| ID | title | created | status | kind | author(s) | champions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NIP-2 | Change stake saturation and active set to improve network decentralisation and efficiency | 2025-06-17 | proposed | token economics | Claudia Diaz, Nym Chief Scientist claudia@nymtech.net Jaya Klara Brekke, Nym CSO jaya@nymtech.net | Serinko, Operator tech lead serinko@nymtech.net Daniel Vasquez, Head of Growth Latam daniel@nymtech.net |
Summary
This is a governance proposal to lower the Nym node stake saturation point from 1M to 500k or 250k NYM, and change the mixnet active set composition to increase the number of available gateways.
Motivation
The change is proposed to improve the efficiency and decentralization of the Nym network.
The Nym network currently has a high stake saturation point making it hard for new operators to become competitive. This leads to low competition and a centralising tendency in the network.
Furthermore, NymVPN usage shows a much higher demand for gateways (as they also run WireGuard fastmode). The proposal therefore also includes a change to active set composition to increase the number of gateways and decrease mixnodes in order to better meet demand.
Details
Aims and objectives
The aims and objectives of the proposal are:
- Prevent centralization of node operators, rewards and stake.
- Lower the barrier to entry for operators to enable a more competitive system where the best performing nodes can easily rise to the top.
- Achieve an increase in available 2-hop gateways.
- Ensure stake and rewards are distributed rationally and fairly to nodes performing work for end-users.
Who is affected?
The adoption and usage of NymVPN has shown that there is more demand for Fast (2-hop wireguard) mode rather than mixnet anonymous mode. This means the current mixnet active set has too many mixnodes, with rewards being distributed to nodes that are not directly serving user demand. This also affects the efficiency of the system: when there are many available routes, but not very much usage, the amount of mixing per node decreases. This means worse anonymity than with fewer mix nodes, as well as many rewards being distributed to nodes that are not contributing a significant amount of bandwidth which can create unnecessary pressure on token price.
Current composition: 50 entry gateways / 120 mixnodes (40 per layer) and 70 exit gateways.
Proposed composition: 80 entry gateways / 60 mixnodes (20 per layer)/ 100 exit gateways.
In this context, we are proposing a change to stake saturation and active set composition to enable new gateway operators to more easily reach saturation and compete for rewards.
Voting options
- New stake saturation: 500k NYM
- Active set composition: 80 entry gateways / 60 mixnodes (20 per layer)/ 100 exit gateways
- New stake saturation: 250k NYM
- Active set composition: 80 entry gateways / 60 mixnodes (20 per layer)/ 100 exit gateways
- Stake saturation: 1M NYM (current saturation point)
- 80 entry gateways / 60 mixnodes (20 per layer)/ 100 exit gateways
- No changes.
Background information
What is the economic impact of these proposed changes?
Nym Chief Scientist Claudia Diaz has modeled the economic impact and collated into a report. The report can be downloaded and read in full here (english version).
What is âactive setâ?
Active set describes the nodes that are actively routing user traffic in a given epoch (approximately 1hr). Every epoch, the active nodes change, to weed out the badly performing nodes, so that the active nodes are as performant as possible; to give more nodes opportunities to participate and healthy competition; to prevent attacks where the adversary adapts to fixed node positions to construct fully malicious paths making it very hard to construct a malicious pathway.
What is âactive set compositionâ?
Active set composition describes the available roles that a node can fill. The current active set composition has 50 entry gateway roles / 120 mixnode roles across 3 layers and 70 exit gateway roles. The proposal for a new active set composition is 80 entry gateways / 60 mixnodes (20 per layer)/ 100 exit gateway roles.
What is staking in the Nym ecosystem?
Anyone holding native NYM tokens can stake on a Nym node as a signal of good reputation and quality of service. This acts as a form of decentralized quality control in the network. In return, token holders receive a share of the nodes rewards and so are incentivised to stake on well performing nodes. Stake affects the likelihood of a node being selected to do work and therefore affects the rewards it will get.
What is stake saturation point?
To prevent a handful of nodes from getting all the stake, there is a softcap on how much stake a node can receive, before it starts to see diminishing returns. This is called the stake saturation point.
How is the stake saturation point determined?
Stake saturation point is arrived at by first assessing the current staking supply (total number of NYM tokens available for staking). This figure is the total supply (1Bn), minus the mixmining reward pool, giving a total stake supply of 812,772,499.
However, not everyone stakes their tokens. So this total is then adjusted by a staking factor (the fraction of total supply that is estimated will be staked), to arrive at target staking supply number. The target staking supply is then divided across the total number of nodes in the active set (240), to arrive at the stake saturation point, which is currently approximately 1M NYM.
The vote will result in an adjustment to the staking factor, which in turn adjusts the saturation point.
