Nym July Updates
The Nym mainnet and token launch took place this spring, marking the go-live of the core Nym infrastructure. Since then, the Nym team and…
The Nym mainnet and token launch took place this spring, marking the go-live of the core Nym infrastructure. Since then, the Nym team and community have been busy optimising the infrastructure and incentive system under live conditions. This has meant a lot of background work on the platform and contracts, getting the community familiar with the mixnet token economics and major updates to the mixnet explorer and Nym wallet functionality to support people bonding and delegating in the Nym mixnet.
With the core infrastructure in full swing, it is now time for people to start using it and Privacy-Enhance their Apps (PEApps). To that end, Nym Shipyard has launched in July providing developers with the resources needed to start building and testing user-facing applications.
In short, July has been a busy time for the Nym team and community, so let’s get right into it!
Welcome to Nym Shipyard
Shipyard is the new Beta space for Nym. It is a place to apply for grants, build and test new Privacy Enhanced Applications (PEApps) in experimental mode. Shipyard works as an onramp to privacy-preserving applications, designed to support developers from early ideas all the way through to having a market ready application running in the Nym privacy ecosystem — graduating to the Nym Innovation Fund.
What many people might not be aware of is that the mixnet is already usable with familiar applications many of us use everyday: Electrum wallet, Keybase, and, soon, Telegram!
To facilitate use and increase overall access to privacy enhancement of wallet and chat apps, Shipyard has launched with a number of Service Grants. These incentivise the community to set up gateway / network requester pairs to facilitate the privacy enhancement of an initial set of applications. With an overwhelming response, the deadline is closing on the 1st of August. However, another round of larger grants will be rolled out under Shipyard in the coming weeks, so stay tuned and sign up.
NymConnect — join the Beta testing!
Shipyard is also where people can test early stage applications in the Nym ecosystem. The first application beta launch in Shipyard is NymConnect!
NymConnect is a one-button access point to start privacy-enhancing applications you are already using. Download NymConnect to try now with your Electrum wallet, with messaging apps Keybase and Telegram to be added next. NOTE: this is experimental software. Do not rely on it for strong anonymity (yet!)
What applications would you like to see privacy-enhanced? For discussions on early stage apps, PEApps, and more — Join our Discord!
Team update
Nym has a new CFO
Andrei Serjantov joined Nym from BNP Paribas, a French international banking group, bringing with him his sixteen years of financial experience to the world of privacy-focused tokens. But what’s more — Andrei has deep roots in privacy and anonymity research! Andrei received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cambridge entitled “On the anonymity of anonymity systems”, co-authoring ground-breaking work on anonymous communication systems with Claudia Diaz (Nym’s Chief Scientist) and George Danezis (Nym co-founder, recently returned in August 2021 from Libra).
Andrei was on i24News speaking about why a top London banker would join a crypto startup just as the market crashes…
Andrei also introduced himself to the community on one of our Friday Community Calls, with lively interest in his perspectives on recent market dynamics and Nym’s financial position. Listen here.
In other team news…
Nym is hiring! As Nym continues to build the privacy layer for the new internet, the core team is hiring for positions across the board. Escape the great crypto/fintech layoff firestorm and join a truly mission-based organisation. Check out the open positions here.
Tech update
Major updates on the tech front last months included…
Platform release v1.0.0
- The first release of the Nym platform binaries!
Wallet releases
As always, you can fork the wallet here or use CLI!
- V1.0.5: new and improved interface for delegating stake via the wallet, and an interface to claim or compound rewards;
- V1.0.6: an update to prevent people from delegating to oversaturated mix nodes and encourage them to distribute it to other well performing nodes, as well as improved password recovery;
- V1.0.7: dark mode and accurate fees for transactions (based on simulations done by each validator).
NymConnect
- V1.0.0 for initial testing with Keybase and Electrum wallet service providers;
- V1.0.1 NymConnect bug fix with SOCKS5 after initial round of testing.
On-going work
- Distributed Key Generation (DKG)
- Coconut bandwidth credentials to be accepted by the gateways with double spending protection.
And as always, Nym releases can be found here…
Community Update
Join the weekly Nym Community Calls!
Nym runs weekly community calls exploring key issues and priorities for the Nym ecosystem, including weekly spotlights of mix node operators. Community calls are free to join every Friday — on Telegram and now on Discord too! Join every Friday or listen to previous episodes here.
Who do you want us to chat with?
Over on our YouTube channel we’re talking to some of the leading privacy advocates and developers. Alongside the network, Nym intends to be a Library of Alexandria for the most important and timely thought concerning privacy, surveillance capitalism, and the future of the internet!
Who should we talk to next? What topics would you like to see covered? Let us know on Twitter.
Nodes.Guru delegation winners announced
Nodes.Guru, infrastructure operators and longtime pillars of the Nym community, set up a delegators program to ensure better stake distribution across mix nodes. They have announced the winners of the first round of their Nym delegation programme. Thank you to Nodes.Guru! Check the winners here.
Spacestation wallet supports Nym
Cosmostation’s Spacestation wallet includes a Nyx integration, allowing users to transfer NYM ERC-20 to native NYM tokens to begin.
Staking 101 — how do you choose a node?
Staking and delegating keep the Nym network decentralised and running smoothly. Got NYM tokens to delegate, but not sure how to choose which node to delegate to?
Nym Research
Anonymous e-cash
The research team has completed work on both threshold issuance compact e-cash and the threshold issuance divisible e-cash, and can now provide design, full security proof, implementation and performance benchmarks. The team is currently analysing how the proposed e-cash schemes compare with other existing solutions for privacy e-cash, like zkSNARKs.
Improved cover and sender anonymity
The research team has designed and implemented a new cover traffic strategy for the Nym client which provides even better resistance against traffic analysis attacks (15% better results). The proposed technique is simple, yet very robust. The team is now working on adding anonymous replies to the Nym network, which will result in enhanced sender anonymity. Research is ongoing to explore different approaches, including the use of Single User Reply Blocks as well as the concept of drop boxes. Finally, now that the network is live, work on mixnet parametrisation has been kickstarted, to ensure that the mixing delay, volume of cover traffic, packet size and placement of the mix nodes within layers provide optimal privacy for the Nym users at the current stages of the network.
If you want a run-down of the many events our team members attended during the summer, make sure to check out our recent blog post.
Privacy loves company
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