In January 2026, the Dusk Network reached a significant milestone—the official launch of the DuskEVM mainnet. This upgrade goes beyond mere technical updates, marking Dusk's transition from a privacy-focused foundational infrastructure to a new stage of institutional-grade financial applications.

Let's review Dusk's development path. Since its founding in 2018, the project has been focused on one goal: building a blockchain underlying layer that emphasizes privacy while complying with regulatory requirements. Now that DuskEVM has been launched, this vision has finally found a tangible implementation.

So, what exactly is DuskEVM? Simply put, it is Dusk's application layer supporting EVM compatibility. Developers can deploy directly using standard Solidity and Ethereum toolchains, with transaction settlement completed on Dusk's high-performance Layer 1. This modular architecture design has a clever advantage—significantly reducing the entry barriers for institutions and developers.

Imagine the traditional scenario. When institutions want to build financial products on the blockchain, they often face a dilemma: either retain privacy features but risk regulatory issues, or compromise privacy to meet compliance requirements. DuskEVM breaks this deadlock by preserving Dusk's native privacy advantages while offering a familiar development ecosystem, enabling projects on Ethereum to migrate smoothly.

What’s even more impressive is the built-in Hedger privacy module. It uses zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption techniques to solve the challenge of "compliant privacy": sensitive data such as transaction amounts and account balances are hidden by default, but can be selectively disclosed during necessary audit scenarios to meet regulatory demands. This effectively addresses a long-standing pain point for scenarios requiring financial oversight.