Recently, while reviewing fintech research reports, I came across an interesting data point: 78% of institutional investors say that the complete transparency of public blockchains is their biggest obstacle to large-scale entry into DeFi. What they actually want is not faster chain speeds, but the concept of "confidential rooms" on-chain.

This demand truly hits the pain point. For example, a certain investment bank needs to execute a complex interest rate swap for a major client. Doing this on a regular blockchain? That’s equivalent to displaying the client’s risk positions and trading strategies on a giant screen in Times Square. Everyone can see it clearly.

Dusk Network’s approach is different. Instead of shouting "disrupt banking," it pragmatically focuses on "how to serve institutions well." On this chain, both trading parties can deploy confidential smart contracts, encrypting all transaction details throughout the process. Only the involved parties and designated third-party auditors (such as law firms) can decrypt and verify using keys, and only the net settlement amount is recorded on-chain. This protects strategic privacy while also addressing counterparty risk management.

They use a PDPoS consensus mechanism, with block times under 6 seconds. But more importantly, privacy protection is implemented at the consensus layer. In conventional PoS mechanisms, block proposals are transparent and vulnerable to targeted attacks. PDPoS is different—it even protects the information of "who proposed which block." It’s like pulling a curtain over the entire network operation process.

From the performance on the testnet, the data looks quite solid—handling over ten thousand private transactions, with average fees two orders of magnitude cheaper than those of dedicated privacy mixers, because this is an inherent design, not an afterthought.