Cardano’s Midnight Project: Blockchain expert Anthony Day ushers in a new era of data protection

Cardano’s Midnight Project, a pioneering data protection-focused protocol, welcomes blockchain industry veteran Anthony Day to its leadership team.

In a press release shared with CryptoGlobe on May 3, 2023, blockchain technology firm Input Output Global (IOG), one of the builders behind the Cardano (ADA) blockchain, announced that Anthony Day, former blockchain manager at Deloitte, has been appointed as its helm. the go-to-market strategy for their latest initiative, the Midnight Project. Day’s LinkedIn profile says his official title is Head of Strategy and Marketing for Midnight.

Day is not new to the blockchain arena. Having held key leadership and advisory roles at IBM, Deloitte, Parity Technologies and Hedera Hashgraph, he has been instrumental in various blockchain deployments including supply chain management, business operations, sustainability and healthcare. Day also hosts the “Blockchain Won’t Save the World” podcast, which features stories about real-world change powered by blockchain technology.

Today’s appointment follows a number of high-profile appointments by the IOG. Among them are Eran Barak, former COO of Symphony and founder of FINOS, who now serves as Midnight’s CEO, and Dr. Vanishree Rao, the Head of Applied Cryptography, responsible for leading the practical application of existing research and exploring untapped technology innovations.

Midnight, announced at the end of last year, is a new blockchain protocol designed to incorporate principles and integrity into applications on a global scale. Aimed at a wide range of users, including developers, companies, governments and individuals, Midnight uses a privacy-first programming model. The platform will leverage zero-knowledge encryption (ZK Proofs) and a mix of private and public computations to establish a trustless ecosystem that safeguards sensitive personal and commercial data while meeting compliance needs. Potential use cases range from financial workflows to health records and supply chain operations.

As a sidechain of the popular Cardano blockchain, Midnight will inherit its security and decentralized attributes, greatly enhancing Cardano’s utility and opening up new use cases for users who want to trade, publish or share sensitive data.

Eran Barak, CEO of Midnight, expressed excitement at Day’s appointment, stating that his experience and passion for driving meaningful change through technology represents a significant asset to the project. Day himself is excited about Midnight’s potential to address major data privacy challenges, emphasizing its open design that allows anyone to develop applications capable of securely sharing mission-critical information without fear of leaks, censorship or security issues in a connected world.

IOG co-founder and CEO Charles Hoskinson shared exciting details about the upcoming privacy platform, Midnight, during an interview on the YouTube series “Corey Costa’s Crypto Coins” on December 8, 2022. Hoskinson explained the regulatory hurdles of using blockchain systems for privacy and shared his solution for a confidentiality network.

He said:

“Instead of having a privacy coin, what you do is you have a privacy network, you have smart contracts that are private … It’s the hardest product we’ve ever worked on and it makes Cardano look like a play.“

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