Midnight's Developer Relations team is actively shaping how developers learn, build, and experiment with privacy-first apps. In this post, we take a closer look at how DevRel is lowering the barrier to entry for new builders, supporting open-source tools, and helping the community navigate the unique challenges of developing on a privacy-preserving blockchain.
From ZIP Files to GitHub: Opening the Gates
Midnight is entering a new phase in our developer journey. Until now, developers had to download ZIP files from our documentation site just to get started. No versioning, no collaboration, no visibility.
That changes today.
The DevRel team is proud to share our first two open source example repositories: example-counter and example-bboard. These projects are more than demos. They’re intentionally scoped, composable references designed to help developers explore what’s possible with Midnight’s privacy-first architecture.
While our broader engineering team continues to open source core protocol components, these repos mark a different kind of milestone: showing others how to build on top of Midnight’s foundation. With versioned code and public visibility, developers can now fork, remix, and build with confidence.
A Simple Contract With a Purpose
example-counter is a minimal dApp that introduces the fundamentals of building on Midnight. It walks through the full development flow:
- Writing a Compact smart contract
- Running and compiling locally
- Using public state
- Deploying to the Midnight testnet
- Sending transactions
pragma language_version >= 0.16; import CompactStandardLibrary; // public state export ledger round: Counter; // transition function changing public state export circuit increment(): [] { round.increment(1); } It’s designed to build foundational literacy in Compact and Midnight’s dev tooling. It’s a simple but powerful way to learn Compact and become familiar with the development flow on Midnight.
Think of it as a “Hello, World” for privacy-enhancing dApp development.
Enforcing Rules Without Revealing Identity
example-bboard goes further. It simulates a public bulletin board, where users can post messages, and only the original author can remove their own post.
It’s a small app that teaches a big concept: Midnight enables identity-aware rules without revealing identity.
This repo covers how to:
- Combine public and private state in a Compact contract
- Use zero-knowledge proofs to enforce permissions
- Validate ownership locally without exposing identity
- Design UI flows that respect user privacy by default
It’s especially useful for teams exploring anonymous messaging, private voting, or access control without identity leakage.
What It Means to Build in the Open
Speaking personally, I’ve spent most of my DevRel career working in open source. But this is the first time I’ve been part of a company transitioning into it.
Open sourcing code isn’t just a technical milestone. It’s a culture shift. Releasing code publicly changes how a team thinks and operates.
It means moving from perfectionism to progress. From private Slack threads to public GitHub Issues. From “we’ll fix it internally” to “anyone can help improve it.”
It’s a commitment to building alongside others, not just for them.
These first example repos mark the beginning of that shift for Midnight. They’re designed to help others learn by doing and to demonstrate that privacy and collaboration can coexist.
Docs Are Up Next
We’re also preparing to open source our Midnight Docs repo.
This is a major step toward transparency, trust, and co-creation. We want the documentation to grow alongside the ecosystem, which means making it easier for contributors to suggest improvements, fix issues, and help shape the developer experience.
What’s Next?
This is just the start. In the coming months, the DevRel team will:
- Publish more example dApps (and build them from scratch in the open)
- Create reusable components and templates
- Contribute improvements upstream to core tooling
- Document real-world use cases for easier onboarding
We’re building in the open, for those who want to build with us.
Explore the Code
Join the Conversation
We’d love to hear your feedback, contributions, and ideas. Drop into Discord, open an issue, or fork a repo and show us what you’ve built.
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