Inspiration
Fleet management systems handle some of the most sensitive operational data imaginable — driver licenses, vehicle assignments, route histories. FleetSync already solved the operations problem well. But looking at the architecture, driver credentials were stored in plain MongoDB, transmitted over the wire on every login, and fully visible to anyone with database access. The question became: what if a driver could prove they're licensed and authorized without that credential ever leaving their device? Midnight made that question answerable.## What it does
How we built it
FleetSync was already built in the MERN stack with JWT authentication, RBAC, and a custom generateID utility for driver credentials. We kept that intact as the "before." The "after" adds a Midnight integration: a Compact smart contract handles the ZK credential commitment and verification logic, the Lace wallet connects drivers to the Midnight Preprod testnet, and a Docker-hosted proof server generates ZK proofs locally. The frontend scaffold was bootstrapped with create-midnight-dapp and connected to the existing FleetSync UI concept.
Challenges we ran into
Getting the Midnight toolchain running on Windows was the single biggest challenge. The Compact compiler does not run natively on Windows it requires WSL2, and even then the compact update command fails without specific system dependencies. We spent significant time navigating that before finding the correct setup path. The Midnight ecosystem is still early-stage so documentation gaps and version mismatches were constant companions throughout the weekend.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
FleetSync already had strong architecture — JWT auth, conflict detection, proper RBAC, a documented REST API. Layering Midnight on top of a real, deployed production-quality project rather than a toy demo is something we're genuinely proud of. The before-and-after story is concrete and meaningful, not hypothetical
What we learned
Zero-knowledge proofs are not just a cryptographic novelty — they solve a real, specific problem that every fleet management system has but nobody talks about: credential exposure. We also learned that the hardest part of building on a new blockchain ecosystem is not the cryptography — it's the toolchain setup. Once the environment is running, Midnight's developer experience is surprisingly approachable for MERN developers.
What's next for Fleet-Sync
Full production integration of Midnight across all three roles — not just driver credential verification but also manager authorization proofs and admin audit trails that are verifiable without being public. The natural next step is replacing the current JWT flow entirely with ZK-based session proofs, so no credentials ever touch the server. A React Native driver app with on-device proof generation is also on the roadmap.
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