Charles Hoskinson, founding father of Cardano and CEO of Enter Output World (IOG), has publicly promoted the upcoming “Glacier Airdrop” for Midnight Community. The airdrop, dubbed the “Glacier Drop,” will distribute Midnight’s native token $NIGHT to customers of eight main blockchains, together with ADA, BTC, ETH, and SOL. Hoskinson’s seen push, together with public tweets, podcast appearances, and AMAs, seems unusually direct. However the rationale behind this marketing campaign is strategic, not impulsive. His overt promotion ties on to Midnight’s core structure, regulatory relevance, and its foundational ties to Cardano.
Midnight is a Core IOG Mission, Not an Exterior Partnership
Midnight just isn’t a third-party or ecosystem startup. It’s constructed and funded straight by Enter Output World, the identical agency that developed Cardano. Hoskinson himself initiated the research underpinning the venture way back to 2016. In his June 2024 Unshielded podcast look, he described Midnight as IOG’s “most sophisticated and advanced team” engaged on a blockchain protocol designed to combine privateness, id, and compliance right into a single layer.
The protocol depends on three technical parts:
- Decentralized id techniques (DIDs and AnonCreds),
- Non-public sensible contracts utilizing the Kachina protocol,
- Multi-resource consensus (Minotaur) that allows validators throughout chains to safe the community.
Given his direct involvement within the research, design, and deployment of those parts, Hoskinson’s help just isn’t an endorsement of an exterior product—it’s advocacy for his personal agency’s infrastructure layer.
Midnight Solves a Regulatory Downside Cardano Alone Can not Handle
The blockchain business is dealing with growing strain to combine id and compliance. Legal guidelines such because the EU’s MiCA framework and enforcement actions in america in opposition to DeFi protocols illustrate a regulatory shift towards transparency, particularly in decentralized finance.
In line with Hoskinson, blockchains like Cardano and Ethereum supply public transparency however lack native help for confidential knowledge. Midnight introduces zero-knowledge cryptography that enables purposes to show compliance (e.g., KYC, post-tax funds) with out revealing personally identifiable data. It helps selective disclosure, enabling regulated entry to dApps with out compromising person privateness.
Hoskinson calls this mannequin “settlement as compliance.” His promotion of Midnight focuses on presenting it as a crucial instrument for builders who wish to stay decentralized whereas assembly authorized obligations. By selling the airdrop, he’s introducing the infrastructure to these outdoors the Cardano ecosystem, particularly builders on chains like Ethereum and Solana, who’re extra straight impacted by regulatory scrutiny.
The Glacier Airdrop Extends Midnight’s Attain Past Cardano
The Glacier Drop, set to distribute $NIGHT tokens to over 37 million customers throughout eight chains, just isn’t a advertising stunt—it’s a part of the venture’s design. Midnight’s Minotaur consensus helps validators from different chains, and the airdrop displays that multi-chain structure. By distributing tokens to customers outdoors Cardano, the crew avoids making a siloed ecosystem.
Hoskinson’s promotion of the airdrop, together with calling it “the biggest airdrop in the history of Cardano,” straight serves this goal. Midnight will solely succeed if it reaches builders and customers throughout blockchains. For that to occur, consciousness have to be constructed. His visibility ensures that the venture is launched to a multi-chain viewers, not simply Cardano holders.
In contrast to many airdrops that embrace insider or VC allocations, Midnight’s distribution explicitly excludes enterprise capital. Hoskinson has emphasised that this resolution displays the community’s dedication to decentralization and long-term utility. By backing an open, non-VC airdrop mannequin, he reinforces the moral ideas he has promoted since founding Cardano.
Midnight is Not Competing with Cardano— it Enhances It
A key purpose behind Hoskinson’s open promotion is to make clear Midnight’s function. It isn’t meant to interchange or compete with Cardano, however so as to add performance that Cardano alone can’t present—significantly round privateness, selective disclosure, and enterprise compliance.
In the course of the Unshielded podcast, he defined that dApps from any chain may work together with Midnight utilizing API calls. A decentralized trade (DEX) on Ethereum may name right into a Midnight sensible contract to confirm person eligibility with out exposing private knowledge on-chain. This cross-chain performance means Midnight have to be promoted past Cardano’s ecosystem.
The design intention is to make Midnight a impartial privateness layer obtainable to all—Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano included. His promotion helps that neutrality by making certain customers and builders throughout ecosystems are conscious of its utility.