End-to-end architecture
One diagram connecting private computation on your device to public verification on the Midnight network, and what each layer can and cannot see.
Compact as a privacy-first language
Explains why Midnight uses its own smart contract language and how Compact treats privacy-aware circuits as first-class citizens.
Building blocks
Learn how Midnight transactions combine intents, Zswap offers, contract calls, and deployments, and how transaction merging and binding commitments work.
The Impact VM
Explains Impact, the stack-based, non-Turing-complete on-chain VM language, covering transcripts, state values, the opcode table, and context and effects.
Private data
This document describes some strategies for keeping data private in
Midnight's hybrid architecture
Explains how Midnight builds account-based smart contracts on a UTXO foundation, how NIGHT generates DUST, and when to choose ledger tokens or contract tokens.
Transaction semantics
Explains Midnight transaction semantics, covering ledger and contract state, the well-formedness check, and how the guaranteed and fallible phases execute.
Smart contracts on Midnight
Explains how smart contracts on Midnight differ from public smart contracts, using a guessing game to cover transcripts, zero-knowledge proofs, and coins.
Zswap
Explains Zswap, a shielded token mechanism that extends Zerocash with native token support and atomic swaps, covering offers, inputs, outputs, and token types.