The next generation of privacy infrastructure
Content on this page was provided by the Nym team
You should not have to worry about surveillance. Privacy should simply be the default of the internet. But due to the way the internet operates today, the consequences of surveillance threaten all of us, from stolen funds and identities to profiling and human rights violations.
Use Nym to get network-level privacy. Nym protects against even the most powerful network adversaries that can observe every packet going in and out of your internet connection. With Nym, you can use the internet without fear of being watched.
Protect privacy at the network layerNym encrypts and relays your internet traffic through a multi-layered network called a mixnet. In each layer of the mixnet, mix nodes mix your internet traffic with that of other users, making communications private and hiding your metadata (e.g., your IP address, who you talk to, when and where, and more).
Incentivized and decentralizedUsers pay a fee in NYM (the native token of the Nym mixnet) to send their data through the mixnet. By pledging an initial bond of NYM, anyone can run a mix node. Anyone holding NYM can delegate to a node to increase its reputation. Nodes are then rewarded in NYM tokens based on their reputation and quality of service - doing the work of mixing packets and providing privacy for the end users. This is called "proof of mixing," similar to how Bitcoin rewards miners for mining new blocks. The reward mechanism enables the mixnet to scale and decentralize.
Works with any applicationFrom Bitcoin to ZCash, no current “layer 1 blockchain" provides “layer 0 privacy” for the peer-to-peer broadcasts used in every transaction. Nym can provide network-level privacy for any blockchain and other generic applications. From Bitcoin to instant messaging, developers can build their applications on top of Nym for network layer and metadata protection of their users.
| Option 1 | Option 2 | |
| Asset | NYM tokens | NYM tokens |
| Fixed Sale Price | $0.50 per token | $0.25 per token |
| Sale Period | February 9, 2022 18:00 UTC - February 16, 2022 23:59 UTC | February 9, 2022 23:00 UTC - February 16, 2022 23:59 UTC |
| Supply for Sale | 5% (50M tokens) | 2.5% (25M tokens) |
| Purchase Limits |
$100 min
$500 max |
$100 min
$1000 max |
| Funding Methods | USDT, USDC, ETH, BTC, SOL, ALGO | USDT, USDC, ETH, BTC, SOL, ALGO |
| Lockup and Release | Tokens unlock on/around March 31, 2022. | Tokens unlock on/around May 9, 2022, followed by a two year quarterly release. |
| Excluded Participants | Excluded participants include residents of the US, Canada, China, South Korea, and CoinList’s unsupported jurisdictions | Excluded participants include residents of the US, Canada, China, South Korea, and CoinList’s unsupported jurisdictions |
| Sale FAQ | FAQ | FAQ |
* CoinList may in its sole and absolute discretion adjust the parameters of the CoinList website and/or access systems to prioritize access to the Nym sale or the processing of token purchases for certain high-quality users with demonstrated histories of positively contributing to token networks, existing Nym users, or otherwise evidencing indicia of crypto-savvy future players of Nym.
** NYM is a multi-chain token, minted on Nym's internal blockchain Nyx, with bridges to other chains like Liquid and Ethereum. Option 1 allows immediate usage of the Nym mixnet and is compatible with tokenization standards such as Liquid Confidential Assets and ERC-20. Option 2 provides tokens on the Cosmos-enabled Nyx platform that are not immediately liquid but allow buyers to easily run mix-nodes and collect rewards for mixing traffic, including with locked tokens.
NYM is the native token of the Nym mixnet. It is a utility token that rewards mix nodes for mixing traffic and providing privacy for users of the Nym network. Users will use NYM tokens to access the mixnet and send their data through it. The fees, collected in NYM, go to a reward pool which is distributed to mix nodes. Mix nodes are rewarded based on their performance and the amount of NYM bonded to their node. People can delegate NYM to mix nodes as a bond signaling reputation for that node and earn a share of the mix node rewards. This supports decentralization and encourages the mixnet to have a high quality of service by involving the broader community in the process of selecting nodes.
