Why do institutional investors still have some reservations about blockchain? Ultimately, it’s the same old question: how to find a balance between privacy protection and regulatory compliance.

Most public blockchains either choose complete decentralization or have to sacrifice efficiency. But since its founding in 2018, one project has been doing something else — solving this contradiction with technical means.

Dusk Network’s approach is very clear: instead of choosing between privacy and compliance, it’s better to embed both into the underlying design. How? By using zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption to keep transaction data completely confidential from unrelated parties, while allowing regulatory authorities to perform audits when needed. It sounds like black technology, but this is exactly what institutional-grade finance requires.

Imagine scenarios like on-chain trading of traditional securities such as bonds and fund shares. Institutional users want the efficiency and transparency benefits of blockchain, but cannot expose sensitive transaction details on the public internet. That’s the real challenge. And Dusk’s design is entirely aimed at solving this.

From a technical architecture perspective, Dusk adopts a modular approach: the upper layer is an EVM-compatible application layer (DuskEVM), and the lower layer is a zero-knowledge proof-based settlement layer. What does this mean? Developers can write smart contracts directly in Solidity without learning a new language. But most importantly, all security and privacy features are guaranteed by the underlying settlement layer. Traditional DeFi protocols and RWA applications can run here in compliance.

2026 is just around the corner. In the second week of January, the DuskEVM mainnet will go live, marking the transition of the entire system from concept to real usability. Even more interestingly, the first truly practical application within the Dusk ecosystem — DuskTrade — is already in preparation. This is not a test project but a collaboration with the Dutch licensed exchange NPEX, aiming to bring over €300 million worth of tokenized securities onto the chain for trading.

This is a real milestone. Not a technical demo, not a proof of concept, but genuine compliant financial flow connecting to the blockchain. Institutional users can enjoy the convenience of blockchain trading while maintaining existing regulatory frameworks. Privacy, speed, and compliance — no more need to choose.