Nym: Layer 0 privacy infrastructure for the whole internet

Published in

nymtech

5 min readAug 23, 2023

The chain-agnostic Nym mixnet solves the transport layer privacy problem for any Layer 1 chain or Layer 2 dApp, wallet or app

Every single internet application and service whether Web 2.0 or Web3 suffers from the same common issue: network traffic is exposed. This is an underlying problem in the design of the internet itself. But Nym, with its mission of complete privacy online for everyone, everywhere, solves this ‘transport layer privacy problem’ by obscuring network traffic for any web service, chain, dApp, wallet or app. Read on to learn why Nym is the ‘Layer 0’ privacy stack for the whole internet:

What is Layer 0 — and where does the Nym mixnet fit in?

The internet is split into different layers with different functions, and the underlying network infrastructure layer is Layer 0.

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The Nym Mixnet is also Layer 0. It addresses the network layer, or transport layer of the internet: think of this as the roads and highways of the web.

Just like in the physical world, these roads and highways are all completely visible.

Now imagine looking at all these roads and highways from above. While it might be difficult to identify drivers, concealed in their vehicles, there are plenty of other identifiers that could help an observer paint a revealing profile of that motorist.

Even if this observer couldn’t see inside the car, they can see how big the car is, the colour of the vehicle, where it’s going, time of departure, and time of arrival. Together, this information can reveal a lot about that drivers’ relationships, state of mind, habits, career, and life.

These roads and highways are essentially the core communication protocols of the internet, like TCP and UDP.

As data packets speed along these highways, the behaviour of this data can be monitored and information built around how they travel along it, just like the example of a driver on a real road. This is called metadata, in other words, data about the data.

The Layer 0 Nym mixnet solves this by obfuscating the metadata. The Nym mixnet encrypts internet traffic into identically sized packets, mixed with ‘dummy’ packets of data that contain nothing whatsoever. These are all then sent through three layers or ‘hops’ into mix ‘nodes’ that are distributed around the world, at randomised times and intervals, before they are reassembled and decrypted on the receiving side. This makes network traffic observation near-impossible.

To return to the highways analogy: imagine if all cars travelling on a packed highway looked exactly the same. They travel through tunnels at random intervals, and it’s impossible to see when they departed or where they were going or when and where they ended their destination. Unique identifiers, like their colour or type of car, are stripped away. Suddenly, it would be a lot more difficult to make any inferences or guesses about the habits of that driver or their relationship to others.

By obfuscating metadata at the network layer — Layer 0 — this is what the Nym mixnet achieves.

What is Layer 1 and why does it need L-0 privacy protection?

Web3 promised to jettison the centralisation that plagued Web 2.0, where power is concentrated into the hands of governments and corporate monopolies. Transparency is a core part of this proposition, but transparency runs both ways and currently, traffic is visible and vulnerable to analysis.

The Web3 world of blockchains, decentralisation and distributed apps is split into various layers.

To use another metaphor, think of a building. Before anything can be built on top of this structure, it needs foundations at the very bottom.

Right at the bottom of this stack is Layer 0, the foundational, network layer for privacy.

Blockchains are Layer 1. These distributed ledgers are the systems on which other apps and services or blockchains are built. Right now, these are vulnerable to traffic analysis and attacks at the network layer, Layer 0.

In order for a blockchain to function, they need peer to peer transactions as well as broadcasts to signal that these transactions are taking place. They also need coordination between validators, which confirm (or validate) transactions.

Even if the blockchain itself is designed with security in mind, currently, traffic between peer to peer transactions and coordination between validators is exposed.

The Layer 0 Nym mixnet provides cover. Again, it protects metadata information from leaking by obscuring network traffic.

Without Layer 0 privacy infrastructure, blockchain traffic can be analysed, opening the infrastructure to attack, whether that is from DDoS attacks, targeted censorship, or exposing the behaviour of validators or end-user transactions.

Nym is chain-agnostic, so Nym can be integrated with any blockchain to obfuscate the traffic on it. In short: the Nym mixnet provides network-level, Layer 0 privacy for any Layer 1 blockchain.

What is Layer 2, and why does it need L-0 privacy protection?

Layer 2 means the tokens, other blockchains, and dApps that run via smart contracts hosted on the Layer 1 blockchain.

No changes are needed to the Layer 1 blockchain to build these applications or services, they simply nestle on top of the layer beneath them.

For example: Bitcoin is a Layer 1 blockchain, but the Lightning Network payment protocol layered on top of Bitcoin is Layer 2.

Integrating Nym obscures traffic to and from Layer 2 applications or tokens or services.

Additionally, developers can privacy-enhance existing apps or build new privacy-enhanced apps with the Nym Layer 0 mixnet.

This means that when users run an application, no matter where it lies or what blockchain it’s hosted on, the traffic will be run through the Nym mixnet, offering Layer 0 protections to both the Layer 1 blockchain and the Layer 2 application, protecting metadata across the whole stack.

A holistic approach to privacy

The internet is fundamentally broken and does not preserve privacy. By design, traffic data is visible, and powerful interests like governments and corporations take advantage of this fact. They monitor traffic, collect metadata, and build detailed profiles based on it — which can be more exposing than the contents of a message.

Because Nym addresses the network layer of the internet, the Nym mixnet is a holistic approach to privacy for Web 2.0 and Web3.

The aim of Nym is to protect network traffic for all of the internet.

Learn more about how Nym supports interoperability from Head of PR at Nym, Candice Teo:

Builders: strengthen the foundations of your project by integrating the Layer 0 Nym mixnet today. Learn more at the Nym Developer Portal. To find out about updates, news, and integration opportunities, sign up to the newsletter, follow Nym on socials, and join the Nym community.

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