About Dusk
Dusk is a blockchain designed for regulated finance: you can issue, trade, and settle assets on-chain without putting sensitive market data on public display.
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”On Dusk you can build markets where:
- Institutions can encode eligibility, disclosure, and reporting rules into on-chain workflows.
- Users can use confidential balances and transfers (with the ability to reveal information to authorized parties when required).
- Developers can ship dApps with familiar EVM tooling while relying on a settlement layer built for privacy and compliance.
What is Dusk?
Section titled “What is Dusk?”Most financial market infrastructure is still a patchwork of closed systems. Public blockchains remove platform risk, but fully transparent execution leaks positions, counterparties, and balances.
Dusk is built to support regulated markets on-chain without forcing a choice between:
- Compliance (KYC/AML checks, eligibility, limits, reporting, disclosure)
- Privacy (confidential balances and transfers, selective disclosure)
- Settlement performance (fast, deterministic finality)
In short: Dusk is a privacy-enabled, regulation-aware blockchain for institutional-grade finance.
Why Dusk?
Section titled “Why Dusk?”Built for regulated markets
Section titled “Built for regulated markets”Dusk is designed around the needs of regulated financial institutions and venues:
- Native support for compliant issuance of securities and RWAs
- Identity and permissioning primitives that let you differentiate between public and restricted flows
- On‑chain logic that can reflect real‑world obligations (eligibility, limits, reporting, etc.)
See: Core Values and Tokenization & Native Issuance.
Privacy by design, transparent when needed
Section titled “Privacy by design, transparent when needed”Dusk uses zero‑knowledge proofs and dual transaction models (Phoenix and Moonlight) to let you choose between:
- Public transactions for transparent flows
- Shielded transactions for confidential balances and transfers
- Selective disclosure to authorized parties when required
See: Cryptography and Transaction Models on Dusk.
Fast, final settlement
Section titled “Fast, final settlement”The Succinct Attestation consensus protocol is a proof‑of‑stake, committee‑based design:
- Deterministic finality once a block is ratified
- No user‑facing reorgs in normal operation
- Designed for high throughput and low‑latency settlement suitable for markets
For the full consensus specification, see Section 3 “Consensus mechanism” of the Dusk Whitepaper (2024).
Modular & EVM-friendly
Section titled “Modular & EVM-friendly”Dusk separates settlement from execution:
- DuskDS: consensus, data availability, settlement, and the privacy-enabled transaction model
- DuskEVM: an Ethereum-compatible execution layer where DUSK is the native gas token
Assets can move between layers so you can use the right environment for each job.
See: Core Components and DuskEVM Developer Docs.
What can you build on Dusk?
Section titled “What can you build on Dusk?”Some example use cases Dusk was designed for:
Regulated digital securities
- Tokenized equity, debt, or funds with embedded compliance rules
- On‑chain corporate actions and transparent yet privacy‑respecting cap tables
Institutional DeFi
- Lending, AMMs, and structured products that must enforce KYC/AML
- Separation of public market signals from private position details
Payment & settlement rails
- Confidential payments between institutions
- Delivery‑versus‑payment (DvP) settlement of tokenized assets
Self‑sovereign identity & access control
- Permissioned venues where access is controlled via verifiable credentials
- Compliance checks enforced in smart contracts instead of manual back‑office processes
For more inspiration, see Dusk’s use cases and Additional Resources.
Architecture at a glance
Section titled “Architecture at a glance”Here’s how the main components fit together:
| Component | Role in the system | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| DuskDS | Settlement, consensus, data availability, and native transaction model | Core Components |
| DuskEVM | EVM execution environment where DUSK is the gas token | Deploy on DuskEVM |
| Rusk | Reference node implementation that runs Succinct Attestation | Run a node |
| Citadel | Identity & access primitives for compliant, permissioned flows | Core Components |
If you want a deeper technical dive, start with Cryptography or the Dusk Whitepaper.
Start building on Dusk
Section titled “Start building on Dusk”Choose how you want to get involved:
Looking for the details behind the narrative?
Head to Core Components, or the Tokenomics section next.