Dusk Token Design and Ecosystem Planning

DUSK has a total supply of 500 million tokens, with 420 million currently in circulation. This is not a purely speculative token; it is backed by a clear economic model.

The actual uses of the token are fourfold: transaction fees, staking and mining, asset exchange, and on-chain governance. On the Dusk network, whether for transaction settlement or deploying smart contracts, DUSK is required. Staking participation can earn block rewards—each block releases 19.86 DUSK, with 80% going to the block producers, 5% to the validator committee, 5% to the approval committee, and the remaining 10% into the ecosystem fund. The atomic swap feature allows for decentralized exchange between different assets, and governance rights are expected to be gradually released to holders in the future.

Looking at the opportunities and risks of this project, it’s quite interesting.

In terms of opportunities, Dusk is somewhat unique in the privacy sector—it dares to openly discuss compliance issues. This is especially important because, under the current regulatory environment, institutional investors are very sensitive to a project’s compliance stance. Technologically, the combination of zero-knowledge proofs and isolated Byzantine consensus is innovative in privacy protection. New zero-knowledge proof schemes like PLONK offer better computational efficiency compared to traditional methods. In terms of ecosystem development, a fund pool of 15 million DUSK, equivalent to over $3 million, is quite attractive for attracting high-quality projects.

However, there are also many challenges. Competition in the privacy space has long been fierce—established players like Monero, Zcash, and Secret Network are well-known, and new projects like Oasis and Iron Fish are rapidly advancing. To stand out, Dusk must rely on real technical strength. Although zero-knowledge proofs are advanced, they involve high computational costs and complex development processes. Lowering the barrier for developers is a practical issue. More concerning is token concentration—top five addresses control 66.91% of DUSK, which inherently risks price volatility and market manipulation. Improving token distribution should be a priority.