Use NYM tokens to access the mixnet for privacy.
Delegate NYM to mix nodes that provide good quality of service, and earn a share of the rewards.
Pledge NYM as an initial reputation score in order to run a mix node in the Nym mixnet and be rewarded.\
NYM tokens are used to pay for transaction fees on the blockchain to keep the network-wide map of mix nodes and their reputation in NYM up to date.
Token name: NYM
Token symbol: NYM
Total supply: 1B NYM
Initial circulating supply: 63.5M NYM
Underlying blockchain: Cosmos-SDK
2-year vesting with quarterly releases, starting on Apr 14, 2022
2-year vesting with quarterly releases, vesting starts on May 3, 2022, first batch unlocks no later than August 2, 2022
Releases on a monthly schedule. Mixing rewards will start on March 31st, 2022 but they won’t become liquid until May 3, 2022
The first batch will be released on May 3, 2022 with quarterly releases as needed.
The Nym mixnet is a decentralised privacy network. The NYM token facilitates decentralisation while incentivising nodes to provide a high quality of service, ensuring that the network can scale according to demand. When users pay fees for using the Nym network, the fees are used to reward the nodes that operate the network. The more usage, the more income available for rewarding nodes and growing the Nym network. Similar to Bitcoin mining rewards, the “mixmining” reserve (25% of the total NYM supply) provides initial rewards for bootstrapping the mixnet.
By pledging NYM tokens, anyone can run a mix node and have a fair chance at earning rewards. Anyone holding NYM tokens can also choose to delegate to a mix node instead of running one themselves, and earn a share of the mix node’s rewards. The mixnet is permissionless; anyone can join and choose how to participate, earning rewards according to the reward sharing algorithm.
The total pledge plus delegation serves as a mix node’s reputation, and nodes with more reputation are selected more often to participate in the mixnet and are rewarded at higher rates. Mix nodes are then rewarded in NYM tokens based on quality of service - doing the work of mixing packets and providing privacy for the end users. This is called “proof of mixing,” similar to how Bitcoin rewards miners for mining new blocks. The reward mechanism enables the mixnet to scale and decentralise.
The token economics of Nym is designed to incentivise good privacy protection: the better the service, the more rewards a node receives, the more they attract delegation and increase their reputation, the more they are likely to be selected to be part of the mixnet and rewarded, and the better the service provided by the overall infrastructure.
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If you just want to access the Nym network immediately on launch, Option 1 is best for you. As per standard Coinlist process, the NYM tokens will be locked until two months after the sale date, after which they will be liquid.
If you want to take part in delegating to or running a node in the mixnet, NYM tokens from Option 2 are likely most appropriate for you at this time. However, you must be ready to download and use the Nym wallet. You can also use these tokens to access the Nym network, but these tokens will not be liquid until they have been unlocked as given by the quarterly release schedule.
NYM tokens in Option 2 are locked until May 2022 after which they will be released quarterly, over two years, although even locked tokens can be used to run mix nodes via a pledge and delegate as well. Any rewards from running or delegating to nodes will also be locked until May 2022. This means mix nodes from the Nym testnets, backers and employees who hold NYM in locked accounts can still pledge to run nodes and delegate. This ensures that the mixnet is up and running from day one.
No, NYM is not a privacy coin. It is a token that runs a global decentralised mixnet, which offers network layer privacy for any other coin, wallet, chain, or application in general. A mixnet is an anonymous overlay network, similar to Tor or I2P, that is built on top of existing Internet protocols like TCP/IP and UDP.
Whether Bitcoin, ZCash or Flow, no current “layer 1 blockchain” provides “layer 0 privacy” for the peer-to-peer broadcasts used in every transaction. Nym can provide network-level privacy for any blockchain and other generic applications. From Bitcoin to instant messaging, developers can build their applications on top of Nym to provide network-level privacy for their users.
In order to run a mix node in the Nym mixnet and start earning rewards, token holders must pledge NYM tokens as the initial reputation of their mix node, using command line or the wallet.
The total reputation of a mix node is its total amount pledged in NYM plus total amount of delegated NYM. How much NYM you pledge to your node shows how much you believe in yourself and the mixing work you will do. And how much other people delegate to you shows how much the community believes you will perform the work of mixing traffic and providing privacy.
