Dusk Foundation is building a layer one blockchain for financial apps that must be private and also compliant. I am drawn to the idea because most chains force everything to be public. They are designing a system where transactions can be confidential but still verifiable when rules require it.
On Dusk you can move value in two ways. Moonlight is a public account style transfer for cases where transparency is needed. Phoenix is a private note style transfer that uses zero knowledge proofs so the network can confirm validity without exposing balances.
They also focus on deterministic finality with proof of stake so settlement can feel firm for markets. Identity and compliance can be handled with selective disclosure so you prove what matters without sharing everything.
This makes it useful for compliant DeFi and for tokenized real world assets where institutions need confidentiality and regulators need audit trails. Developers can also build with an EVM execution layer on top of the settlement layer. The purpose is simple. Bring real finance on chain without turning users and firms into open books.