Why DAOs on Midnight Are Better
You may be wondering: what is a DAO?
A DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization, is basically a company, community, or group that is run by code instead of traditional leadership structures. So instead of a board of directors or a CEO making all the calls, you have a group of people who can vote on proposals and help guide decisions.
That part is not new.
What is exciting is what happens when you bring DAOs to Midnight.
The problem with traditional DAOs
On a regular public chain like Ethereum, you can absolutely build a DAO and let people vote on proposals.
The problem is that those votes are usually visible on the public ledger.
That is great for transparency and verifying results, but not so great if privacy actually matters. In some situations, people may not want their votes, activity, or participation exposed for everyone to see.
That is where Midnight stands out.
Why Midnight changes the game
On Midnight, you can cast a vote, keep that vote private, and still verify that the vote was made correctly.
That is a huge difference.
You still get verifiable outcomes, but without exposing everything publicly. That opens the door for a very different kind of DAO design, especially for use cases where privacy matters.
You can already imagine how this could change the way DAOs work across different industries and communities.
Want to see how it works?
If you are curious about the implementation, check out the GitHub link below.
Midnight DAO Voting DApp
A privacy-preserving DAO voting contract using a commit/reveal scheme with cryptographically enforced privacy:
- Commit/Reveal Voting - Two-phase voting where votes are hidden during commit phase and revealed later
-
Circuit-Derived Nullifiers - Nullifiers computed inside ZK circuits using
persistentCommitto prevent double voting - MerkleTree Commitments - Vote commitments stored in a MerkleTree for privacy
- Tally Enforcement - Vote tallies incremented inside the reveal circuit (cryptographically enforced)
- Three vote types - YES, NO, and APPEAL options
- Proposal State Machine - Proposals progress through COMMIT → REVEAL → FINAL phases
For detailed DAO documentation, see:
- DAO-CONCEPTS.md - Core concepts and architecture
- DAO-DEPLOYMENT.md - Deployment and API reference
Network Targets
Supports Preprod testnet (recommended for getting started):
| Network | Description | Command |
|---|---|---|
| Preprod | Public testnet | npm run start-ps |
Project Structure
example-dao/
├── contract/ # Smart contracts (Compact language)
│ ├── src/dao.compact # DAO voting smart contract
│ ├── src/dao-witnesses.ts # DAO witnessYou can also check out the YouTube demo linked below and follow along with the walkthrough.
In the demo, I go over the installation process and some of the core differences between a typical DAO and a DAO built on Midnight. The cool part is that you can take this code, customize it, and use it as the foundation for your own DAO.
A quick look under the hood
One big difference is that instead of traditional Solidity-style functions, Midnight uses circuits. These circuits define the logic that gets proven with zero-knowledge proofs.
The proof server then helps generate a proof showing that the transaction followed the contract rules, without exposing the private data behind it.
That means you can verify that something was done correctly without putting all the sensitive details out in public.
What about the data?
So how is that data handled?
Before it ever leaves your machine, it gets hashed. That means the information is already being transformed into something cryptographic before it reaches the proof server. That adds another layer of security to the overall flow.
Why this matters
This is really just the beginning.
We already see DAOs shaping governance, communities, and digital coordination. But privacy-first infrastructure like Midnight could help take DAOs into areas where privacy is not optional.
Think about things like:
- health-related governance
- personal finance
- private organizations
- sensitive voting systems
That is where this starts to feel a lot bigger than just another DAO demo.
Final thoughts
This is where things get exciting blockchain can now start stepping in these more regulated business sectors.Midnight helps with that by puting privacy first.
Follow me on all platforms: @mrparanormal39
Top comments (3)
I have a special place in my HEART for DAOs!!! Information flows easy into my brain.
Great Minds Think alike!
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