Midnight Network Partners with MoneyGram to Strengthen Global Payments Infrastructure

• Midnight has announced money transfer giant Moneygram as the latest to join as an operator of its federated nodes.
• Other new members include crypto-friendly investment platform eToro and Pairpoint, a joint venture between Vodafone and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation.

A week ago, the Midnight Network announced that it would rely on a network of trusted parties to operate federated nodes that would govern its mainnet, which launches in March, as we reported. It has now revealed that MoneyGram is one of the latest global giants to pledge to run a node once the mainnet launches.

Decentralized networks are built to reduce the influence of centralized entities, allowing any network member to operate a node or stake their tokens and validate transactions. This is the direction the Midnight Network intends to take in the long run. However, once it launches, it will rely on a few trusted entities with a global presence and industry expertise to operate federated nodes, before eventually handing control to the users.

Last week, the network announced that Google Cloud, Blockdaemon, and AlphaTON Capital had signed up as the first operators of these federated nodes. It has now revealed three new operators, with MoneyGram as the largest entrant.

Moneygram’s involvement “adds real-world payments expertise to Midnight’s launch infrastructure as the network prepares for stable early mainnet operations,” the network said in its announcement.

MoneyGram is the world’s second-largest money transfer service after Western Union, operating in over 200 countries and with nearly 400,000 agents. It’s not new to crypto, and it previously integrated USDC and XLM into its new payments app last year, as CNF reported.

Midnight says MoneyGram will bring its expertise in payments to the ecosystem. It will collaborate with the Midnight Foundation to explore how regulated payment services can integrate blockchain in a way that aligns with compliance requirements. Midnight is built with programmable privacy at a native level, which would be critical for payment services that must maintain their users’ confidentiality.

Luke Tuttle, the Monegram Chief Technology Officer, commented:

eToro, Vodafone Join Midnight Network as Node Operators

eToro and Pairpoint joined MoneyGram as new node operators on the Midnight Network. eToro was among the earliest mainstream financial platforms to integrate crypto, allowing users to easily trade some of the top cryptos. Last year, it announced that it was working on tokenized US equities on Ethereum to bridge Wall Street and decentralized finance, as CNF reported at the time.

“We were excited to learn about Midnight’s novel approach to programmable data protection and selective disclosure, designed to balance user confidentiality with regulatory compliance,” commented the Chief Blockchain Officer at eToro, Omri Ross.

Vodafone also joins the network through Pairpoint, a joint venture with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation that expands IoT devices to become autonomous economic agents in a model it calls the Economy of Things.

Chief Innovation Officer David Palmer stated: