Nym Technologies Introduces Sandbox Testnet Ahead of Upcoming Mainnet Release

The lack of data privacy across the internet infrastructure has exposed billions of people worldwide to data breaches and mass surveillance. The rise of centralized monopolies and pervasive data collection has increased manifold over the last couple of decades, undermining people’s trust in digital services.

While several privacy-focused solutions exist, most focus on one layer at a time, leaving the other layer vulnerable to surveillance and data leakage. Nym Technologies solves this problem by ensuring end-to-end data privacy by obfuscating metadata at both the network and transaction layers. Nym manages all the possible data leakage angles by covering both layers simultaneously, thus ensuring end-to-end data privacy. The platform uses a unique architecture of a decentralized mixnet explorer, allowing developers to build applications to anonymize metadata. Simply put, the Nym infrastructure provides privacy across multiple layers of internet traffic by deploying an approach that can be easily scaled to provide global coverage.

Throughout 2021, the Nym development team has been rolling out a series of upgrades, each of which is part of its much anticipated mainnet release. Following its recent releases, Nym Technologies has now launched its permanent testnet, the Nym Sandbox testnet. Sandbox will work alongside Nym’s previously released testnet Nova, enabling interested parties to test and explore its features before joining the mainnet.

As the Nym development team inches closer towards the mainnet release, they have ticked off several milestones from their 2021 to-do list. Earlier this year, Nym launched the Nym Desktop Wallet for mixnodes and transitioned its mixnet explorer to a fully open-source ecosystem. The Nym team also launched the Nova testnet earlier this month. These new developments will be deployed across three distinct mainnet phases, rolled out over the next three months. On the launch of the second permanent testnet within weeks, Dave Hrycyszyn, CTO and co-founder of Nym Technologies, adds,

The permanent testnet is an important step in the development of the entire Nym architecture. It will contain most major components and smart contracts, but in a secure test environment for us to tweak any issues before we begin the launch.

Permanent Testnet To Support Experimentation and Research

With the mainnet launch around the corner, the release of the Nym Sandbox testnet is a critical step because it allows the Nym development team to release a significant upgrade to “CosmWasm 1.0,” the smart contract platform that powers the NYM tokenomics.

According to the Nym development team, the Nym Sandbox testnet alongside the Nova testnet will serve as permanent testnets for developers to build and integrate wallets and other apps, send messages and transactions, and run nodes and gateways.

Additionally, the Nym development team expects the Sandbox testnet to benefit Nym research teams. Since the Sandbox testnet will contain most of the key components and smart contracts, it will enable researchers to run large-scale simulations on the privacy and security of mixnets, blockchains, wallets, and apps that run on them.

To further streamline the testnet infrastructure for the participants, the Nym development team plans to move the current testnet Milhon, including its nodes and delegations and reputation scores, to Nym Sandbox. It will include test tokens and replicate the exact same functionalities and features offered by the mainnet, including reward sharing. However, unlike other testnets, the Sandbox testnet won’t be incentivized.