Nym Begins Integration For Complete Privacy Protection On Zcash Ecosystem

This integration work will bring network-layer privacy protections to Zcash.

Author: Nym

February 13, 20244 mins read

This integration work will bring network-layer privacy protections to Zcash.

We at Nym Technologies are proud to announce we have received a grant from Zcash Community Grants, bringing the metadata privacy protections of the Nym mixnet to the Zcash ecosystem. Nym will work with Zcash’s already privacy-preserving infrastructure to help provide an end-to-end protected solution for privacy for Zcash users, solving data leakage at the network layer that is currently undefended by Zcash.

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This initial integration will see the Nym mixnet integrated into the light client libraries produced by the Electric Coin Company, meaning developers of Zcash wallets can switch on the powerful privacy protections of the mixnet as they see fit.

Unlike any other privacy technology, the Nym mixnet prevents government, corporate, and criminal surveillance adversaries from tracing metadata. Metadata leaks with every single online interaction.

The mixnet achieves this by splitting data into identically sized encrypted Sphinx packets and dispersing these in three hops to ‘mix nodes’ worldwide at randomized intervals. Next, the mixnet shuffles in dummy ‘cover’ traffic, further complicating tracing. Together these features make tracking metadata patterns impossible even for powerful adversaries with a global view of the network.

Nym and Zcash share the same vision of privacy for everyone. The invention of Zcash by the Electric Coin Company has already made great strides to defend user privacy by bringing zero-knowledge proofs to market, an innovation that many other projects are now building upon. However, like every technology, zero-knowledge proofs remain vulnerable at the transport layer of the internet — a problem acknowledged in the original Zerocash whitepaper.

Powerful adversaries can analyze traffic patterns such as the stream of TCP/IP packets used to submit transactions, which can then be used to de-anonymize users. ISPs can snoop on traffic patterns to passively record Zcash activity. And the growing crypto surveillance industry can passively spy on peer-to-peer traffic, as well as conduct active attacks.

Even advanced privacy protections like Zcash’s auto-shielding feature are vulnerable at the network layer. For example: if an adversary obtained a Zcash user’s transaction address, or extracted it from a unified address, they could then send a transaction to the address. Then, they could observe the user’s wallet as it broadcasts the t2z auto-shielding transaction. By repeating this process, the attacker could obtain more granular details such as IP measurements, and track these over time.

“We at Nym believe people deserve privacy — it is an alienable right to a dignified life free from gross intrusion and interference,” said Harry Halpin, cofounder and CEO at Nym Technologies. “But in the digital realm, intrusion and interference are simply the normal state of affairs. This is unsustainable and needs to change. With this groundbreaking integration, Nym and Zcash are working together to make real privacy online a reality.”

Josh Swihart, CEO of ECC (Electric Coin Company), said: “I’m extremely pleased to see Nym come to life on the Zcash network. Network-level privacy has been a missing piece since Zcash’s inception. This partnership between these two projects will significantly deepen protections from everyday users wishing to protect their financial privacy. It’s fantastic to see the privacy ecosystem come together.”

Jason McGee of Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) said: “ZCG is excited to support Nym’s proposal to enhance network-level privacy protections for Zcash. This effort aligns with our core mission to advance the Zcash network, and underscores ZCG’s commitment to addressing challenging issues related to privacy and security. By integrating Nym’s mixnet technology into Zcash’s lightwalletd infrastructure, Nym is laying the foundation for future integrations with Zcash nodes and wallets. Our hope is that this collaboration marks the beginning of a long-term partnership that results in significant improvements in privacy protections for Zcash users.”