When it comes to privacy in the crypto world, projects often take two extreme approaches: either fully anonymous and distancing themselves from regulation; or abandoning privacy to achieve full transparency for compliance. But anyone who has experienced traditional finance knows that the real-world needs are never a simple binary choice. Banks must comply with regulations and undergo audits, but they also need to protect customer privacy and trade secrets. The key isn’t whether to be transparent or not, but rather "to what extent" transparency is necessary.

Dusk Network’s approach is quite interesting. From the very beginning, compliance is integrated into its design, rather than being an afterthought to patch up later. Using zero-knowledge proofs, the goal isn’t to hide everything, but to be able to prove "I comply with the rules" without revealing all sensitive information. You can verify that a certain asset issuance, transaction, or participation is legitimate and compliant, without exposing the specific details. This "verifiable without disclosure" logic reflects how traditional financial systems actually operate.

Looking at specific scenarios makes this clearer. When securities, private equity, bonds, and other assets are brought on-chain, the biggest obstacle isn’t the technology itself, but the scope of information disclosure. Dusk’s privacy asset model allows issuers to encrypt and encapsulate key data into zero-knowledge circuits after completing KYC, AML, and investor qualification verification. Regulators can verify and audit, qualified investors can participate, but others cannot see the details. This isn’t about avoiding regulation; rather, it’s about using cryptography to rewrite existing regulatory rules.

On the token level, DUSK’s positioning is quite restrained. It mainly handles network security and incentive mechanisms, used for staking, validation, and privacy computation, rather than just hype to boost prices. In the short term, this design might not be very eye-catching, but in the long run, whether its value holds depends on whether the network is truly being used continuously in financial scenarios.

Looking ahead, on-chain finance will inevitably need to address both privacy protection and regulatory compliance simultaneously. Who is more likely to succeed? My view is that Dusk’s answer is not radical but very professional. It doesn’t rely on slogans or storytelling, but instead diligently encodes the rules of real-world finance into the blockchain using technical means.