What does it take to build the world’s most powerful VPN?

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The four steps required to launch the Nym VPN app

VPN usage is rocketing: the market last year alone was 44.6bn USD and is predicted to nearly double by 2026. VPNs are the most accessible and easiest means to improve end user privacy and security, but there are important parts missing from the vast majority of VPN products out there.

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Although VPNs protect your IP address from websites, you have to trust the providers themselves. And usually the provider has access to your browsing habits, location, and payment details and are prone to data breaches just like any other company, or worse, might sell your information in open data markets.

The economic pressure to sell people’s data means that the majority of apps, including many VPNs, continue to run a surveillance business model. It is hard to say exactly how big the global market is for personal data. But with the digital ad market worth over 200bn USD, and technology providers like Zoom now also selling your data for training AI models, it is safe to say the economic temptation to track you and sell your online behaviour, relationships and profile continues to hold sway over the majority of apps and services.

The first step towards a VPN that provides actual privacy is therefore to ensure the economic incentives rewards privacy rather than tempting operators to pry. This is the primary function of the NYM token economics — to establish an anti-surveillance business model. And soon, the NYM token economic rails will also support a Nym VPN so that consumers will have access to actual privacy.

The Nym core team is working on four remaining steps to launch the first major consumer product to run on the Nym mixnet: a high speed, trustless and decentralised VPN, paid for via the NYM token. Read on for a behind the scenes look on the development work that is under way.

1 Project smoosh

Growing decentralised infrastructure

So far, the Nym mixnet has been kept fairly small to ensure highest possible returns for early node operators. But with the launch of the Nym VPN app, the mixnet will require strong coverage of mix nodes all over the world.

Project smoosh is a nick-name by CTO Dave Hrycyszyn and Chief Scientist Claudia Diaz for the work they are currently doing to “smoosh” Nym nodes so that the same operator can serve alternately as mix node, gateway or VPN node. This requires careful calibration of the Nym token economics, for example, only nodes with the highest reputation for good quality service will be in the VPN set and have the chance to earn higher rewards.

By simplifying the components, adding VPN features and supporting new node operators, the aim is to widen the geographical coverage of nodes and have significant redundancy, meaning plenty of operators to be able to meet demand. This requires strong token economic incentives as well as training and support for new node operators.

In order to support this rapid scaling, Nym is launching Shipyard Academy later this autumn, followed by a second delegators programme. You can already get involved by setting up a node or staking your NYM tokens on well-performing nodes to earn rewards.

More information on smoosh token economics coming soon.

2 Speedy mode

Control the trade-off between speed and privacy

One of the primary blockers to adoption of strong privacy infrastructures like Tor is usability and more specifically latency. Unfortunately, there is a very real tradeoff between speed and strong security and privacy. But there is plenty that can be done to optimise in this area.

Speedy Mode will allow users to control the level of trade-off between speed and privacy they are willing to make. The user will be able to choose whether they want the best possible anonymity the Nym mixnet can offer (at the cost of latency and speed), less privacy but more speed, or a super high-speed option, using the two-hop VPN instead of the full protections offered by the mixnet.

Speedy mode is currently being tested in the NymConnect app in preparation for integration into the market-ready VPN product.

Meanwhile, the Nym R&D and product teams are working heavily on scientific breakthroughs in mixnet optimisation through carefully designed geo-routing, new encryption formats (such as a new, more efficient packet format to potentially replace Sphinx) and parameterisation.

3 Anonymous e-cash

Pay with tokens, not with your identity

Another major problem of VPNs, and in fact most digital goods and services, is that the moment you pay for them, you are handing over your name, credit card details and other identifying information. But there is no reason why payments online should be any different from using physical cash. The person in the shop should not have to know your full name, address and financial details, and indeed, a payment provider or bank should not have to know your spending habits.

The Nym R&D team has made significant progress developing an anonymous offline e-cash system that does exactly this, extending zk-nym work to cover e-cash. And the first use case of this scheme is the Nym VPN and mixnet. You will be able to spend your NYM tokens on bandwidth credentials, which will ensure that your use of the Nym VPN is not connected to your wallet or any other payment method.

Over the next months, there will be a Sandbox for these offline bandwidth credentials where developers can try out the scheme themselves.

Meanwhile read up on the anonymous e-cash paper or watch this panel presentation with Nym cryptographer Alfredo Rial presenting the scheme to European regulators, lawyers and technologists in Brussels earlier this year.

4 Censorship resistance

Censorship is an attack on basic human rights. Controlling or blocking access to information is to stagnate the ability for people and societies to develop and grow. (The Nym Russian community recently highlighted Russia censoring OpenVPN/ Wireguard from mobile operators and this is just the latest example of what seems to be a growing trend towards censorship). The client-side scanning that is being proposed in the UK and EU also presents a danger of mission-creep towards censorship. Censorship resistance is therefore likely to be one of the key selling points for a VPN — to provide continued access for ordinary people to information and services.

The Nym R&D team is currently working closely with the global Nym Community to measure what parts of the world the Nym mixnet is facing censorship. This is a key step in the overall censorship resistance R&D track to ensure global access to the strong privacy protections offered by the mixnet and VPN products.

To find out more how to contribute to censorship measurements, join the Nym Community channels on Telegram, Element or Discord.

The NymVPN app

VPN usage was once synonymous with oppressive regimes that stymied or blocked open internet access. But with Apple, Signal and WhatsApp threatening to pull out of the UK in response to the possibility of client-side scanning, the demand for VPNs in the UK and the western world is likely to rise rapidly as governments continue to undermine privacy and security and companies continue to undermine people’s trust by selling their data.

The end-game is to have a Nym VPN app that is fast, trustless and decentralised, that can meet the privacy demands of people in these rapidly changing circumstances. And to do so in a way that is economically viable without tempting people to pry. The Nym surveillance-proof business model will enable you to:

• use the VPN without fear of your browsing habits being sold behind your back;
• pay for the VPN service without compromising your payment details and identity, which in turn rewards operators and stakers to continue providing strong privacy;
• take part in the infrastructure itself either as a professional node operator, or simply by staking NYM tokens to operators and earn a share of rewards.

Beyond the VPN — mixnet for any app or service

The mission of Nym is to provide digital privacy to all of humanity. The Nym VPN app is the fastest way to achieve this for ordinary people. Meanwhile, the privacy protections of the mixnet are also being made available for integration with other service providers.

The mixnet addresses a problem that extends across the entire internet: exposed traffic patterns. The Nym SDKs make it as easy as possible to integrate with the Nym mixnet and enable software developers to route their app traffic over the Nym mixnet to provide stronger privacy for their users.

The aim of Nym is nothing less than protecting the network traffic for all of the internet.

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