NymVPN community testing has begun!
The alpha version of the app is making an appearance at meet-ups across the world — learn more about where and when here.
The alpha version of the app is making an appearance at meet-ups across the world — learn more about where and when here.
The NymVPN app will soon roll out in a private alpha launch, starting with Linux and MacOS, with Android to follow soon after and Windows and iOS applications in the making.
Languages: Português // Español // Bahasa Indonesia // Русский // 日本 // Türkçe //
NymVPN puts some of the world’s most advanced privacy protections into the hands of ordinary people. Combining a high performing 2-hop VPN mode with a full privacy 5-hop mixnet mode, the app encrypts your traffic and routes it across a decentralised global mixnet, enabling actual private and secure communication.
To have a chance to try the NymVPN, join the NymVPN channel in Matrix and introduce yourself. Nym is looking for people with a strong awareness of privacy to help battle-test NymVPN before V1.0 rolls out.
Introducing Nym Squad testing
The Nym community have already got their hands on the alpha and are busily testing the VPN in a series of workshops all over the world.
The DAOariwas Squad were the first to jump at the occasion. Based out of the hackerspace Platohedro in Medellin, Colombia, they travelled to the recent Ethereum Hackathon in Cholula, Mexico and held the first community-organised NymVPN test session.
Left: the Daoariwas squad in Puebla, Mexico. Right: NymVPN session in Cholula, Mexico.
NymVPN alpha test sessions were also underway at the Swiss Free Software movement meet-up in Vaud, Switzerland — and in Lyon, France at the bitcoin meet-up, with many more planned in Kyiv, Prague, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro and beyond.
The alpha version will roll out in a staged launch, starting with Nym Squads and friends and then in batches to members of the NymVPN waitlist. Newer batches will be added based on the stability of the applications and the capacity of the network to scale.
Alpha and beta testers are gaining free access to the NymVPN. Meanwhile, the app is being readied for commercial launch where even payments will be privacy-enhanced: the team is working on zk-nym credentials, using zero-knowledge proof cryptography, to ensure that user payment details cannot be linked to browsing habits.
NymVPN alpha: the features
NymVPN is the next stage in the evolution of NymConnect. NymConnect is a desktop app that allows people to use the mixnet to protect their usage of certain apps, including Telegram and a select number of crypto wallets, via SOCKS5 proxy.
NymVPN offers mixnet protections for your entire online stack. It features customizable entry and exit locations for geo-blocking resistance and is launching with two modes:
- The 5-hop Nym mixnet mode
The 5-hop mixnet mode is optimised for privacy and uses the full capabilities of the Nym mixnet, a decentralised network of servers all over the world that ‘mix’ traffic so it becomes untraceable. The mixnet encrypts your traffic in novel onion encryption, then routes it via an entry gateway, three mix nodes and an exit gateway. This makes it near impossible for anyone to link sender and receiver, ensuring advanced privacy against even government-level adversaries. It is the optimal solution for sensitive use cases like crypto transactions, messaging, and secure email, that are not timing sensitive. It protects metadata, IP addresses and patterns of communication from traffic analysis and end-to-end correlation.
Read more about the Nym mixnet.
- The 2-hop Nym dVPN mode
The 2-hop dVPN mode is optimised for speed. This mode uses the entry and exit gateways of the Nym mixnet, enabling IP address obfuscation for everyday browsing, streaming, or gaming.
NymVPN on Manjaro Linux
It is multi-hop by default, going far beyond the privacy standards of most VPNs. Most VPNs don’t provide privacy at all. Instead they just shift who knows your IP address and has access to your habits from the server you are communicating with, to the VPN provider. In fact, many free VPNs take advantage of this fact and sell your browsing habits for profit. The Nym dVPN is decentralised so there can be no centralised logging of your online habits.
Read more on the difference between traditional and decentralised VPNs.
NymVPN: upcoming features
Upcoming features include split tunnelling so you can preset which of your apps should run through the low latency 2-hop mode, and which require full privacy protections of the 5-hop mixnet mode.
There will also be a killswitch to prevent data leakage, and censorship resistance to ensure anyone can access the internet from anywhere, even in regions with strict restrictions.
Sign up to the NymVPN waitlist. Or if you can’t wait, join the NymVPN community channel to learn how you can get involved in testing or even how to become a mix node operator and delegator.
Join the Nym Community
Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter
Privacy loves company
English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인
