About Dusk
Dusk is infrastructure for regulated digital assets and general finance. It is designed for workflows where issuers, venues, institutions, developers, and users need privacy, access controls, and deterministic settlement without putting sensitive market data on public display.
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”On Dusk you can build and operate workflows where:
- Institutions can coordinate regulated asset workflows with eligibility, disclosure, reporting, and settlement rules.
- Users can hold public balances, use shielded transfers, and disclose information selectively when a workflow requires it.
- Developers can ship applications with familiar EVM tooling or build directly on Dusk when they need native assets, privacy, or zero-knowledge capabilities.
What is Dusk?
Section titled “What is Dusk?”Most financial market infrastructure is still a patchwork of closed systems. Public blockchains reduce platform dependency, but fully transparent execution can expose positions, counterparties, balances, and operational data that regulated markets cannot publish by default.
Dusk is built to support regulated markets on-chain without forcing a choice between:
- Access controls: eligibility checks, limits, transfer restrictions, and wallet binding.
- Privacy with selective disclosure: confidential transfers where needed, with controlled visibility for authorized parties.
- Settlement performance: fast, deterministic finality for market workflows.
In short: Dusk is institutional-grade market infrastructure for on-chain 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:
- Regulated securities and real-world asset workflows
- Identity and access primitives for public, restricted, and selectively disclosed flows
- On-chain logic that can reflect real-world obligations: eligibility, limits, reporting, recovery, and settlement
See: Core Values and Tokenization & Native Issuance.
For the workflow view, see Market Infrastructure on Dusk.
Privacy by design, transparent when needed
Section titled “Privacy by design, transparent when needed”Dusk uses zero-knowledge proofs and dual transaction models to let you choose between:
- Moonlight for transparent public account flows
- Phoenix for confidential shielded transfers
- Selective disclosure when authorized parties need evidence without exposing unnecessary data
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: the consensus, settlement, and data-availability foundation of the Dusk L1
- DuskEVM: an Ethereum-compatible execution layer where DUSK is the native gas token
- DuskVM: Rust/WASM smart-contract execution directly on the Dusk L1
Assets can move between layers so you can use the right environment for each job.
See: Core Components and the DuskEVM quickstart.
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 privacy-respecting ownership workflows
Institutional DeFi
- Lending, AMMs, and structured products that must enforce KYC/AML
- Separation of public market signals from private position details
Payment & settlement infrastructure
- Confidential payments between institutions
- Delivery‑versus‑payment (DvP) settlement of tokenized assets
Self‑sovereign identity & access control
- Regulated 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 | Dusk Data Availability and Settlement layer: consensus, finality, data availability, and transaction models | Core Components |
| DuskVM | Rust/WASM smart-contract execution directly on the Dusk L1 | Build on DuskVM |
| DuskEVM | EVM execution environment where DUSK is the gas token | Build on DuskEVM |
| Rusk | Reference node implementation that runs Succinct Attestation | Run a node |
| Citadel | Identity and access primitives for selective disclosure and regulated 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.