Having been in this circle for several years, I have seen too many projects get stuck in the pits of privacy and compliance. I’ve also carefully examined those projects that once claimed to revolutionize finance, and I am now basically immune to them—most are just concept hype, with no real implementation plan. However, recently I studied DUSK and felt that it’s genuinely different. This Layer 1 project, which started in 2018, doesn’t rely on superficial tricks. Instead, it leverages innovative underlying architecture to carve out a feasible path for financial institutions to go on-chain.

Today, I want to share my years of experience in managing projects, dissecting the core contradictions in the industry, technical capabilities, practical applications, and how to participate. Let’s analyze DUSK’s logic and opportunities together.

**1. The Double Dilemma of Privacy and Compliance**

The longer I stay in this industry, the more I realize a harsh reality: traditional finance requires privacy protection while also needing to undergo regulatory scrutiny. These two demands are fundamentally incompatible on blockchain.

My own trial-and-error costs have been significant. Early on, I experimented with financial tools on public blockchains—ledger transparency was absolute, with transaction strategies and holdings fully exposed, making it a bare-knuckle fight to compete. Later, I explored the wave of privacy coins and delved into their technology, only to find that their extreme anonymity is completely outside the scope of mainstream institutions; they can only be popular within small circles. As for blockchain experiments conducted by traditional institutions, most ended up as showpieces—decentralization and regulatory needs are fundamentally incompatible.

Currently, the mainstream solutions in blockchain boil down to a simple choice: either attract users with privacy features but sacrifice compliance, or maintain full transparency to gain regulatory approval. If blockchain is to truly enter the mainstream of finance, it must simultaneously address privacy, regulation, and performance—three issues that seem mutually restrictive.