Fahmi Syed has worn many hats in his career, hedge fund COO, CFO at Parity Technologies, and advisor to pioneering blockchain teams. But his latest role marks a shift in focus. As President of the newly launched Midnight Foundation, Syed now leads a mission to advance privacy-first blockchain adoption through a product called Midnight.
“This is not about crypto,” Syed says. “I joined blockchain because I could see how it might change how businesses operate, how society operates. It felt more relevant to my young children than the financial world I had previously worked in.”
The Midnight Foundation is being established as a fully independent body to steward the development, adoption, and decentralisation of the Midnight protocol, a blockchain incubated inside Input Output (IO) and now entering the market. Shielded Technologies, a spinout from IO, will continue as the lead engineering partner.
“Midnight was originally a research project,” Syed explained. “Then it became an engineering project. Now, it’s a product. The Foundation’s job is to grow the community, support developers, and guide the protocol’s evolution.”
What sets Midnight apart is its approach to privacy. Syed described the protocol’s architecture as offering “rational privacy” a hybrid model with both public and private states. “In the real world, we choose when to disclose our information,” he says. “Blockchain should offer that same choice.”
The Foundation’s launch reflects Midnight’s readiness to enter the ecosystem. “We’ve looked at why decentralised tech hasn’t seen mass adoption,” he says. “A lot of it comes down to the data layer. Midnight lets you selectively disclose data. That’s a fundamental shift.”
Midnight also introduces a novel two-token model. The public token, NIGHT, grants governance rights and emissions. DUST, the second resource, powers shielded transactions. “In most blockchains,” Syed says, “you end up selling your token to use the network. That’s like selling your Apple shares to buy an iPhone. We designed Midnight to avoid that cannibalisation.”
DUST is non-transferable, renewable, and decays over time. Its issuance is tied to holding NIGHT. For Syed, this model is a cooperative approach to tokenomics. “It allows enterprises to plan ahead. They know how much NIGHT to hold based on how much compute they’ll need. It brings predictability.”
Governance will be decentralised from the outset, drawing on learnings from Cardano and other networks. “We’re fortunate,” says Syed. “Because Midnight comes out of IO, we’ve had the benefit of observing Cardano’s governance journey. That means we’re not starting from scratch. We can go faster.”
The Foundation will oversee this transition, helping NIGHT holders take responsibility for decisions around upgrades, treasury, and development. “The Foundation isn’t here to control,” he says. “It’s here to enable.”
Syed’s leadership style is rooted in collaboration. “Whatever title I have,” he says, “I succeed because of the people around me. My job is to create the conditions where others can thrive.”
He also brings a long-term perspective. “We want to move past the crypto-curious,” he says. “People think privacy is about hiding things. But privacy is a right. It’s in the constitutions of some countries. With Midnight, we can build tools that respect that right.”
Looking ahead, Syed hopes the Foundation will support not just adoption, but impact. “Widespread adoption of the technology is my goal,” he says. “That includes use cases like secure voting or decentralised identity, systems that let people participate without fear or censorship.”
Asked about legacy, Syed was clear. “I want people to be empowered to have the tools to actually participate and to not be exploited,” he says. “To be able to choose, and to be able to express, and to have a voice.”
