Nym

The Nym network is a decentralized and incentivized infrastructure to provision privacy to a broad range of message-based applications and services.

The core component of Nym is a mixnet that protects network traffic metadata for applications, providing communication privacy superior to both VPNs and Tor against global adversaries that can watch the entire internet.

Nodes in the mixnet are rewarded via a novel proof of mixing scheme that proves that mix nodes are providing a high quality of service. Rewards given by NYM tokens allow anyone to join the Nym network and enable a sustainable economic model for privacy. NYM tokens can be transformed into anonymous credentials that allow users to privately prove their "right to use" services in a decentralized and verifiable manner.

The Nym network can serve as the foundation for a vast range of privacy-enhanced applications that defend the fundamental freedoms of people across the globe against traffic analysis by powerful adversaries.

Nym is designed to support privacy-enhanced access to applications and services, both in terms of protecting communications metadata and privately proving the "right to use" services. Nym leverages token-based incentives to fund operational costs, dynamically scale to meet user demand for privacy, and reward nodes for contributing to the protocols with a high quality of service.

Nym architecture and flows

This section introduces the concept and design goals of the Nym network. The participants in Nym are introduced in Section 3.1. Section 3.2 describes the information flows between participants that enable private communication and access to services. Section 3.3 briefly describes the flow of value in the Nym network. The powerful threat model that Nym is meant to counter is presented in Section 3.4. Section 3.5 explains the main privacy features of Nym, while other requirements are listed in Section 3.6.