and the original cypherpunk “St Jude”
We will soon release Nym v0.11.0 and transition from testnet Finney to testnet Milhon. This new testnet will allow us to begin testing delegated staking and several other aspects of the Nym architecture and tokenomics.
Testnet Milhon is named after the programmer and dissident Jude Milhon. Hacker name “St Jude” Milhon is someone that anyone in and around crypto should know as she is the person who coined the term cypherpunk, the movement that formed around the battle for online privacy and civilian access to cryptography, laying the groundwork for technology like Bitcoin.
In this post we describe the new features of Nym v0.11.0, and how you can join the new testnet.
What’s new in v0.11.0?
There are several updates to the tokenomics of the system:
- v0.11.0 removes the current mixnode bonding cap of 100 tokens, allowing node operators to bond as many tokens as they want to their nodes.
- We are also going to incentivise other types of nodes, so it will now be possible to bond and run gateways which are an important piece of the Nym mixnet architecture.
- Delegated staking will be turned on. Delegation allows those who do not want to run their own nodes to delegate stake to the nodes that they believe provide a good quality of service (QoS) and uptime, and earn a share of their rewards. The nodes that have stake delegated to them will earn more rewards than the ones with the same size of bond, but with no delegation.
- The test token of testnet Finney -HALs- will be replaced by PUNKs, after the term coined by St. Jude (and for all of the great cypherpunks).
Just like the previous testnets, PUNK tokens are not the final NYM tokens, they have absolutely no value and should not be bought, sold or transferred. They purely mimic the functionalities and uses that NYMs will have and are made to test those in the wild.
We have also improved the UI/UX of both the web wallet and the Network Explorer:
- The web wallet now has new functionalities to allow for gateway and mixnode bonding and delegation.
Nym Web Wallet
- The Nym Network Explorer has had several upgrades, mainly the introduction of a node profile page (shown below). The node profile page shows the node’s name and description (if set by the node operator), along with its routing information, performance metrics, and the amount of PUNKs bonded to it.
If a node has stakes delegated to it, that info will also be shown on this page under the ‘Bond Pool’ section. The Pool is broken down into Pledge, the amount of bonds that are put on the node by the node operator, and Delegated, the bonds that are delegated by the different delegators, their amount and percentage in the pool.
As we progress, this page will become the public ‘face’ of each mixnode, and more useful performance stats and graphs will be added to it in the future.
Nym Node Profile
How to get involved in Testnet Milhon?
At the time of writing this post, the Nym network has grown to over 9000 nodes — many thanks to Nym’s amazing community of supporters! This is, however, far more nodes than the network requires right now, given the amount of traffic that is going through it. So (at least for now), running a node in Milhon will only be open to those who have run a node in Finney and new nodes won’t be accepted to the network.
If you are not running a node already, and want to take part in Milhon, you have until Tuesday the 20th to start one, and then migrate that to Milhon. If you don’t have a node by then, you can get PUNKs to delegate to other nodes by attending AMAs and participating in quizzes that we will carry out as we go along. Make sure to join Nym’s Telegram to stay informed of these events.
If you have a node running on the previous testnet, you can migrate that to Milhon from Wednesday July 21st.
To move to Milhon, run a node or delegate to one, you first need to transfer your HALs to PUNKs. You can transfer all the HALs that are bonded on your current node plus up to 60 HALs from the wallet that is associated with your node. Once the funds are transferred we will close the book of HALs and will not visit that again. So think of Milhon as a continuation of Finney, make sure to transfer your funds and keep them safe as they can only be transferred once.
To convert your HALs to PUNKs you will need:
- The Telegram id that you registered with the Nym Hal-Bot for testnet Finney.
- The Identity Key of your Finney mixnode.
- The HAL wallet address with which you bonded HALs to your mixnode.
Once the onboarding starts on July 21st, if you have the 3 items listed above, you can head to Milhon web wallet and create a PUNK address for yourself. Make sure to copy, paste and save the mnemonic for that account somewhere safe and do not lose it!
If for any reason you lose your mnemonic after funds have been sent to that address, those funds are lost and they will not be resent.
The detailed instructions on how to change your HALs to PUNKs will be available on the Nym documentation site when the onboarding starts.
We can’t wait to start testing these new features and the future of privacy with you.
As always if you have any questions please let us know via Twitter or Telegram.
