December 2022 - Wrapping up an eventful year
Dear friends, followers,?and fellow builders,
This year has been far from boring! And it is unlikely that 2023 will be any less eventful. We launched the Nym Shipyard Academy last month with the explicit intention to train our community in the Nym vision, technologies, and token economics to be able to better navigate, build and sail through these turbulent times.?
This is the final week of the Academy, and Nym CEO Harry Halpin will gave a special keynote on the radical history of mixnet technologies past, present, and future on?Discord , make sure to check out the record in case you missed it!?
From validator privacy to MEV attacks and attacks on Tor, this year has shown that there is a broad need for network layer privacy to protect people and infrastructures. We look forward to seeing you all in the new year where the focus will be on integrations into popular wallets and apps, and end-user adoption. For now, here is a summary of the past month…
Highlights from the past month...
The past month was a busy one for the Nym core team with tech updates, events, community highlights, new joiners, and appearance in the media. Here is a snapshot of what has gone on:
Tech
The Nym core dev team is moving to weekly releases! As always - you can check the?changelog ?for a complete list of fixes and changes.
Here is what else has happened over the past few weeks:?
Updates and new releases
Performance and reliability improvements for gateways and clients! You should be noticing significantly higher speeds when?using NymConnect now…
Mixnodes can now?declare node families . This is important as it allows non-malicious node operators to run multiple nodes without compromising the security of the network!
The first steps were taken towards having zk-nym fully integrated: distributed key generation and credentials. This will be rolled out first into our Nym Sandbox testnet as a technology demonstrator, and then into mainnet in January.?
With this release, you can now purchase NYM tokens via the Nym wallet using BTC. The service is provided by our partner?Bity ?and can be accessed in the wallet under a new section called "Buy" as shown below. The purchase limit is 1000 Swiss Francs per day and you can use BTC for purchases. (This feature is not available to users in the United States. Other regional exclusions apply).
This release will have SOCKS4 support so that Monero users can protect their privacy with the Nym mixnet. There are?https://blog.nymtech.net/nym-platform-wallet-and-nymconnect-v1-1-3-8a619487a0f7 also wallet improvements around mixnode and gateway bonding.?
Introducing the Nym SDK
We?released a new TypeScript SDK? to create apps that can use the Nym mixnet directly in the browser! The?Nym SDK ?allows you to send data over the Nym mixnet for the very first time making the full privacy powers of mixnets available directly from a browser window!?
Work has also commenced on a Rust SDK. View the Nym SDK docs?here .
Research
Zk-nyms (fka Coconut)
With zk-nyms soon launching for bandwidth credentials in the mixnet, the research team continues to scope out additional major use cases for anonymous credentials: privacy-preserving KYC and e-cash. The team is currently conducting a comparison of the zk-nym e-cash scheme against zk-snarks.?
Meanwhile, work is continuing on performance measurements of the Nym mixnet, focusing on the newly released version to see where it can be optimised. There are now automated measurements for network growth and token metrics in the mixnet.
Resources
Nym token economics update
With a new vesting period in November, an update on the token economics of the Nym mixnet was released. Read it?here .
领英推荐
Tutorial on how to build a simple service provider
A new tutorial has been published on how to build a simple service provider. This will show what Nym has to offer for developers who wish to create applications to provide their users with the privacy features of the mixnet. A service provider is any type of app that can communicate with the mixnet via a Nym Client. Developers can learn how to build two pieces of application code with which you can send and receive messages through the mixnet. You will also learn how to set up a pair of Nym Websocket Clients, which our application code will use to connect to the mixnet. Try it?here .?
Partnerships
New partner Celer Network develops cBridge to BNB Chain for NYM utility token
We are pleased to announce that Nym has made a bridge to the?BNB Chain ?thanks to?Celer . The NYM utility token is now integrated into BNB wallets by default and available as a BEP-20 token.
Please note that?0xDD2612c292431aaa727fE24d1a8AfBE4928Bbc55 ?is the only valid NYM token address on the BNB Chain. Read more?here .
In the media
United Nations?Internet Governance Forum
Nym Advisor Andrés Arauz and CEO Harry Halpin spoke at the UN IGF on “The Data of Money: Blockchains and/or Surveillance?” where Arauz denounced the FATF design guidance for CBDCs which deliberately ignores individual privacy considerations. He called for a more democratic process. Watch the session?here .
Community
Launch of Shipyard Developer grants
The Shipyard Developer Grants scheme was launched, starting with two open calls and closed on 8 December. Thank you to everyone who applied. This is just the start and we will build to larger calls in the future. Stay tuned for the next round. Meanwhile, read more about the scheme?here .
Mass testing
We held our first mass testing recently over two days. The mixnet was placed under significant stress, more than three times the average load in terms of packets sent/received and connections made.
We now have crucial real-world info about how the mixnet behaves under load. Thank you to our community participants! Stay tuned for the next mass testing.?
First mixnodes in the global south
Nym mixnodes are spreading to every continent - we have our first mixnodes in Argentina, Mexico and Uganda. Check out the Nym mixnodes network?here .?
Join the weekly Nym Community Calls!
We run weekly community calls with news roundups for the week to catch you up on what the team has been up to. Each week, guests from the Nym core team and other projects alike explore key issues and priorities for the Nym ecosystem, privacy, web3, and more.?
Community calls are free to join every Friday on the Nym?Discord server ! Listen to previous episodes?here .
Events
Upcoming
Some upcoming key events that we will be participating in:
For the full list of events and all the details, check out our?website .
One last thing
Getting ready for our first Nymjas....