I remember the first time I tried to explain “network effects” to a friend over tea. I said, “It’s like a party.” He stared at me like I’d lost it. And honestly… I got why. Because in crypto, people talk about network effects like it’s magic dust. One more user and boom, number go up. But finance is not a meme party. Finance is a system of trust, rules, and quiet fear. Fear of fraud. Fear of leaks. Fear of being the one who breaks the law by mistake. That’s why Dusk’s L1 idea feels different to me. It treats network effects less like noise, and more like plumbing. Not glamorous. Just the stuff that makes a city work. Network effects, in simple words, mean this: a thing gets more useful when more people use it. Phones did it. Roads did it. Money did it. In finance, the strongest network effect is not “users.” It’s liquidity and trust. Liquidity means you can buy or sell without moving the price too much. Trust means you believe the trade is fair and the record is real. Public blockchains tried to win on trust by making everything visible. But markets don’t always want that kind of light. A bank can’t show every client list. A fund can’t show every trade plan. Even a normal business won’t post its payroll on the street, right? Yet pure secrecy breaks trust too. So we get this weird tug of war: hide enough to stay safe, show enough to stay legit. Dusk steps into that tug of war and says, “Okay, what if privacy is not hiding… but control?” That’s the key. It’s not “no one sees.” It’s “the right people can see the right parts, at the right time.” This is often called selective disclosure. Big word, simple idea. Like showing your ID at a door. The guard checks your age. He does not need your home address, your full name history, or your whole life story. Just the fact that you meet the rule. That kind of privacy can make finance move faster, not slower, because it cuts the fear that stops real firms from joining. Here’s where the L1 part matters. L1 means the base chain. The ground layer. It’s where the rules live, where final records land. If privacy and proof tools live only in an app on top, you still depend on a messy stack. You still ask, “Will this break? Will this leak? Will this hold up in court?” When the base layer is built with privacy and proof in mind, you get something closer to “native.” Like a phone that comes with a camera, not a camera taped on. And finance loves native. It loves things that are boring, repeatable, and easy to audit. Now the network effect story shifts. It’s not just “more users.” It’s more parts of the market linking up. Traders, issuers, brokers, market makers, even rule folks. And this is where I used to get confused, you know? Because I thought network effects were always about crowds. But capital markets often run on small groups with big wallets. Ten serious firms can be worth more than ten thousand casual users. So Dusk aiming at “compliant privacy” is a bet on a different kind of crowd. A quiet crowd. A professional crowd. If those players can trade, settle, and share proof without spilling all their data, they can bring real flow. Flow brings tighter spreads. Tighter spreads bring more flow. That loop is a network effect too. Another loop is standards. Markets love shared rails. Same formats. Same proof types. Same settlement logic. If one issuer launches a token on a chain where privacy is built in, and another issuer sees that the first one can meet rules without drama, the second one copies the path. Not because it’s trendy. Because it reduces risk. Risk is the real cost in finance. Fees matter, sure. But risk kills deals. So a chain that lowers “data risk” can earn a compounding edge. And there’s a human part. People forget that. Every trade is not just code. It’s a decision made by a person who does not want trouble. If you give that person tools that feel like normal finance proof when needed, privacy when needed, clear rules always you remove friction. Less friction means more repeat trades. Repeat trades are how markets become real. That’s how network effects show up. Not in a headline. In a Monday morning workflow that actually works. So when I think of Dusk’s L1 approach, I picture a bridge with gates. Not a wall. Not an open field with no signs. A bridge that lets value cross, but also checks the basics. Are you allowed here? Is this asset real? Can we prove it later? And still… can you keep your business private while you do business? That mix is hard. But if it clicks, the network effect is not loud. It’s steady. It feels like gravity. One firm joins, then another, then the tools get better, then the costs drop, then the market deepens. And at some point you look up and go, “Oh. This is a place where finance can actually live.”
