApp or investible business, there is a program and a community for you. Last week these routes and how they fit together were all explained in the recent X space: Not everyone joins an ecosystem in the same way: Find your path.
Build Club
The eight-week, technology-agnostic Build club program helps early-stage founders transform privacy-focused concepts into viable businesses. Personally tailored mentorship equips teams to build a complete commercial model rather than just a code repository. While entry remains open to all driven builders, a competitive selection process determines who advances to pitch day. Learn more about Build Club and apply here.
Night Sky accelerator
Night Sky is a 10-week accelerator program that supports early-stage projects with technical mentorship, fundraising guidance, and deployment resources to build scalable, privacy-first businesses. Launching its first cohort in July 2026, the initiative provides resources for pre-seed, seed, and Series A companies that integrate privacy features at the infrastructure level. Eligible teams must possess a functional minimum viable product where data privacy serves as a core commercial requirement.
Participants connect directly with a diverse group of veteran mentors, exited founders, and specialized operators across multiple sectors. This program shares the practical expertise required to transform an early-stage product into a viable commercial success, drawing straight from leaders who have already built and scaled businesses.
Learn more about the program and apply here.
Nightforce ambassadors
The Nightforce ambassador program coordinates global ecosystem outreach and visibility by empowering dedicated network advocates. Volunteer members actively communicate the practical value of Midnight technology both inside the conference circuit and across digital channels.
Nightforce members with a record of strong contributions to the community, knowledge of the protocol and the right attitude to succeed advance to Nightforce leadership roles focused on specific areas of contribution. These Nightforce leaders coordinate regional events, share technical knowledge, manage the Discord community, and collaborate directly with the Midnight Foundation team to advance network adoption.
Learn more about the Nightforce and apply to join here.
Aliit Fellowship
The Aliit fellowship selects engineers who contribute directly to the network foundations. Fellows focus on engineering depth, writing open-source tools, building software development kits, and conducting technical workshops.
The fellowship includes distinct pathways for builders, educators, and community technical leaders. The selection process evaluates candidates based on technical rigor, code contributions, and documentation quality. Find more about the program and apply for Aliit fellowship here.
Applications
VIA Labs deployed its cross-chain bridging protocol to both the Midnight and Cardano testnets earlier this month. This release introduces native cross-chain transfers for Moneta’s stablecoin, USDM, between the two network preview environments.
Developers can test this cross-chain implementation by configuring 1AM (Midnight) and Eternl (Cardano) wallets for the Midnight Preview and Cardano Pre-Prod networks. After obtaining gas tokens and test USDM from the corresponding network faucets, builders can execute cross-chain transfers directly via the VIA Labs testing portal. The open beta allows developers to test it out, transfer stablecoins and try to break it. Testing feedback and bug reports submitted through the VIA Labs Discord channel help optimize before production, and builders can contact the team directly to secure premium testnet access for cross-chain DApp development.
Ecosystem
The Electric Capital developer report is an independent benchmark for software engineering activity across the blockchain industry. The report aggregates open-source repository data and tracks unique contributors to provide an objective evaluation of network health. This standardized methodology enables neutral comparison of developer engagement across different networks without relying on self-reported data.
The latest release documents a remarkable surge in developer activity surrounding the network launch, establishing Midnight as a fast-growing and active developer ecosystem, and one of the most active ecosystems for privacy-enhancing technology.
Along with the increasing developer activity, the ecosystem continues to expand and supercharge builder activity with the launch of AI-driven developer plugins (Midnight Expert), and a new partner sprint with Edda Labs. These utilities provide builders with enhanced capabilities for deploying production-ready DApps.
Read the recent blog to learn more about the report and how all the new resources and activities are fuelling developer growth.
Ecosystem Partners
Turnkey joins forces with the Midnight Foundation to deploy developer-focused wallet infrastructure on the Midnight network. This integration combines Turnkey’s API-driven, non-custodial key management and SDKs with Midnight’s privacy-enhancing technology. The infrastructure minimizes the engineering requirements and friction involved in building embedded, non-custodial wallets inside decentralized applications DApps.
