AURAUSD
AURA / United States dollar
crypto

Partner chain is best term, I think.
Midnight does have consensus, based on the Substrate framework (AURA/GRANDPA). But it ties in with the Minotaur protocol on Cardano.
[https://docs.midnight.network/operate/network-architecture/consensus](https://docs.midnight.network/operate/network-architecture/consensus)
[https://forum.cardano.org/t/midnight-is-a-cardano-partner/138010](https://forum.cardano.org/t/midnight-is-a-cardano-partner/138010)

Midnight works because Cardano is the heartbeat running underneath it. If Cardano went dark tomorrow, Midnight would feel the consequences of that, since its consensus rules and security model are built around the Cardano state.
Technically, Midnight runs on Substrate, using AURA for block creation and GRANDPA for finality, but it adapts these via the Minotaur consensus protocol to function as a partner chain. Instead of choosing validators independently, Minotaur depends on Cardano SPO credentials and ADA stake distribution to decide who is allowed to produce blocks. Midnight nodes verify these identities against the live Cardano ledger, pulling the data via DbSync.
This means that to attack Midnight, you would effectively need to gain control over the Cardano SPOs. So by extension you could conclude that by staking ADA you are helping to secure Midnight.
My next point is more difficult to find sources for, because I've only seen it stated in past presentations about Midnight, and hinted at it being a possibility in research papers. Whether or not it's factually going to be used on launch of the network, remains to be seen. But it's suggested that the connection to Cardano is further defined by periodic checkpointing. Midnight anchors its history back to Cardano, and Cardano's version of events would be considered the final authority in case of a fork or otherwise.
All this is why validators can only help secure Midnight if they are already established on Cardano. As the [Guide to Becoming a Midnight Block Producer](https://forum.midnight.network/t/guide-how-to-become-a-midnight-block-producer/258) states:
>"To embark on the path of becoming a Midnight Validator, one must either be, or become, a Cardano SPO."
It literally requires an existing Cardano pool, including cold keys and UTXOs, just to be able to register as a Midnight validator. This is in line with statements by Charles, saying that Midnight will be a vanguard for Cardano, by potentially providing more nodes to it and by paving the way for Cardano on exchanges etc. Deals made by Midnight, will ensure a necessity to implement the Cardano infrastructure at the same time. A two-for-one deal as Charles calls it.
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Sources for info:
[Minotaur: Multi-Resource Blockchain Consensus](https://iohk.io/en/research/library/papers/minotaur-multi-resource-blockchain-consensus/)
[Midnight Docs](https://docs.midnight.network/) (Consensus etc.)
[Polkadot Docs](https://docs.polkadot.com/) (Substrate, AURA, GRANDPA etc.)
[Midnight Whiteboard with Charles Hoskinson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMGkYEVKuzI)
[Midnight Summit 2025 - Keynote Address w/ Charles Hoskinson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC3bHmp9Q9Q)
[Cardano Summit 2023: Cardano: Past, Present, and future](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvV2h89cTo8)

$AURA meme coin