Quick Summary of the AMA with special guest — Nym Chief Scientist Claudia Diaz
Key Highlights
• 
The current stake saturation point (~1,000,000 NYM) is too high — options to reduce it to 500,000 or 250,000 NYM are being discussed.
• 
Simulations were conducted — evaluating how changes in saturation affect rewards for different types of nodes.
• 
The first two Nym Improvement Proposals (NIPs) were announced:
NIP-1 — defines the structured process for proposing and approving network changes
NIP-2 — proposal to lower the stake saturation point and revise active set composition
Reasons for Reform
• High saturation threshold prevents new operators from entering the active set.
• Most actual traffic flows through gateways, not mixnodes.
• Mixnodes are overrepresented and often do not perform useful work — rewards need to be reallocated.
Active Set Composition Change
• Number of mixnodes will be reduced from 120 to 60.
• Entry and exit gateways will increase to 80 and 100 respectively.
• Total number of active nodes remains 240.
• This change is mandatory and not subject to voting.
Simulation-Based Reward Examples
• Entry gateway with 250k NYM (delegation program):
Current: ~32% chance of active set inclusion, ~964 NYM/month
New composition with saturation = 1M: chance increases to 54%, same per-epoch reward, higher monthly total
Saturation = 500k: reward doubles, monthly reward ~2,000 NYM
Saturation = 250k: up to ~7,000 NYM/month
• Mixnodes lose profitability:
Lower selection probability
Even at full saturation: more competition, rewards drop 2–3x
• Fully saturated gateways:
Currently: only 3–4, almost always in the active set
After reform: 100+ such nodes → higher competition → rewards drop by 15–25%
• Trend: small and mid-size nodes benefit; over-saturated mixnodes lose out.
Voting and Implementation
• Will be conducted via NymGovernator — off-chain DAO with on-chain snapshot
• Eligibility: only verified node operators
• Voting power capped at the saturation threshold
• Voting options for NIP-2:
saturation = 1M, 500k, or 250k
All options include the new active set: 80/60/100
NIP-1: Launch of the Nym Improvement Proposal process
• Authors: Jaya Klara Brekke & Mark Sinclair
• Anyone can submit a proposal via the forum
• To move beyond draft status, two core team champions are required
• NIP lifecycle: draft → proposed → accepted → active/rejected
• Format includes: ID, title, motivation, description, forum discussion links
• Accepted NIPs are logged in a public repository
• Types: token economics, process, standard, informational
NIP-2: Changing stake saturation and active set composition
• Authors: Claudia Diaz, Jaya Klara Brekke
• Proposal:
Lower saturation to 500k or 250k NYM
Change active set to 80 entry gateways / 60 mixnodes / 100 exit gateways
• Motivation:
Increase decentralization
Lower entry barrier
Redirect rewards to gateways doing real work
• Voting will be done via NymGovernator, with stake-weighted votes capped by the saturation point
Infrastructure and Geolocation
• Some hosting providers offer fake server locations
• ipinfo.io is used for verification
• 5 slots still open in the Service Grant Program for exit gateway deployment
Conclusion
• The reform targets a more equitable reward distribution
• Gateways take priority, as they handle the majority of traffic
• Smaller-stake nodes gain better earning opportunities
• The NIP process is now active — key changes are discussed and decided collectively
To make this summary clearer, materials from the forum were used: Nip-1 , Nip-2
You can explore a more detailed breakdown of the topics discussed during the call here .