COTI and Midnight work together to expand the global privacy ecosystem and advance industry standards, for developers, enterprises, and users. This work brings together distinct and complementary technologies to establish data protection as a foundational layer for blockchain networks.
The Midnight Foundation is partnering with Buysell Standards, operator of the security token platform PIECE, to test the full lifecycle of issuing and managing tokenized assets on Midnight, using selective disclosure to protect sensitive data while meeting regulatory requirements. Together, the teams will test the full lifecycle of issuing and managing tokenized assets on Midnight, using selective disclosure to protect sensitive data while meeting regulatory requirements.
Protofire will support Midnight’s ecosystem growth through engineering, product development, and operational support, including work across core apps and tools, privacy-enhancing components and cryptographic services (such as proof-generation frameworks and trusted execution environments), and the building ecosystem tooling for practical developer use. Learn more.
GalaxySwap joins the Midnight ecosystem to build a decentralized exchange focused on private DeFi.
Network Pulse
Monitor real-time activity, block production, and transaction volume through several block explorers from Midnight partners
- Midnight Explorer: https://midnightexplorer.com/
- Subscan: https://midnight.subscan.io/
- Webisoft: https://explorer.1am.xyz/
Educational resources
Two introductory videos from the developer relations team provide targeted guidance for both technical and non-technical professionals seeking entry into the ecosystem.
Web2 developers and experienced Web3 builders can utilize the developer introduction to Midnight to learn network fundamentals, the TypeScript-based Compact programming language, and practical methods for adding privacy features to traditional web applications.
For creators, marketers, designers, and operators looking to transition into the blockchain space, the Web3 career workshop outlines the 2026 job market. Viewers will learn how to position their existing skills for in-demand roles across emerging sectors like zero-knowledge technology and agentic AI.
ZK Loan DApp tutorial
A new developer tutorial outlines a zero-knowledge (ZK) loan application that keeps financial data strictly on local storage. An off-chain provider signs credit profiles, allowing a Compact smart contract to verify eligibility within a ZK circuit. This configuration ensures only the approved loan tier and capital amount hit the public ledger, while income and credit scores remain private.
Builders can complete the implementation through the three-part technical walkthrough:
- Part 1: Write the contract – Define loan logic, eligibility tiers, and on-chain state for private credit evaluation.
- Part 2: Build the API – Construct a REST server that signs credit data with Schnorr signatures for smart contract verification.
- Part 3: Build the CLI – Connect the contract, attestation API, and proof server together to run the complete flow on the Preprod network.
There’s more to learn every week on the Developer Fireside Hang. Pull up a seat and join the conversation every Wednesday at 15:00 UTC on YouTube.
Releases & Documentation
Midnight Expert
The newly launched Midnight Expert provides an open-source suite of 16 Claude Code plugins that transforms Claude into a proficient developer assistant fluent in Compact, the SDK, and core privacy patterns. Relevant skills activate automatically based on real-time developer actions, completely eliminating tool friction and command memorization.
This powerful toolset covers the entire development loop, from scaffolding frontends to running contract simulators and managing wallet lifecycles. Crucially, a mechanical verification pipeline validates the AI's outputs against live code execution. The midnight-verify tool actively compiles, type-checks, and inspects Zero-Knowledge Intermediate Representation (ZKIR) to confirm accuracy before deployment. Learn more on the recent Fireside Dev Hang with Aaron Bassett, the developer behind Midnight Expert
Offer Files
Offer Files for zSwap, establishing private atomic settlement directly on the base layer. Builders and traders can now generate secure, private trading offers locally and share them across external communication channels for immediate on-chain execution.
Prove an offer locally, serialize it, and post it anywhere, a Discord channel, a Telegram group, or a shared Celestia namespace for public liquidity. Anyone can pull it down and match it, which means liquidity is shared across every Midnight project instead of each app fighting for its own. Learn more about zSwap Offer Files here.
Updates occur regularly. Check the releases page and the compatibility matrix to stay up-to-date.
Join the community
To talk with the community about everything Midnight, join the community on Discord.