Following their token launch event with Edward Snowden in April, Nym announces that the ‘mixmining’ reward algorithm has been turned on, marking the final step in the roll-out of the Nym privacy mainnet. Nym ‘mixmining’ uniquely combines staking mechanisms with actual work done by nodes to provide privacy.
The switching on of the mixmining algorithm coincides with the public release of tokens, which was kick-started with a token launch event with Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who brought the problem of mass surveillance to public awareness. Speaking to an audience online as well as at the Nym event at leading European innovation hub Station F in Paris, Snowden remarked: “When I look at the cryptocurrency space, the thing that is the most frustrating to me is the fact that privacy for Bitcoin is still an open disaster. Everyone is aware of it” and adding “the problem is the network layer and that Nym is trying to fix this gives me hope.”
The Nym mixmining algorithm rewards mix nodes for doing the work of mixing internet traffic through several layers of nodes, protecting against traffic analysis and metadata surveillance. Nodes bond NYM tokens to participate in the network and staked NYM tokens serve as a decentralized reputation system for nodes directly impacting their participation and rewards. The scheme also protects the decentralization of the mixnet: there is a ‘softcap’ which means that a mix node’s reputation in NYM will only positively impact rewards up to a certain amount.
Nym Chief Scientist and professor of KU Leuven Claudia Diaz developed the reward sharing scheme with Aggelos Kiayias, who is primarily known for developing Cardano’s energy-efficient proof-of-stake system and many other blockchain-based innovations at IO Global (formerly IOHK). Diaz comments: “The Nym tokenomics follows a different approach than existing rewards-based systems. It is important that people truly understand how Nym’s token economy works, as it will help everyone make decisions on operating or supporting nodes, ensuring both network quality and fair compensation to participants.”
On deploying the system Dave Hrycyszyn, CTO at Nym Technologies, says: “The Nym reward sharing scheme is a first of its kind. And we have been preparing for this for a long time, but you can only get so far with testnets! At some point for the system to work as intended, you have to flip the switch and run the system with real incentives. Mainnet launch began in February with the chain generation, and now with the tokens being distributed, we have switched on mixmining and effectively have a live incentivized mixnet.”
The Nym mixnet provides privacy protections against large scale traffic analysis, the kind of mass surveillance that the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed to the public in 2014.
CTO Dave Hrycyszyn, Chief Scientist Claudia Diaz and Aggelos Kiayias are available for interviews.
About Nym
Nym is an open-source, incentivized, and decentralized platform that protects privacy at the network level of any application, wallet or digital service. Nym protects against traffic pattern analysis and metadata surveillance.
Press Contact
Name: Jaya Klara Breke
Email: jaya@nymtech.net
Phone: +447957207802