Introduction to NYM

5 min readSep 9, 2023

NYM is a decentralised and financially motivated infrastructure to provide services

Nym's main building block is a mixnet that safeguards network traffic metadata for apps, offering communication privacy superior to VPNs and Tor against external adversaries who can monitor the entire internet. A cutting-edge proof of mixing mechanism that rewards mixnet nodes and demonstrates that the service they are offering is of a high calibre. Anyone can join the Nym network and enable a long-term economic model for privacy thanks to rewards provided by NYM tokens.

NYM tokens can be converted into anonymous credentials that let users discreetly and independently verify their "right to use" services.

The nym network can be the basis for a wide variety of privacy-enhancing technologies that protect people's basic liberties against traffic analysis by potent enemies.

The "full-stack" private access features offered by Nym’s mixnet and anonymous credentials can be freely connected with a wide range of services. For instance, Nym may anonymously broadcast transactions to any blockchain and do so with greater network-level privacy than either Tor or Dandelion

However, network-level privacy for blockchains is just one of the many services Nym may enable; any networked application, from secure messaging to file-sharing, can gain from Nym’s privacy characteristics even if it does not employ blockchain technology. Nym is able to combine big and varied user bases into one enormous anonymity set by offering a communication infrastructure that can serve a wide range of applications. This is essential in a privacy system since anonymity enjoys company: in ascending order One must blend in with a sizable user base in order to be considered anonymous when utilising a system [ Therefore, Nym offers higher privacy assurances than is conceivable for a standalone network dedicated to a particular blockchain or privacy-enhanced application because it offers a generic infrastructure used by many different apps.
Mixnets also scale horizontally since new nodes can be added to the mixnet to accommodate an expanding user base and rising demand. Consequently, more traffic enables lower mixing delay and cover traffic volumes while preserving high anonymity. The more people who join the network, the better the privacy and performance trade-offs for all users, according to Nym, which provides a positive relationship between privacy and scalability.

::Here are some key aspects of the Nym project:

NYM MIXNET

Mixnet Technology:

Nym utilizes a mixnet, which is a network of servers that shuffle and encrypt data packets to obscure their source and destination. This helps in achieving privacy by preventing the tracking and surveillance of internet traffic.

*Anonymous Signaling System:

Nym introduces an anonymous signaling system called Sphinx, which enables users to send messages to each other without revealing their identities or the content of the messages. It ensures that only the intended recipient can decrypt and read the messages.

*Anonymous Credentials:

Nym also offers anonymous credentials, which are cryptographic proofs that allow users to prove certain attributes about themselves without revealing their actual identity. This can be useful in scenarios where proof of attributes is required without disclosing personal information

*Mixnode Incentivization:

The Nym network relies on a decentralized infrastructure of mixnodes that process and forward data packets. Users can operate mixnodes and earn rewards in the form of the project's native cryptocurrency, NYM tokens, by contributing to the network's privacy-enhancing services.

Governance and Development:

Nym is developed as an open-source project with a decentralized governance model. The community can participate in decision-making through proposals and voting. The project aims to evolve through community-driven development and consensus.

With the launch of NYM VPN coming soon let’s dive in and know what the VPNs is all about .

VPNs

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are the most popular tools for enhancing network-level privacy.

works). Between a user's client device and a centralised server operated by a VPN provider, which serves as a proxy and relays the client's communications, VPNs create an encrypted tunnel.

Even when set correctly, VPNs are easy to monitor and censor by adversaries with merely local network access to the VPN server because they are frequently configured incorrectly in ways that weaken security. Such network agents can correlate traffic entering and leaving the VPN server to determine who the VPN is connecting to and where it is going.

Additionally, the VPN will be inaccessible to the user.

The single point of trust in the VPN provider is successfully decentralised through these designs to several VPN

VPN suppliers, however can in any case effectively be deanonymized by network enemies that watch the dVPN section
furthermore, leave focuses to relate traffic; As a result, they lack the degree of privacy required for high-value applications. Nym can supplement as opposed to rival decentralized VPN suppliers, as a dVPN can
give passage focuses to the Nym mixnet for clients who need to disguise towards their neighborhood network the reality
that they are utilizing Nym. Simultaneously, Nym adds a layer of security to dVPNs that the VPN innovation
doesn’t propose without help from anyone else.