The total supply of NYM is 1,000,000,000 (1B) tokens. Please find the token allocation and release schedule below.
Nym is a next generation privacy infrastructure. The aim is to defeat surveillance in the age of machine learning algorithms and powerful network wide monitoring.
The most broadly used network-level privacy solutions are VPNs (virtual private networks). Although VPNs provide the ability to hide the precise IP address of a user, they are a centralized solution. This means that VPN providers can fully observe all network traffic between their users and the public internet, knowing exactly what services its users are accessing at any given time! Furthermore, VPNs offer no protection against powerful network adversaries.
Tor tries to solve this surveillance problem by routing a ‘circuit’ through three relays, which provides better privacy than single-node VPNs. Tor encrypts traffic multiple times, so that only the final Tor node can see the destination. However, Tor’s anonymity properties can be defeated by an entity like an intelligence agency that is capable of monitoring the entire Tor network’s "entry" and "exit" nodes. This is because Tor does not add timing obfuscation or cover traffic to obscure the traffic patterns in circuits, which can be used to correlate flows and deanonymize users. However, Tor's design is expected to continue to be "best of breed" for web-browsing and other stream-based traffic.
Nym can provide more powerful network-level privacy for cryptocurrency transactions, e-mail, instant messaging, and any other message-based traffic. Unlike Tor, Nym's mixnet design guarantees network anonymity and resistance to surveillance, even in the face of adversaries capable of monitoring the entire network, by adding cover traffic and timing obfuscation. The Nym mixnet is decentralized, rather than operated by a trusted provider like a VPN, as it uses blockchain technology and economic incentives to decentralize the network. Nym node operators are incentivized to run nodes and provide good quality of service and uptime. Software updates are governed through community adoption as decisions are made by the node operators and token holders.
Harry Halpin, CEO: Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from University of Edinburgh, where machine-learning made him realize the power of surveillance in the algorithmic age. Now he is betting big on Web 3.0 to fix the surveillance issues the original Web is incapable of fixing. Harry led the European Commission projects on surveillance (NEXTLEAP) and played a pivotal role in the mixnet project (PANORAMIX), which led to the technologies used in Nym. He is a ‘veteran’ of standards used by Web 1.0, and used to be a member of Tim Berners-Lee’s W3C Team, leading the Web Crypto API. Harry left the W3C and MIT, disagreeing with putting DRM in everyone’s browser.
Claudia Diaz, Chief Scientist: Professor of privacy technology at KU Leuven, she wrote her Ph.D. on mixnets (also at KU Leuven) and pioneered how to measure anonymity and design anonymous communication networks. She has published more than fifty contributions to privacy technology, from web tracking studies to privacy by design, often with a focus on the protection of metadata. Claudia worked with Harry in PANORAMIX and decided to join him when he started Nym.
Dave Hrycyszyn, CTO: Co-founder and CTO of Head, a London software consultancy. Author of Scalatra in Action, a book about scalable microservices. Worked with George Danezis on sharded blockchain systems since 2015. Helped build the initial version of Vega. Designed and built one of the fastest (500K TPS), horizontally scalable blockchain systems in the world, which led to a deal with Facebook's Libra. Worked at Libra for a week, then quit and joined Nym.
Alexis Roussel, COO: Co-Founder of Bity.com, a crypto-finance service provider in Switzerland and president of the board of Relai.ch, a Bitcoin only wallet. He holds a Masters in Technology Public Law and has served as an E-Governance Specialist for the United Nations, and was the President of the Pirate Party of Switzerland – aimed at promoting a human-centric and distributed approach of a technological society. He is frequently in the Swiss media discussing privacy and digital rights issues. He is the co-author of the book "Our precious digital integrity". He is also the appointed cryptocurrency expert for the Swiss regulator ARIF.ch.
