Recently, I’ve been working on deploying Dusk, a Layer-1 smart contract platform, and found that it takes a unique approach to privacy issues. Usually, privacy blockchains are either tightly regulated or simply abandon privacy for full transparency. Dusk, on the other hand, introduces a new idea through a selective disclosure mechanism—regulators can audit transactions without needing to see all the details.

In terms of deployment, the gas fees are ridiculously low. Transferring on the testnet costs only 0.0001 DUSK, which is a real boon for institutions involved in RWA tokenization. However, reality is quite sobering. The number of active on-chain addresses remains below 100, the total TVL is only $960,000, and most of it is locked in a liquidity pool of a major DEX. The ecosystem is indeed a bit cold; applications on the mainnet are basically nonexistent.

Compared to other privacy solutions, Oasis Network uses TEE hardware, and Secret Network implements default privacy contracts. Dusk chose a different path—relying entirely on zero-knowledge proofs, which theoretically reduces trust assumptions but also raises the bar for developers. Auditing Secret’s contracts is a challenging hurdle. In contrast, Dusk’s ZK approach is solid for financial compliance scenarios, but the ecosystem’s growth is noticeably slower.

The key highlight is the €200 million securities tokenization project by NPEX. If it launches this year, it could be a game-changer. It’s still too early to judge, but this technical route is worth long-term tracking.