The collision of privacy and programmability opens up new possibilities for DeFi. Miden not only provides transaction privacy protection but also supports full smart contract execution — importantly, the contracts themselves can also be privacy-preserving.

Developers can write code in Rust and compile it directly to run on the Miden VM. From contract code, on-chain state, to each interaction record, all support privacy-preserving processing. This is almost unimaginable on traditional public blockchains.

The most straightforward application is a private DEX. Imagine a trading scenario: you place an order for a certain trading pair, and the counterparty cannot see your quote or quantity at all. Only when the trade is actually executed can both parties confirm the details of the transaction. For large traders, this means effectively avoiding front-running and slippage sniping. Moreover, the entire trading logic is hidden on-chain, and no one can infer your strategy through contract interactions. The combination of privacy and smart contracts makes the possibilities of Web3 finance incalculable.