Chelsea Manning-backed NymVPN launches in bid to win the "censorship arms race"

NymVPN is the product we wish we didn't need, but its presence has never been so important.

The decimation of our internet freedoms and online privacy will not stop, and new VPN technology is needed as we enter a new age for the internet and censorship.

Utilising its own unique mixnet and noise technology, the decentralized VPN operates differently to traditional providers and aims to be the world's most private VPN.

We'll take a deeper look into how NymVPN operates, its mission, and whether it could become one of the best VPNs out there.

The first decentralized, noise-generating, mixnet

Two things stand NymVPN out in a crowded market – its mixnet and its decentralized servers.

Nym Technologies CEO and co-founder Harry Halpin likened the mixnet to a "deck of cards" and a "shuffling process." Our internet activity and traffic is seen in packets, and with traditional VPNs, this traffic is routed through an end-to-end encrypted tunnel.

Usually, one VPN provider controls the whole network and acts as a middle man between you and the internet, but NymVPN operates differently.

The data packets are split up, shuffled, and mixed in with other traffic. Some traffic is that of other users, but fake traffic – "noise" – is also added, providing you with greater anonymity. The packets are also delayed and randomized, coming in and out in a different order than they're received. Halpin described how each packet is "delayed to randomize the amount of time so it's hard to predict when they're going to come out."

NymVPN calls this "anonymous mode," and your traffic is routed through five independent nodes before reaching its destination – the decentralization aspect.

The nodes are operated by individuals, and no single node can see the full route of your traffic or your details.

This noise mixing helps protect user metadata, something Halpin said can be monitored, stored, and even sold. He elaborated on this at the evening's launch event, and highlighted you don't even need to see user traffic if enough metadata is collected – your patterns and activity can be worked out.

The noise-generating mixnet helps protect your metadata. "It's very easy to sit in front of an internet connection and copy metadata, because it is effectively semi-public," Halpin said. "That's why we decided to scramble it and we don't think anyone else does that."

Whilst some VPNs can see your metadata, what they do with it is the important question. Just because they can do something, doesn't mean they will.

This is why it's crucial to look for a VPN that has a proven no or zero-logs policy. These claims are independently audited and validate (or challenge) provider's claims. NymVPN has said it will undergo a yearly audit, although at the time of writing it's unclear what the scope of these audits will be.

This level of protection comes at the expense of speed. However, NymVPN's second mode, "fast mode", tries to combat this. Fast mode doesn't use the mixnet system and instead uses a censorship-resistant protocol known as AmneziaWG to send your traffic through two servers.

AmneziaWG obfuscates your traffic but work is being done to improve it. More sophisticated surveillance techniques may be able to block your internet access and introducing more effective censorship-resistant technology is a high priority for NymVPN in 2025.

Routing through two servers provides you with extra protection and is similar to features such as Proton VPN's Secure Core and NordVPN's Double VPN. NymVPN has reported speeds of 200+ Mbps when using fast mode, which is more than enough for everyday browsing, but lags way behind the speeds of the fastest VPNs.

We highlighted the two modes in more detail, along with other technical features, when introducing NymVPN.

Origins of the mixnet

Back in the early 2010s, security advisor Chelsea Manning recognised how traffic analysis was "getting cheaper" and it was becoming "easier to disentangle anonymous communications."

She saw the need to "future-proof" technology and ensure privacy and anonymity for the likes of journalists, activists, and those facing censorship. Manning shared how the idea of creating a mixnet had been on her mind since 2016, and when she met Halpin in 2017, she discovered he had a similar idea.

The two reconvened in 2020, with Halpin asking Manning to perform a security audit of the Nym Technologies mixnet infrastructure. Vulnerabilities were unearthed and strengthened, and Manning officially joined the NymVPN mixnet project as a security advisor.

"We're academics, we're activists, we're political figures, and experts in technology," Manning said. "We had an infrastructure first approach, so we built the mixnet and then we thought, okay, how do we make this technology accessible to the average user?"

Similarities to Tor

Those of you familiar with the Tor browser may note its similarities to NymVPN, with both operating a decentralized network.

