Dusk Network

Dusk Network operates as a layer-1 blockchain specifically engineered for financial applications, with a sharp focus on tokenizing securities and other real-world assets. The company was founded in 2018 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, by a team that includes Emanuele Francioni and Jelle Pol. Francioni, the current CEO, brings over a decade of experience in leading R&D departments and tech teams at major corporations like TomTom and Commerzbank, along with a history of entrepreneurship in IoT and blockchain. This background in delivering large-scale tech projects and his work on several patents have directly influenced the development of Dusk's core technology. Pol, serving as the business director, draws from his experience in token finance and his advisory role at the 2Tokens foundation, a Dutch initiative aimed at advancing tokenization.

The business model is centered on providing a secure and compliant infrastructure for enterprises and financial institutions to issue, trade, and manage digital assets. The platform addresses key challenges in traditional finance, such as high intermediary costs, lack of privacy, and complex compliance procedures. Revenue is generated through transaction fees on the network, where the native DUSK token is used to pay for services like deploying smart contracts, executing transactions, and compensating network participants. The target market includes financial institutions, asset managers, and businesses of all sizes seeking to leverage blockchain for regulated and efficient financial operations.

Dusk Network's core offering is a public, permissionless blockchain that integrates privacy-preserving technologies with features required for regulatory compliance. A key technical feature is its use of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP), specifically PLONK, to ensure that transactions and smart contract details remain confidential while still being verifiable. This allows institutions to operate on a public blockchain without exposing sensitive data. The platform supports native confidential smart contracts through its custom-built Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine (ZK-VM), enabling the automation of compliance and business logic in a private manner. For consensus, it employs a novel mechanism called Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA), which is designed to provide instant settlement finality, a crucial requirement for financial markets. Another significant product is 'Citadel,' a self-sovereign identity framework that facilitates private and reusable KYC/AML verification, reducing costs for institutions and giving users control over their data. After several years in development, the Dusk Mainnet officially went live in early 2025, marking a significant milestone in its roadmap to bridge traditional finance with decentralized technology.

Keywords: layer-1 blockchain, financial applications, confidential smart contracts, security tokenization, real-world assets, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, ZKP, regulatory compliance, asset tokenization, Emanuele Francioni, digital securities, enterprise blockchain, decentralized finance, Segregated Byzantine Agreement, private KYC, institutional finance, DUSK token, mainnet launch, Amsterdam, fintech