Dokia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz backed Figment and Swisscom Join NYM as Validators

Investment and Technology Giants Join NYM, a privacy-based blockchain as validators

Dokia Capital, an a16z-backed Figment, Chorus One, and Telcom behemoth Swisscom joined Nym as a validator. The validators keep the mixnet privacy system running by providing consensus on the mix node network architecture at any given moment and public history of all token transactions, certificate generation, and double-spending prevention.

This general-purpose Web-Assembly smart contract blockchain provides low-cost, lightning-fast transactions and smart contract execution speed up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). The outcome is a comprehensive, general-purpose smart contract blockchain that combines privacy features and a Web Assembly-based smart contract environment.

Earlier, Nym Technologies hired Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower who used the anonymity program Tor to disclose thousands of sensitive papers in 2011. Nym is gearing up to expedite the emergence of the private web powered by blockchain with a new $13 million capital investment, valuing the three-year-old Neuchâtel, Switzerland-based firm at roughly $270 million.

To maintain track of the status of the network, Nym is employing a blockchain rather than a semi-centralized directory authority. They used the Tendermint blockchain and the Cosmos libraries to establish their network as validators. The blockchain is an open-source, decentralized, permissionless, and incentivized system that enables full-stack privacy, enabling developers to create apps that give users strong assurances against metadata snooping at both the network and authentication and payment levels. The company's staff comprises world-class researchers and developers from institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, KU Leuven, and University College London.

The Need for Privacy in Layer-2 Blockchain Solution

Layer 2 scaling solutions are aimed to increase throughput by off-chain processing transactions. Its goal is to increase the speed of transactions on the blockchain and lower transaction costs while retaining decentralization. Layer 2 offers a lot of promise for scalability and broad adoption of blockchain applications.

Transaction custody consolidates all transactions over a certain period of time and issues a cryptographic commitment (commitment) on the updated transaction balances. The commitment and proofs will be submitted concurrently to the underlying blockchain, and the data will be computed using zero-knowledge proofs.

Certain crucial elements must be considered to construct a blockchain with more security, decentralization, and scalability. Layer 2 does not alter the design scheme or consensus algorithm of the underlying Layer 1 blockchain since it continues to rely on the security and consensus mechanisms provided by it. Layer 2 often processes a substantial quantity of data and computations off-chain and only verifies on-chain (e.g. the Lightning Network). Layer 2 scaling solutions use a similar method, but their off-chain data and computations are generally validated online using smart contracts. All Layer 2 solutions announced by major tech teams now use trustless transaction custody (Operator) off-chain to enable transaction packaging and batch computation. On-chain smart contracts are often incorporated with zero-knowledge proof techniques and trusted computing technologies to guarantee fraud-proof off-chain computations.