| id | title | created | status | kind | author(s) | champions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nip-1 | Proposing NIP as process to propose and log changes to the Nym network | 2025-06-13 | draft | process | Jaya Klara Brekke jaya@nymtech.net <[jayapapaya@users.noreply.github.com]> Mark Sinclair mark@nymtech.net <[mmsinclair@users.noreply.github.com> | Serinko Nym Operator lead serinko@nymtech.net Max Hampshire Devrel max@nymtech.net |
Summary
NIP-1 proposes to introduce Nym Improvement Proposals (NIP) as a process for proposing, deciding and logging decisions about the Nym network protocol and token economics. Anyone can submit a draft proposal to the Nym forum for discussion. To get assigned a NIP ID and included in the NIP repo, the proposal will have to gain two champions from the core team, before being reviewed and assigned a status. NIPs that change the Nym token economics will have to be voted and accepted by the Nym operator community.
Motivation
Nym Network needs a transparent, coherent method for attracting good ideas, developing these into coherent proposals and getting these into a development roadmap to be implemented by either team or top quality community contributors.
- There is a bottleneck between team and wider operator and research community, with the community not always being up to date with what the team is working on and not having meaningful ways to contribute.
- The Nym Network operators need a structured process to propose improvements, input on proposed changes and hold the team accountable to decisions made.
The NIP process aims to do this by outlining a clear process and format for proposals to be developed, decided on and implemented. Approved NIPs will also act as a decision log and be published in the NIP repo here.
Description
What is a NIP?
A NIP (Nym Improvement Proposal) is a proposal to improve some aspect of the Nym Network. This includes improvements to:
- Nym network token economics (as implemented in smart contracts), which go through a voting process with Nym network operators;
- Process (including the NIPs process itself), which go through a voting process by network operators;
- Standards (platform protocols and binaries), which are published for open peer-review and comments, and if accepted, queued for implemented;
- Informational (provides guidelines or information to the Nym community, but does not propose a new feature and should be considered guidance rather than hard rules).
Accepted NIPs become a decision-log that informs the Nym network development roadmap. Rejected NIPs become a knowledge repository for the reasons why ideas have been rejected.
Stakeholders
The introduction of NIPs will mainly affect the Nym development team and operator community.
The development team will gain more structured input and a more clear mandate from the operator community for the work they are doing.
The operator community will gain better transparency into the development process and a structured way to provide input on decisions and propose improvements to the network.
Anyone can develop a NIP, but in order for it to reach voting stage and be adopted, it requires two champions from the Nym core team (with commit access to the NIP repo) to have reviewed and support the proposal. This is to ensure the proposal is appropriate, doable and improves on the performance of the network, token economics and its contracts.
Format of a NIP
The format of a NIP should follow the format exemplified in this first NIP and include:
- Header
- id: the NIP is given an ID number once there is a final draft and the proposal has a champion from the core team.
- title: a short descriptive title.
- created: the date the NIP was assigned a number and proposed, in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD
- status: the current status of a NIP, which can be one of the following:
- draft (the NIP is still open for comments and being edited and improved)
- proposed (the NIP is ready, has a sponsor and ID and is proposed for vote and adoption)
- accepted (the NIP has been approved, voted on and is queued for development, and given an estimated timescale)
- active (the NIP has been implemented and is active)
- rejected (the NIP was rejected by vote or by a champion withdrawing their support)
- replaced (the NIP has been superceded with an updated version, a link to the new NIP should be included in the status)
- withdrawn (the author and champions have withdrawn the NIP)
- kind:
- token economics (goes to vote with operators)
- process (goes to vote with operators)
- standard
- informational
- author(s): the name, email and/or git handle.
- champions: two core team members that support the proposal.
- Summary
- Abstract or short summary of the proposal of max 200 words.
- Motivation
- Why the NIP is needed.
- Description
- Full description of the NIP, the what, why, when and how. Be clear on compatibility, is this a breaking change or not? and highlight the main stakeholders (who will be affected by these changes).
- References
- Link to the Nym Forum post(s) where the NIP has been discussed.
- Link to reference implementation, documentation, supporting evidence or literature.
- License
- All NIPs have to follow the existing licensing of the Nym network, which is GPLv3 for binaries and contracts and Apache 2.0 or MIT for libraries and components.
NIP process
The process for developing and submitting a NIP is designed to make sure an idea is peer-reviewed with experienced community members and been developed to a good standard before it is put forward as a proposal.
- Seen something that can be improved? Raise a topic on the the Nym Forum for discussion. A NIP starts with a good idea for how to improve some aspect of the Nym network. The first step is to get a discussion going, on the Nym Forum or one of the community chats to get community feedback and start mobilising support among operators and team. If you have proposed a NIP that will go to vote, you will need to link to a forum discussion
- Have you discussed the idea and gained support? Develop it into a proposal. Write up a structured NIP and get the support of your two champions from the core team. If possible already at this stage, start writing an implementation.
- How can I get a core team champion? Get involved in the community channels and start making productive suggestions and comments. But please be considerate of team member’s time - a flood of DMs will count against your proposal. The Nym team pays attention in the community channels and are open to productive input, especially if it is clear that you have done your research, understand the mission and have engaged with the architecture and code-base.
- NIP gets an ID and is included in the NIP repo for review by a NIP editor. The NIP editor will:
- Assigned a NIP number
- Status is set to draft
- Fork the NIPs repository to their own GitHub account
- Make edits
- Submit back to main NIPs repository as a pull request
- Reply to comments and make final edits to get approval to merge
- Status is set to proposed
- Merge the pull request when it is ready.
- The NIP then goes to a vote with the operator community if it affects Nym token economics.
- Nym node operators register and sign in to the Nym governator with their operator keys;
- here they can view proposals, and see the links to the forum discussions on the topic;
- they can vote yes, no, or abstain and can change their vote any time up until the voting deadline (usually 10 days).
- Voting power is based on node stake and is capped at saturation.
- If accepted, the NIP status is changed to accepted and queued for development (be patient! The dev team has a packed roadmap. Team will endeavor to keep everyone informed at the weekly community calls and in chats).