The higher a node’s reputation (measured in total NYM of a mix node), the more likely it is to be selected in the reward set of mix nodes to perform mixing, and the higher the rewards they receive when they are selected. On the other hand, nodes with bad performance that go offline or fail to process packets are penalized with lower rewards, which eventually leads them to lose reputation and opportunities for participation. There is also a ‘soft-cap’ to keep mixmining work decentralised, ensuring reputation is spread over enough nodes to maintain a sufficiently large network.
In each ‘epoch’ of the mixnet (which is initially set to one hour), a number of nodes (initially around three hundred) are selected from all available nodes as the ‘active set’ to route packets in the mixnet; while an additional number of nodes (initially three or four hundred) are selected as a reserve ‘standby set’ (meant to contain quality nodes that are readily available to allow the network to scale in the next epoch if necessary). The selection is probabilistic and based on reputation: the more reputation, the higher the chances of selection. Note the algorithm and rewards do not require approval or decision-making from any centralized party, including Nym Technologies, and we have no control over them in the future.
The reward mechanism rewards both active and standby nodes and so together, these make out the ‘reward set’ for the epoch. The rest of registered mix nodes that were not selected for the reward set do not receive rewards in that epoch, but may be selected (and rewarded) in the following epochs.
Active nodes are rewarded at a higher rate than the standby nodes, since they also have more work and responsibility relaying packets in the mixnet. The ‘active set’ nodes are rewarded on the basis of their reputation, their pledge, their share of work (dependent on the size of the mixnet), and their performance (in terms of correctly relaying the packets routed through them).
Standby nodes earn rewards for being on reserve based on the same parameters, although at a lower rate given that they do not perform actual work mixing user packets.
Mix nodes declare their operational costs and their desired profit margin when they pledge. Costs are refunded before profits are distributed and the profit margin represents the percentage of the profits that go to the node operator, with the remaining rewards going to its delegators (proportionally to their delegated amount). A node needs to ensure that their costs and profit margin remain competitive to attract delegators.
The rewards are distributed among individual mix nodes in the active and standby sets according to their reputation, pledge and performance, and then further split between the mix node operator and those who have delegated to the node, taking into account each participant’s stake and the declared operational cost and profit margin of the node.
Mixmining rewards are initially distributed from the mixmining pool. As usage of the network grows, rewards will increasingly come from fees paid by users.
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The mixmining pool is a reserve initialized at the genesis of the network with 250M NYM tokens (25% of the total supply of NYM), which are released on a monthly schedule.
Every month 2% of the funds in the pool are made available as rewards to be distributed to nodes. If all nodes have perfect performance and maximum reputation, all the rewards are allocated; on the other hand, when nodes have bad performance or low reputation some of the funds are returned to the pool. The monthly amount of released mixmining rewards declines as the reserve slowly depletes (but never fully empties) over the years, and will be replaced with fees from users.
The mixmining reserve rewards are needed for bootstrapping the service, as nodes need to cover operational costs even if the user traffic is initially insufficient to bring in enough fees to sustain the network. In fact, the mixnet will be freely available for the first months to facilitate testing and usage. As fees are turned on and more applications and users join the service, the hope is that fees will replace the mixmining pool as the main source of rewards. In this manner, miximining rewards in NYM are similar to mining rewards in Bitcoin, although the networks serve completely different purposes.
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Anybody holding NYM tokens can delegate NYM to mix nodes. One of the exceptionally democratic aspects of the Nym architecture is that people who hold tokens can participate in deciding which mix nodes run the network.
Delegators play an important role by participating in the assignment of reputation to mix nodes. And because they can earn a share of rewards, they are incentivised to delegate to well-performing nodes who will do a good job of mixing and therefore realize their potential rewards.
The decentralised Nyx blockchain keeps track of the mix nodes and their reputation. Any stakeholder can browse the blockchain to determine the different mix nodes they can delegate to.
Read blogpost on delegating NYM
To delegate, download the wallet
The amount of rewards in NYM that a delegator receives is dependent on their choice of mix nodes, and their unique parameters (such as operational cost, profit margin, performance, amount of pledge, and total reputation score).
A node’s pre-declared costs and profit margin are subtracted from any rewards earned and refunded to the node operator. The remaining rewards are distributed to delegators proportionally.
A mix node’s reputation will determine its likelihood of being selected to perform mixmining work and receive rewards, and its performance metrics also affect rewards.
Delegations can be changed to a different mix node at any time. Node parameters and more can be seen in the example mixnet explorer in the Nym Sandbox testnet. Note all NYMT in the Sandbox are valueless, as the Sandbox is a testnet for Nym mainnet.
To delegate, download the wallet