Amsterdam based fintech company Dusk Network has today released its Daybreak Testnet, providing the public with an array of financial applications while maintaining compliance with legal requirements. The Dusk Network layer 1 protocol has been built from the ground up as a privacy first blockchain that fully complies with financial legislation. Any company can use it for its business, enabling it to avoid the inefficiencies of the traditional financial system. The Dusk team have operated right on the cutting edge of new technologies to develop new techniques and algorithms in the fields of peep-to-peer networking, distributed computation, and zero-knowledge cryptography. By focusing particularly on the financial arena, Dusk Network has become one of the foremost pioneers of this sector. According to Jelle Pol, founder, and business director at Dusk Network: '”Most of us know that public blockchains are completely transparent by nature. This presents a real blocker for large financial institutions who are looking to adopt the technology. They need the tools to satisfy compliance criteria, whilst keeping sensitive data, such as their clients’ balances, ownership registries and asset movements between venues, confidential. I am beyond excited to launch DayBreak knowing that we are pushing technology that addresses the needs of the real world.” Dusk Network Technological breakthroughs In order to become one of the leaders in financial privacy, Dusk Network has developed some incredible technologies along the way. In Plonk, the team has developed a lightning fast standard in zero-knowledge (ZK) technologies.  Plonk keeps all transactions on the Dusk Network private and confidential. Other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum are not able to fulfil the privacy-compliance conundrum, whereas Dusk Network can, by providing a public record of smart contracts that are able to store financial information confidentially. Dusk Network’s unique proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, Succinct Attestation, provides much-needed settlement finality. On the Dusk Network, transactions are final and irreversible as soon as they are processed, giving legal certainty of ownership, and providing regulatory compliance for financial applications.  Another technology which differentiates the Dusk Network from other blockchains, is its RUSK smart contract programming language. The RUSK confidential smart contract platform enables anyone to develop a new breed of dApps by way of privacy-enabled smart contracts. Emanuele Francioni, founder and technical director at Dusk Network, said of his company’s new testnet: “TestNet is a huge milestone and I am incredibly proud of launching a network that fulfils a vision that many considered too ambitious even for multi-billion dollar projects With Dusk Network we are creating a state-of-the-art blockchain in every sense of the word; the components underpinning the network such as PLONK, Kadcast, and Rusk are true marvels of innovation that pave the way for a new standard in both traditional finance as well as the emerging DeFi. With the delivery of DayBreak, we are entering an exciting new chapter which signals our confidence in the network’s capabilities, as well as our readiness to progress to the next steps featured in our roadmap, toward our vision of a truly fair and efficient financial market.”  Daybreak Testnet For those wishing to take a first look at the Dusk Network Daybreak Testnet and who would like to contribute, there is a waiting list that they can apply for, which already has more than 2500 signups. Those who are tech-savvy can install the CLI wallet from the portal, and start executing transactions on the network.  Those who would just like to see the network block times, and learn about activities on the network can visit the Block Explorer. Both the Block Explorer and the CLI wallet can be found on Portal.dusk.network. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.