Beginner-friendly walkthrough for developers getting started with Midnight

If you're exploring Midnight development for the first time, shielded contracts can feel intimidating. Privacy-preserving logic is powerful, but it also adds complexity.

That’s why unshielded tokens are a good starting point.

In this tutorial, we’ll build a simple unshielded token dApp using Midnight, React, and Compact. The goal is to understand the full flow from contract structure to frontend interaction.

By the end, you’ll understand:

How an unshielded token flow works on Midnight

How to structure a Compact contract

How frontend interaction can be wired using React

Wallet connection basics

Minting, sending, and receiving token flow

When unshielded tokens make sense compared to shielded tokens

This tutorial is written for developers and newcomers who want a practical entry point into Midnight.

Why Start With Unshielded Tokens?

Midnight supports privacy-preserving applications, but not every use case needs maximum…