Nym launches privacy-preserving VPN app in beta

Nym Technologies, the startup behind the privacy-preserving mixnet of the same name, has unveiled a VPN (or virtual private network) that will help shield users' identities online.

“Traditional VPNs have long been marketed as privacy tools, but they fall short of delivering true anonymity,” the team wrote in a press release.

NymVPN’s registration process leverages zero-knowledge cryptography, a way of validating information without revealing the content or context, meaning users can sign up without disclosing their real identities. The app will also incorporate “noise” into the network crowd of users to obscure IP addresses and mask users’ communication patterns.

This works, at least in concept, in a similar way as Tor — the private web browser that scrambles users’ online activity by routing traffic through various relays. By mixing communications NymVPN can help prevent observers from determining who is speaking to whom, the team explained.

Nym’s mixnet operates similarly, by shuffling data around a series of network nodes. It’s called a mixnet because it mixes data to help obscure where information is coming from and going to — including metadata like the time and location of a sent message.

There are two options for users of NymVPN to toggle between: “fast mode” and “anonymous mode.” As those names suggest, the former will prioritize speed by offering a lightweight version of the app that only routes traffic through two servers. Whereas anonymous mode uses five servers, adds in noise and uses a “novel onion encryption” (a la Tor).

Halpin noted in the press release the world of cryptography needs to keep pace with artificial intelligence, which is rapidly gaining the ability to identify internet users by their web traffic.

Nym, founded in 2017 by cypherpunk Harry Halpin, has raised funding from heavyweights including Andreessen Horowitz, Digital Currency Group, Polychain Capital and Google Ventures, among others. Last year, it launched a $300 million “innovation fund” to invest in projects building privacy-preserving tools.