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So far so good, on paper at least.
For starters, these services can be hacked, seized or blocked.
Nym Technologies CEO and activist Harry Halpin and, whistleblower and security consultant Chelsea Manning presenting the new Nym VPN during a press conference at the Web Summit in Lisbon on November 16, 2023.
Even worse, not every provider on the market operates according to the same principles and security levels.
I was there and talked with Halpin to learn more.
So, one possible danger is that that person is not a nice person."
Users can choose to connect to the Mixnet for extra security or Nym decentralized network for faster speeds.
We already mentioned how VPNs operate to keep you anonymous.
As Halpin explained, this requires you to move the trust from your machine to someone else’s machine.
He also believes thatno-log VPNserviceswhich allegedly never retain users' dataare just half of the solution.
casein which companies have handed over users' data under court orders despite their no-log claims.
Nym Technology CEO Harry Halpin’s privacy mission comes after experiencing theconcrete impact of government surveillancein person.
“This reminds me continually aboutwhy we need better privacy tools,” he told me.
“We would like something that provides the benefits of a VPN with better privacy, what we calltrustlessness.
You don’t have to trust us or anyone else because we don’t have to collect your data.
At the same time, “decentralization by itself is not a magic bullet.”
There are already decentralized privacy solutions on the market, withTor browserprobably being the most famous out there.
However, Halpin explained, even Tor isn’t enough against powerful agents.
“I use Tor every day for browsing and it works just fine.
But if I was under surveillanceand I have been under surveillance in the pastthat may not be enough.”
How NymVPN works
“We do two things that are different,” said again Halpin.
For starters, NymVPN employs something calledMixnet.
This is supposed to be the first scalable real world solution using the mix networks concept.
At the time of writing, NymVPN counts over 600 Mixnet servers around the world.
This translates to slower internet speeds.
Hence, the second component making up NymVPN is a fullydecentralized networkrunning on 2-hop servers, and the speedyWireGuardprotocol.
Halpin told me that this tech has several advantages from the security point of view, but also usability.
Finally, tech is supposed to evade authorities' control even in the face of potential future regulations affectingencryption.
“That’s the point of Blockchain technology: it’spermissionless.
You don’t ask for permission.
So, that means that it can’t be shut down.
Even if the laws change, it is still very hard to shut down,” he said.
Coming as a more secure alternative to current VPN solutions, NymVPN’s main focus is undoubtedly privacy.
However, the company plans to focus on censorship and content unblocking next.
Again, Halpin believes that decentralized security software should be better placed to bypass internet restrictions and other blocks.
He said: “AI models collect a lot of data by finding some patterns in the data.
Our VPN does the reverse.
We add fake traffic, we mix traffic up, we scramble the pattern.
What’s next?
However, they can also see growing interest across South America and Asia already.
What’s certain is that more people using Nym will translate into better security for all.
“The larger the crowd gets, the more you’re able to hide,” Halpin explained.
“Imagine a crowd where everyone looks the same, it would be very hard to distinguish you.
In a very small crowd it’s easier to see people because there are fewer people.
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