Dusk Network is built as a modular blockchain designed specifically for regulated finance. Its architecture focuses on privacy, compliance, and security, enabling native issuance and management of real-world assets while supporting decentralized market infrastructure (DeMI).
At the foundation is DuskDS, the settlement, consensus, and data availability layer. It provides deterministic finality, secure settlement, and native bridging for execution environments like DuskVM and DuskEVM. By separating settlement from execution, Dusk maintains regulatory alignment without sacrificing performance.
Rusk, the core node implementation written in Rust, manages consensus, state, networking, and cryptographic operations. It integrates key components such as PLONK, Kadcast, and DuskVM, while exposing APIs and developer tooling through Dusk Core and RUES.
Consensus is handled by Succinct Attestation, a permissionless proof-of-stake protocol using committee-based block proposal, validation, and ratification. This design delivers fast, deterministic finality suitable for financial markets.
Dusk supports a dual transaction model. Moonlight enables transparent, account-based transactions, while Phoenix provides shielded, UTXO-style transfers. This flexibility allows users to balance privacy and compliance based on use case.
Execution is handled by specialized environments. Dusk VM is a WASM-based, zero-knowledge-friendly virtual machine optimized for confidential smart contracts. Dusk EVM is fully EVM-equivalent, allowing developers to deploy standard Ethereum contracts while benefiting from Dusk’s compliant settlement layer.
Networking is powered by Kadcast, a structured peer-to-peer protocol that reduces bandwidth usage and improves reliability compared to traditional gossip networks.
On top of this infrastructure, Dusk powers applications like Zedger and Hedger for compliant asset issuance and lifecycle management, and Citadel, a self-sovereign identity protocol enabling privacy-preserving compliance.
Together, these components position Dusk as a purpose-built blockchain for regulated, privacy-preserving financial markets.