Contrary to most VPN vendor claims, currently available VPN technology does not protect user metadata, which is easy to analyze to determine location, device type, timing, activity and even intent. With the rise of AI surveillance, hostile actors from cybercriminals to intelligence agencies can generate more value from analyzing metadata than by seeking to decrypt the content of traffic.
Halpin saw the realities of these vulnerabilities everyone faces from the global surveillance systems brought to light by figures including Edward Snowden and Manning. As an academic and activist, Halpin also witnessed firsthand how metadata was used to identify the location of civilians and online privacy advocates killed by drone strikes in Syria and Ukraine.
The commercial release of NymVPN marks a new vision and technology based on privacy as a right, not a privilege. Journalists, activists, cryptocurrency users, and individuals and organizations that depend on secure and private communications have been working closely with Nym as early users of the new software to send and receive sensitive information safely.
“Nym was created with the core principle that secure, private and uncensored access to the internet is as essential as access to clean water and electricity," said Halpin. “As the world becomes more unstable, Nym is bringing this new technology to ordinary people first. Early adopters of NymVPN can use it to access accurate and reliable information in parts of the world plagued by censorship, while others can anonymize and secure their cryptocurrency transactions.
“NymVPN marks the split between Big Tech’s exploitative control of the internet with a new vision – one where privacy is a right, not a privilege,” Halpin added. “Our technology was built with the support of the original cypherpunks and the world’s top cryptographers to defeat even government-level mass surveillance. It’s a new innovation to increase digital freedom against the control of information. NymVPN is not just the world’s most private VPN: it is available to anyone, anywhere in the world, at a price lower than less secure VPNs.”
Chelsea Manning, privacy advocate and security advisor at Nym, said: “Even in democratic nations, people are faced with unrestricted data collection, hyper-narrow algorithmic feeds and normalized censorship tactics. NymVPN takes an infrastructure-based privacy approach to try to combat this increasingly uncertain and splintered internet.”
NymVPN is now available for all major operating systems. Android and iOS apps are available via Google Play and the Apple App Store. The Nym website also offers MacOS, Linux, and Windows desktop versions. U.S. pricing starts as low as $5.49 a month with a 2-year subscription.
How NymVPN works
- NymVPN offers two modes to protect a consumer’s online identity and provide flexibility relative to the protection levels and upload-download speeds users will need.
Best-in-class anonymity and metadata protection is provided by the Anonymous Mode, which routes traffic through the Nym NGM. Thanks to added noise like cover traffic and packet mixing, NymVPN is unique in its ability to secure metadata (IP address, timestamps, URLs visited, etc.) that is otherwise exposed by all other VPN technologies.
- The Fast Mode is based on AmneziaWG and is designed for general internet browsing, streaming, and sharing. It offers comparable speeds with higher levels of security than many ordinary VPNs by routing traffic through two independent servers and censorship resistance.
All NymVPN subscribers also benefit from zero-knowledge proofs which unlink the sign-up process and payments from their usage of the app and network. No one, including Nym Technologies and the payment processor, can connect payment information to what people do online.
Halpin explains how NymVPN offers something more than a VPN in this video.
###Key features of NymVPN include:
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Protection of metadata and traffic patterns: The Noise Generating Mixnet shields not only IP addresses but also traffic patterns through novel network “noise” protections. This includes multi-layer encryption of identically-sized data packets, cover traffic and data packet mixing through five independent servers.
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No logging by design, not a promise: No single entity on the decentralized Nym network can access a user’s entire traffic route to link a user’s identity to what they are doing on the internet. Nym never has any access to a user’s traffic records, not even to a user’s identity when using the network. And while node operators sign no logs policies, they never have access to a user’s content or full traffic route.
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Unlinkable payment system: NymVPN employs zero-knowledge proofs (called “zk-nyms”) to enable users to verify payment and account use without revealing their identities to the network. This makes it impossible for Nym to connect payment information to the use of NymVPN. This is something no other privacy network, including major VPNs, provides.
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Censorship resistance: With a growing team of researchers on censorship resistance behind the technology, NymVPN allows users to select the locations where they enter and leave the network. NymVPN’s Fast Mode, a decentralized two-hop network, is based on the AmneziaWG protocol, a fork of WireGuard, to help fight censorship surveillance based on Deep Packet Inspection (DPI).
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Token-incentivized network: Nym’s network is run by independent people all over the world who care about privacy. Contributors are rewarded for their work through a novel model of tokenomics powered by the NYM token. While users can pay for NymVPN in any fiat currency, all payments will be automatically converted to NYM to provide anonymous access credentials while using the app and support the NYM ecosystem.
About Nym
Nym is a leader in decentralized technology that advances privacy by design. NymVPN is the first commercial app to run on Nym’s Noise Generating Mixnet. The company was founded in Switzerland by some of Europe’s leading privacy researchers, engineers, and activists, including Harry Halpin (MIT), Ania Piotrowska (University College London), Claudia Diaz (KU Leuven), and Alexis Roussel. Well-known digital privacy advocate Chelsea Manning serves as a security advisor to Nym. With innovations like NymVPN, the company is at the forefront of creating a more secure and private internet for everyone.
The launch of NymVPN announces general availability of the VPN client across allplatforms, the introduction of Anonymous mode and Fast mode with WireGuard, a paid subscription model secure through zero-knowledge credentials, and the first VPN to protect metadata. Early crypto‑payment support is now rolling out.
