By
Chimamanda U. Martha
March 28th, 2024
Nym is currently focusing on the development of the private web powered by blockchain technology. It seeks to use these funds to expand its team going further.
Blockchain-powered privacy web startup Nym Technology has secured a staggering $13 million in a Series A funding round. Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has been leading this funding. Interestingly, this is the fifth blockchain-related privacy investment for Andreessen Horowitz.
The Switzerland-based startup seeks this funding at around $270 million valuations. Nym is currently focusing on the development of the private web powered by blockchain technology. However, this is not the first funding raised by Nym Technology.
Back in 2019, Nym raised $2.5 million in seed investment led by Binance’s VC arm. Also, earlier this year in July, Nym raised $6.5 million in a round led by Polychain Capital. Nym’s latest funding round shows a growing interest in privacy-preserving technologies. Also, in a word with Forbes, Ali Yahya, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz said:
“Encryption is becoming an incredibly important component of the internet today. Nym provides privacy at the very bottom layer as a foundation for other private solutions to be built on top.”
How Does Nym Technology Work?
Nym uses a mix network dubbed mixnet wherein nodes are rewarded with tokens to shuffle the internet traffic. If required, the nodes can inject dummy packets of data to make it harder for the adversaries to decode the information even at the highest level.
Nym CEO Harry Halpin said that this approach helps in attaining “network-level privacy”. He believes that this can even defeat the nation or state-level mass surveillance.
Along with network privacy, Nym will also focus on offering privacy credential services. This will allow users to prove that they have the right to access certain information on the internet without revealing their identity. This is attainable using zero-knowledge proofs.
Chelsea Manning is currently working with Nym CEO Halpin on client-side privacy. Speaking to Forbes on this matter, Manning said: “Nym has demonstrated it has secured its mixnode process to a degree worthy of investment”.
The Nym network is currently operating in a test mode with nearly 5000 nodes and 30 validators. The network is most likely to work at full capacity by the end of this year.
Ahead of its mainnet launch, Nym is already preparing to deploy fresh capital for new hiring. The company is planning to expand its team from 8 to 30 people.