Crypto won early believers with a simple promise, which is users would not have to rely on a bank, platform or intermediary to keep the truth hidden behind closed doors.
That openness helped define the industry’s first wave and gave public blockchains their appeal as verifiable systems rather than trust-based ones. According to some industry leaders, that same openness is now starting to look like a limitation.
As crypto pushes deeper into finance, healthcare and AI-linked software, the industry faces a harder question: can blockchains remain verifiable without making every user action, identity and data trail public?
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In a recent interview with TheStreet Roundtable, Fahmi Syed, president at Midnight Foundation, argued that crypto has confused visibility with trustworthiness.
“I think people confuse transparency with truth. Just because you’re transparent doesn’t mean you provide truth,” he said.
That distinction sits at the center of Midnight, a privacy-focused network that describes itself as built around “programmable privacy” and selective disclosure.
Its genesis block was created on March 17, 2026, underscoring that the project is positioning itself as live infrastructure, not just a privacy concept.
Syed’s also made the point that a blockchain should be able to prove something is valid without forcing users to expose everything about themselves.
“Blockchains are a truth layer,” said Syed.
Syed imagines a future where users can prove claims about private data without revealing the data itself, while Midnight’s token page says data, zero-knowledge proofs and shielded transaction metadata can remain confidential even as settlement and consensus happen on a public ledger.
“Through smart contracts you can selectively disclose information so you can have healthcare information that you might want to share with certain physicians but not the rest of the hospital departments,” he explained.
That privacy debate could become more urgent as AI agents take on more real-world tasks. The more software is asked to log in, transact and manage accounts for users, the more sensitive information it is likely to touch.
“How do you provide proof that that agent is enabled to act on your behalf,” Syed asked, “without it knowing all of the details about you.”
