A dive into the dusk network and its upcoming events

Dusk Network plans to launch its public testnet, Daybreak, on February 1, 2022. Dusk Network preserves privacy, unlike other public blockchains with smart contracts. It is a layer-1 blockchain that uses cutting-edge zero-knowledge cryptography to enable privacy-preserving smart contracts. This move maintains the user's identity and transactional privacy while minimising revealing data exposed via the Block Explorer.

In Early 2018, tech experts Emanuele Francioni and Fulvio Venturelli joined forces with business experts Jelle Pol, Pascal Putman, and Mels Dees to create Dusk Network. The blockchain project combines the flexibility of smart contracts seen on Ethereum, the privacy of ZCash and custom ZK-proofs, and an in-house consensus process known as the Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA). It uses this to build a platform that supports security tokens and privacy-conscious financial dApps.

1. Please tell us about yourself and the story behind the Dust Network?

I’m Jelle Pol, 30, and Founder & Director at Dusk Network. I started my forays into cryptocurrency during 2013, and like many others forgot about it until 2017. By that time I had already worked on a number of blockchain projects at Shell, which had deepened my understanding of the technology and its potential significantly. I saw the opportunity to use blockchain to improve the financial sector, and together with my co-founders, launched the Dusk Network. 

2. How does Dusk Network ensure privacy, which it is known for?

Blockchains are typically used as a transaction layer powered by a cryptocurrency, in this case the native $DUSK, as well as a protocol on which smart contracts (applications) are run. In both cases the Dusk Network makes the transactions private, whilst also using zero-knowledge technology to keep personal information out of the immutable ledger. 

3. How is Dusk Network getting "one step closer towards disruption of the global capital markets, and creating a fairer future of finance."

Much of the financial world runs on old processes and institutions that were primarily designed to insure trust that your money, pensions, investments, are safe. All of the parties associated with these systems that do not provide a core functionality, but are simply there to pass information along or otherwise act as another link in the chain without clear added value, are referred to as middlemen. 

Using blockchain technology we can use technology to ensure trust, whilst optimizing many financial processes for efficiency. This means that a lot of the costs associated with running the financial sector are cut out, and ultimately trickle down to the end-users. This could mean your pension becomes cheaper to manage, meaning there’s more money left for you once you retire. A second large benefit of bringing costs down is that the barrier of entry is lowered, which means that a lot of small and medium-sized players can now enter and innovate the financial markets in areas that were previously reserved for the elite. We view the increasing democratization and inclusion of the financial sector as something positive and worth building towards.

4. What does the zero-knowledge proof feature mean? How does it work?

Zero-knowledge proofs are used to prove something about a statement or piece of information without revealing its contents. I can share for example that I am of a certain age or belong to a certain set of people or companies, without revealing my personal information. Using zero-knowledge proof means that we can build a privacy-oriented system that is still usable. Without zero-knowledge proofs we would need to trust every statement made because we cannot see and verify it ourselves, whereas with them we can ensure that everybody is playing by the rules on a privacy-oriented network.

For example, on Dusk, a user can create proof that shows she owns a positive balance of tokens without disclosing exactly how many tokens they own. This allows them to make transactions for example, which demand that you have a positive balance.

5. What is Daybreak? What does its launch mean for Dusk Network?

DayBreak is the name of our public testnet, its launch is the first step towards our fully functional manner, and the first encounter that the general public has with the technology that we have been developing. DayBreak signifies the opportunity to directly receive feedback from our end-users, and improve the network and its applications and design to better meet their needs. It also means that we will be increasingly onboarding partner companies to run pilots on the network, which heralds a steep adoption curve for this novel technology.

6. Can you give us more information on the testnet and maybe the highlights on how folks can participate?

The very first thing we are asking of people is to consider running a node in the Dusk Network. Our nodes are referred to as Provisioners, and we already have over 1800 of them committed. You can join the node phase, as well as all subsequent phases, directly via our website and discord channel.

7. What is your opinion on the Metaverse era? How is it affecting today's world?

The metaverse has been very helpful in getting a lot of new people acquainted with blockchain and cryptocurrency. It’s a conceptually appealing and simple to grasp concept that a lot of people are enthused by. Personally, I am a little more skeptical, the metaverse is typically made useful through a few parties artificially backing specific metaverses. This is by no means an illogical start, but over time a metaverse needs to become a true digital world that can stand on its own feet. This means that things like user privacy, metaverse governance, and online economy, need to be well thought out. 

8. According to you, what are the new trends we expect to see in the blockchain industry this year?

DeFi will take its first steps towards the regulated market by adopting KYC/whitelisting. Marketplace technology will continue to outpace protocols, probably somewhat driven by further NFT successes. This will raise the question of whether we are still building web3 or just new stuff on web2. DAO’s/governance will mature further and see more real-world use cases as a result of successful use cases such as investment syndication (LAO).

9. What are your views on the NFT evolution currently in motion?

The best read on the matter, one I recently had on Moxie, is where he goes into the process of ‘Making an NFT’. Without going into the politics and biases surrounding the famous ex-CEO of signal, I am a fan of how he clearly describes the rates at which protocols developed vs platforms, and how the current NFT space is shaping up a lot more web2 than it is web3. 

10. What do you think of the recent crypto market tumbles?

Part of the game. All the fundamentals for blockchain adoption are still growing, and the market will always reflect this given enough time.

11. As someone who has experience in the industry, what would you advise newbies?

Try to understand what the incentives are of the people and companies you are reading about, and how this might shape their decision-making. Especially when considering investments into the space, develop a sense for whether something is designed for success, or perhaps too good to be true. Don’t only follow projects that you have a stake in, but also those you decided not to invest in. This will help you develop your radar for a great many things.

Takeaways

With just a few days to go before the Daybreak launch, the number of testnet applicants has exceeded 1700. When the Daybreak is launched, it takes Dusk Network a step closer to disrupting the global capital markets. The project is creating a decentralized and permissionless blockchain that preserves privacy through zero-knowledge proofs.

Even though the project cannot transition to a fairer financial system overnight, Dusk Network aims to lay the foundation. For a start off, the team is looking to grow the node-running and engineering community by first onboarding experts and then first-timers. That way, the project can expand the pool of provisioners to assist newcomers and improve user guides to allow mass onboarding.