MIDOPS

MIDOPS

Inspiration

The inspiration behind MIDOPS came from a simple frustration: most online polls can’t be trusted. They’re easily manipulated by bots, duplicate accounts, or fake identities. We wanted to create a space where opinions actually reflect real people—without sacrificing privacy. Blockchain and zero-knowledge proofs gave us the tools to do exactly that.

What it does

MIDOPS is a decentralized opinion platform where creators can launch polls and voters can participate using their crypto wallets. What makes it unique is that voters can verify their identity with government-issued documents, but instead of storing those documents, we generate a zero-knowledge proof on the Midnight chain. This ensures that every vote comes from a legitimate human without revealing personal data. Each vote is then permanently recorded as a blockchain transaction—immutable, transparent, and secure.

How we built it

Integrated wallet connections for both creators and voters
Leveraged the Midnight chain to generate zero-knowledge proofs of identity
Designed the backend so we never store sensitive user documents, only proofs
Implemented smart contracts so every vote is a transaction, cryptographically signed with the voter’s private key
Built interfaces for both public polls (open to everyone) and private polls (restricted to certain users)

Challenges we ran into

Understanding and implementing zero-knowledge proofs in a practical, user-friendly way
Ensuring smooth wallet connection and transaction signing without overloading users with technical friction
Balancing privacy with identity verification, so users trust the system while still keeping their personal data safe
Managing scalability concerns to prevent spam or denial-of-service attacks on the platform

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a fully functional system where every vote is genuine and spam-free
Combined blockchain immutability with privacy-preserving identity verification
Designed a platform that is both transparent and user-friendly
Proved that decentralized tools can be used for real-world democratic engagement

What we learned

How to apply zero-knowledge cryptography beyond theory and into a working system
The importance of designing for user trust, not just technical security
How decentralized identity can help solve real-world problems like spam, fraud, and manipulation in online platforms
The trade-offs between decentralization, security, and usability

What's next for MIDOPS

Expanding to support more identity verification methods while keeping privacy intact
Scaling the platform to handle thousands of concurrent polls and voters
Exploring tokenized incentives for participation and poll creation
Building integrations with DAOs, communities, and governance platforms that need trustworthy voting systems
Researching advanced cryptographic techniques to further enhance both privacy and performance