MoneyGram, Vodafone, and eToro Join Forces

The Midnight Foundation has announced a decisive step for the adoption of its next-generation blockchain: MoneyGram, Pairpoint by Vodafone, and eToro officially join the alliance of founding federated node operators.

These new entries, along with well-known names such as Google Cloud, Blockdaemon, Shielded Technologies, and AlphaTON Capital (on behalf of Telegram), bring the total number of operators to seven, who will lead the network in anticipation of the mainnet launch.

This alliance represents much more than a mere technical collaboration. The entry of global leaders in the sectors of payments, telecommunications, and digital finance demonstrates a growing institutional interest in blockchain infrastructures that place privacy and selectivity in data disclosure at the heart of innovation.

In a context where regulatory compliance expectations are becoming increasingly stringent globally, the ability to balance confidentiality and verifiability becomes a strategic element for those wishing to bring assets and services on-chain.

Midnight: The Blockchain for Rational Privacy

Midnight positions itself as the fourth generation of blockchain, designed to offer rational privacy in the web3 world. The network is created to support real-world applications on public blockchains, where the needs for privacy, regulation, and operational reliability must coexist.

Launching with operators of this caliber ensures developers a stable and reliable environment, ideal for creating a new generation of applications that leverage Midnight’s zero-knowledge architecture.

Fahmi Syed, president of the Midnight Foundation, emphasizes the importance of this choice: “The organizations committed to managing the network reflect the standard we are setting as we approach the mainnet. In the early stages, operational reliability is as crucial as protocol design. Collaborating with operators who already manage large-scale, always-on systems allows us to provide our community with a stable environment on which to build and innovate.”

The Key Players: MoneyGram, Vodafone, and eToro

MoneyGram: Global Payments and Privacy on Blockchain

MoneyGram, one of the world’s leading operators in cross-border payments, will not only manage one of the ten nodes of the network but will also collaborate with Midnight to explore how established payment networks can evolve towards blockchain, while maintaining regulatory trust and user privacy. The goal is to enable confidential transactions where the regulation itself becomes proof of compliance.

Luke Tuttle, Chief Product and Technology Officer at MoneyGram, states: “MoneyGram has been offering real crypto solutions for years, with the goal of making the benefits of digital finance accessible to those who truly need it. Collaborating with Midnight and managing blockchain nodes fits perfectly into this strategy, ensuring that privacy, compliance, and reliability are integrated from the start.”

Pairpoint by Vodafone: The Economy of Things and the Privacy of Connected Objects

Pairpoint by Vodafone, an innovation platform in the telecommunications sector, aims to integrate Midnight’s zero-knowledge architecture into its Economy of Things platform. In a world where millions of connected devices conduct autonomous transactions, privacy at the blockchain infrastructure level becomes crucial.

David Palmer, Chief Innovation Officer at Pairpoint, explains: “Our Web3 mission is to bring connected devices on-chain and incorporate edge intelligence through AI. Midnight’s zero-knowledge architecture is essential for providing digital identity, authentication, and trust to IoT devices on a global scale, as we move towards the IoT-AI economy.”

eToro: Digital Finance and Institutional Trust

eToro, a NASDAQ-listed investment platform with over 35 million users, has chosen to become a founding operator after announcing support for Midnight’s native token, NIGHT, last January. eToro’s participation brings a globally regulated public fintech into the alliance, strengthening institutional trust in Midnight’s privacy-enhancing infrastructure.

Omri Ross, Chief Blockchain Officer at eToro, states: “We have been following and contributing to the Cardano ecosystem since the Shelley era, when we were among the first to manage in-house staking operations. Midnight impressed us with its innovative approach to programmable data protection and selective disclosure, designed to balance user privacy with regulatory compliance. We believe that technologies capable of offering granular control over data visibility will be fundamental for the next generation of blockchain infrastructures.”

A Growing Consortium and a Long-Term Vision

The Midnight alliance, now comprising seven operators, represents a clear signal of the direction the blockchain industry is taking. “When a global payment network, a leading tech company backed by a telecommunications giant, and a listed fintech choose to operate nodes on the same privacy-enhancing blockchain, it’s evident where we are headed,” adds Syed. “MoneyGram, Pairpoint, and eToro are here because they recognize that privacy-oriented architecture is key to bringing their sectors on-chain. This is just the beginning of what our consortium will become.”

According to Ross from eToro, “Midnight’s architecture for confidential smart contracts with integrated verifiability aligns with our long-term vision: all assets will increasingly move on-chain, requiring infrastructures capable of supporting global markets with robust security and compliance by design.”

Towards Total Decentralization

The initial network of federated node operators will ensure decentralization, security, and stability at launch, before block production is fully transitioned to the community by 2026. The Midnight Foundation plans to announce new partners in the coming weeks, indicating growing interest in this infrastructure.

Midnight Foundation: Innovation, Privacy, and Compliance

The Midnight Foundation is the organization leading the development and adoption of the Midnight network, a blockchain project developed by Shielded Technologies. Midnight is designed for confidential smart contracts, enabling decentralized applications that are censorship-resistant yet compliant with regulations. Thanks to zero-knowledge proofs and a cooperative tokenomics – with NIGHT as the utility token and DUST as the protected capacity resource – Midnight offers a unique combination of privacy, security, and decentralization.

The entry of global players such as MoneyGram, Vodafone, and eToro marks a turning point for the adoption of privacy-enhancing blockchain, laying the groundwork for a future where privacy and compliance will no longer be options, but fundamental requirements for digital innovation.