Town Hall: One Year of NymVPN and What’s Coming in 2026
Happy 1st Birthday, NymVPN!
Hey Nymsters!
This week’s call was extra special - we celebrated one year since the launch of NymVPN. To mark the occasion, @sudonym brought some members of Nym team on screen to share their reflections on the journey and what excites them most about the future.
The Team Assembled
We heard from Serinko, Mark, Alexis, Theo, Justin, Andrej, Jack Wempler, Casey, Hux, and Harry.
The Heart of Nym: Node Operators
Serinko kicked things off by reminding everyone what makes Nym different:
“What Nym is beyond the team and the code — it’s the network. 750 nodes as we speak. The true pillar of decentralization is the community represented by people deploying software on machines they can run anywhere in the world.”
He gave a massive shout-out to operators who’ve kept up with 22 releases in one year, building their own tools and helping each other - and especially @Merve.
From NymConnect to NymVPN
Hux treated us to a visual journey:
- 2022: NymConnect - experimental tool routing just 5 apps via SOCKS5
- Launch (March 2024): First NymVPN - rough but real
- Today: Stable product with social login, ad blocking, split tunneling
- Coming soon: Three-way split tunneling - choose which apps go through 2-hop VPN, 5-hop mixnet, or bypass
Hux: “Privacy as experience. We rely on your feedback more than any other company.”
Harry’s 2026 Roadmap
Delivered this year:
- Most crypto payments
- Bug reports slowing down (product getting stable)
- Working in China and Russia
- Ad blocking, malware blocking, split tunneling
- One-click connect (automatic node selection) coming soon
The core problem: Token price down despite product improvement. But more VPN users = more token buybacks = upward pressure.
Major integrations coming:
- Edge Wallet - all transactions over mixnet within a month
- Zcash ecosystem - Zashi, Zingo, Zoto wallets
- Ethereum - JS library for wallets like Railgun
- Major browser - “hundreds of thousands of users” if it lands
Mixnet optimization (3-5x faster):
- TCP → UDP, multiplexing, post-quantum crypto
- New cover traffic schemes to fool AI surveillance
Total decentralization:
- Merging wallet and VPN codebases
- Gateway rewards tied to users
- Residential IP sharing (earn by sharing connection)
- Token-based governance
Secret censorship features:
Aimed at surviving nation-state level internet shutdowns.
Harry: “Free and private internet access should be everyone’s right.”
Focus on Censored Countries
On a question about Myanmar, Harry shared advice from CZ:
“Focus on countries that need censorship resistance first. Translate everything into local language. That’s how he built Binance.”
Jack confirmed they want feedback from Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia. Justin added that since Myanmar buys censorship tech from China, and Nym works in China, it should theoretically work there too.
Q&A Highlights
Game-changing feature?
- Justin: Re-architected mixnet + censorship resistance
- Sudo: Three-way split tunneling
- Alexis: Wallet integration + residential IP sharing
Three words for Year 1?
- Harry: Buggy, crazy, inspiring
- Justin: Buggy, turbulent, revolutionary
- Jack: Foundations, feedback, growth
- Alexis: Learning, finding out, perseverance
- Hux: Privacy as experience
- Casey: Rocky, raucous, revitalizing
- Andrej: Lots of sleepless nights
Token burns?
Harry explained that buying NymVPN already takes tokens off market - equivalent to a burn driven by usage. Alexis added that wallet integration will enable more staking, taking more tokens out of circulation.
Sudo’s Big Announcement
Before wrapping up, Sudo shared some personal news:
“I’m going to Kazakhstan in about a week to attend CRACK IT - the business case-solving competition for Kazakhstan University students that @UncleLem made happen. Nym is a partner of the competition. I’m finally going to meet Uncle Lem in person! If anybody is in Kazakhstan, let’s grab a beer together.”
Timestamps
Watch the full recording:
(Link to YouTube)
Thanks to everyone who’s been part of this incredible first year. Here’s to many more! 