Privacy-oriented project Nim NYM
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integrates its mixnet technology into the Zcash 
ZEC
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network, in collaboration with Zcash development organization Electric Coin Company. The aim is to improve privacy protection by addressing the problem of metadata leakage for users.
The integration process involves embedding Nym’s mixnet into the Zcash light client libraries developed by the Electric Coin Company. This allows Zcash wallet developers to optionally implement mixnet privacy features. Nym has received a $150,000 community grant from Zcash for this purpose.
“I’m extremely excited to see Nym come to life on the Zcash network. Privacy at the network level has been a missing piece since Zcash was founded,” said Josh Swihart, CEO of Electric Coin Company.
Nym’s team highlighted the widespread risk of metadata leakage across all online interactions and positioned its mixnet as a solution to protect this type of data from potential surveillance.
Zcash, known for its optional privacy features via an ‘auto-shielding’ feature, differentiates itself from cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum by making the linking of transactions more difficult. Despite these measures, Nym notes that the metadata associated with user transactions remains traceable. Auto-shielding automatically moves funds from a transparent Zcash address to the latest shielded ZEC pool supported by the wallet.
However, if an adversary gains access to a user’s transaction address, they could potentially monitor the user’s wallet activities over time, including IP measurements, as explained by Nym.
While traditional privacy tools such as VPNs and Tor are available, Nym claims its mixnet solution provides a more comprehensive approach to protecting the privacy of metadata for cryptocurrency transactions.
Encrypt metadata
Nym’s mixnet technology encodes user-generated data into identically sized packets and then routes these packets at random intervals through a network of mix nodes globally. By including dummy ‘cover’ traffic in this process, the mixnet aims to further obfuscate user data – making the identification of metadata patterns extremely difficult, as Nym claims.
Such a strategy brings Zcash in line with other crypto projects such as Monero, Aztec and Near, which have previously collaborated with Nym on their mixnet technology.
Recently, privacy-focused cryptocurrencies including Monero and Zcash have faced potential takedown threats from centralized exchanges under regulatory pressure. Notably, Binance has moved to delist Monero.
Meanwhile, Nym clarified that its metadata encryption via a VPN-like product is not subject to the same regulatory challenges. “Exchanges are clearly not a big fan of on-chain privacy, and we hope issues can be resolved. Please note that since NYM is a transparent token that provides access to a VPN-like service, this is not an issue for the NYM token itself,” said Harry Halpin, co-founder and CEO of Nym.
Nym Technologies raised $13 million in a 2021 funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), at a valuation of $270 million.