Halpin described NymVPN's fast mode as "quite similar" to Tor, but called the mixnet "a different beast." He highlighted three key differences, with the first being the fact that NymVPN mixes packets individually and adds noise – something Tor doesn't do.

Some sites and content can only be accessed via the Tor network, and these are known as "hidden services". Halpin stated how NymVPN's mixnet doesn't have these because mixnets are a very different design, meaning "it's not easy to support hidden services."

The third difference is that Tor's nodes, servers, and gateways are operated by volunteers, whereas NymVPN's operators are paid. They received Nym tokens (a form of cryptocurrency) as a result of users signing up to the VPN and operators providing a good service. We have asked for clarification concerning the frequency and threshold of payments, and will update this article accordingly.

Questions were asked over the trustworthiness of operators, because NymVPN doesn't know who they are and no IDs are required, with Halpin admitting as much.

This is a core reason why traffic is sent through five servers and noise is introduced. He said the chances of encountering a malicious node operator, although not impossible, was "statistically difficult."

Anonymous credentials

Anonymity is a large part of NymVPN's focus and this translates all the way back to sign-up. NymVPN equates to $5.49 per month ($131.76 upfront), and users can pay via card or cryptocurrency.

Upon payment completion, users are sent an "anonymous credential" in the form of a 24-digit access code, and no personal information is needed to create an account. Every time you log in this string is changed, protecting your anonymity and privacy.

If you pay by credit card, some aspects of your information is known – but Halpin stressed NymVPN "cannot connect your login details or your usage of the VPN to your payment details."

Defeating AI surveillance

Another benefit of NymVPN's noise implementation is its help in defending against AI-led cyber attacks.

"If there is a pattern in data, AI is very good at discovering that pattern," Halpin said. "It's detecting a signal, and the opposite signal is noise. So noise tries to hide the pattern, obfuscate the pattern, by adding additional data."

He called this an "arms race" and claimed that there isn't a perfect amount of noise. Deep-learning AI has been run against NymVPN's systems in order to work out if users can be recognized.

"Our goal is to defeat these kinds of AI surveillance," Halpin stated. "I would say preliminary results look imperfect, but pretty good."

"Censorship resistance is the name of the game"

NymVPN is already bypassing censorship, with users growing in countries such as Ukraine, Brazil, and Myanmar.

According to Halpin, NymVPN appears to bypass most Russian censorship, but admits Chinese censorship is more of a struggle and currently cannot be bypassed. One of NymVPN's goals is to be the first VPN to break the so-called "Great Firewall of China."

Both Halpin and Manning called censorship an "arms race," with Manning saying "censorship resistance is the name of the game going forward." Both she and Halpin believed censorship will only keep increasing and will get worse in the U.S. and Europe, so censorship-resistant technology has to be ready.

Manning said the "internet is splintering," and the shutting down of internet communications was "anticipated 15 years ago."

"I'm pessimistic in the short term, but I do think we will figure this stuff out," she said. "But we're going to have to deal with a lot of uncomfortable situations in the interim."

Offering a form of free VPN plan, researching ways to disguise the NymVPN app, and implementing browser extensions are just some of the ways NymVPN is looking to take the fight to censorship.

Other VPNs are doing this as well. Proton VPN already offers a discreet icon feature and its Stealth protocol is specifically designed to bypass censorship. NordVPN recently introduced NordWhisper, another censorship-resistant protocol and one designed to mimic regular web traffic.

The road ahead

NymVPN's goals are clear: to be the most effective VPN and the best mixnet on the market, and that's been the aim since work began in 2014. "We just weren't happy with anything out there," Halpin exclaimed.

Problems were encountered with the VPN's kill switch, which delayed the launch. Halpin said how he didn't feel comfortable releasing the product until that was fixed, and it's something that the team will continue to work on.

Post-quantum encryption and split tunneling will be coming in 2025 and solutions are being worked on to mitigate the battery-draining effects of the mixnet on mobile devices.

Right now, NymVPN is targeting a niche market and individuals for which the need for anonymity and privacy is not a choice. But with the constantly evolving threat of internet censorship and digital privacy, NymVPN could be a vital tool for many more in the years to come.

You can now watch the full live stream of NymVPN's launch on YouTube.