Privacy

A state of being free from observation, measurement and analysis. It means you are not being judged and are free to experiment, make mistakes, learn and grow without disturbance, intervention and control.

Anonymity

A state of not being known to everyone. It means you are able to go about your life and do things without needing to disclose personal information should you not wish to.

Decentralisation

The transfer of control and decision-making from a centralised entity (individual, organisation, or group thereof) to a distributed network of nodes.

Peer-to-peer

A network of computers (“peers” or “nodes”) where each of these can act as a server for the others, thereby not relying on a central server for communication.

Mixnet

A network of nodes that mixes internet traffic, protecting patterns of communications from any third party observation.

Blockchain (Nyx)

A distributed database that maintains a record of changes to data, accounts and computational states.

Nym relies on a blockchain called Nyx for its directory of nodes and their rewards. Nyx is a CosmWasm-enabled blockchain smart contracts platform that functions as the backbone of the Nym network, used to keep track and provide the history of the NYM token’s transactions.

Trust

In privacy enabling technologies ‘trust’ refers to the extent to which you are trusting the infrastructure with your information.

For example, a VPN acts as a trusted proxy, meaning although it protects your IP address from a given web service, you are still trusting the VPN provider who will know your IP and what webservice you are accessing. In contrast, a mixnet does not require trust. There is no part of the mixnet that can link your IP address to your internet usage. This means your internet usage is private by default.

Staking

The act of putting your tokens towards a Nym node as a gesture of faith in their quality of performance. This increases the node’s chance of selection to the mixnet and therefore its capacity to earn rewards for mixing. In exchange, you earn a share of its rewards. Staking in Nym nodes is similar, but different to staking on blockchains. It serves as a reputation token for selection into the network, rather than governance and consensus.

Token economics

Token economics is the design and engineering of token issuance and distribution such that specific system properties and behaviours are economically incentivised. The Nym token economic design rewards operators and stakers for providing privacy, while also ensuring good quality service and as a mechanism for dynamic, decentralised directory authority of nodes.

Layer 0 & layer 1

Layer 0 in the world of Web3 refers to the infrastructure that blockchains build on. Layer 1 refers to blockchains. The Nym mixnet is layer 0. It is a transport infrastructure, enabling traffic to flow between nodes, while protecting the patterns of communication, enabling privacy.