Hey Nymsters!

This week’s call was a deep dive into the legal landscape of Switzerland - home to Nym, Proton, Threema, and many other privacy-first companies. We were joined by Prof. Dr. Simon Schlauri, a Swiss attorney at law specializing in IT and telecoms law, professor at the University of Zurich, and digital rights advocate.

Big thanks to everyone who joined live and asked questions!

Switzerland’s Privacy Reputation - Fact or Fiction?
Sudo kicked off by asking the obvious question: Switzerland has a global reputation as a privacy haven - but is it deserved?

Simon confirmed that yes, it’s largely accurate:

• Swiss data privacy law is on par with GDPR (the gold standard)
• The country is governed by the rule of law - courts work, appeals are possible
• He personally has won cases against the federal administration defending privacy

“We have a constitution that protects privacy. As a company, you can appeal against surveillance steps and find ways out.”

But it’s not perfect. Switzerland still has mandatory data retention for 6 months for traditional telecom operators (phone calls, IP addresses). This is currently being challenged before the European Court of Human Rights - a case brought by Simon’s colleagues.

Switzerland vs EU: Who’s Better?
Sudo contrasted the EU’s split personality (GDPR on one hand, Chat Control on the other) with Switzerland’s approach.

Simon pointed out a key difference: direct democracy. In Switzerland, major surveillance expansions would need to pass a public vote - and he’s not sure they would.

“There’s an additional border you’d have to cross - and it might be difficult to cross.”

The Controversial Ordinance - What’s Happening?
The main topic of conversation was a proposed ordinance that would require “over-the-top” (OTT) service providers (VPNs, chat apps, etc.) with more than 5,000 users worldwide to:

• KYC their users (collect government ID)
• Store metadata for 6 months
• Remove encryption applied by the provider (not end-to-end encryption applied on user devices)

The backlash was massive. Proton publicly threatened to leave Switzerland. The consultation was “extremely negative” except for police representatives. Politicians got involved, warning about damage to the Swiss economy and digital sovereignty.

Simon: “If we introduce rules that don’t allow such services anymore, this is critical for the Swiss economy. There’s money to be made in privacy - and if they throw these companies out, the economy will suffer.”

Current status:

• A new draft was published - but it only raised the threshold to 10,000 users, still “ridiculously low”
• A regulatory impact assessment is underway, surveying affected companies (including Nym)
• Simon now sits on the advisory body drafting the ordinance, ensuring technical expertise is present

Will it pass?
Simon is cautiously optimistic but realistic:

• The government (not parliament) enacts ordinances, and the surveillance administration is “quite pro this”
• But the political pressure is real - newspapers, parliamentary motions, and companies threatening to leave
• And if it passes, courts will likely strike it down

“There’s still a good chance this will be overturned by the courts.”

Targeted Surveillance vs Mass Surveillance
Sudo made a crucial distinction that often gets lost on lawmakers:

“Very few people would disagree with targeted, warrant-based surveillance of actual criminals. But mandating companies to perform mass surveillance on everyone - that’s where the danger lies.”

Simon agreed completely, noting that mass data retention (like Switzerland’s 6-month rule for telecoms) has already been ruled illegal by the EU Court of Justice. The same logic should apply here.

The Frog in Boiling Water
Sudo asked the big-picture question: Is this trend of institutionalized surveillance unstoppable?

Simon offered a nuanced view:

• The good: Privacy awareness is growing. Even a barkeeper in Zurich asked him about privacy when he tried to pay with his watch. The Swiss digital ID was designed as open source with public scrutiny.
• The bad: Big telecom companies stay silent. They don’t oppose surveillance expansions — perhaps afraid of being seen as “pro-criminal.” This gives politicians cover.

“It’s like the frog in cold water that gets heated slowly. You have surveillance, then a new step, then another - it becomes usual. That’s a real risk.”

But there’s hope: Small, principled companies (Nym, Proton, Threema, Unit7) are fighting back in courts and public discourse. And users have power too - switch providers, send emails, make privacy a reputational issue.

Simon: “If a big provider says they don’t care about privacy - that’s a matter of reputation. It could gain momentum.”

Community Q&A

Q: Can a decentralized protocol comply without compromising integrity?
Simon: Nym’s decentralized structure is a natural defense - node operators are scattered worldwide, most are too small to meet thresholds, and they don’t have the data anyway.

Q: What laws would you pass if you ruled the EU?

“I would pass an article in the basic EU agreement that prohibits Chat Control.”

Q: What happens to Nym, Proton, etc. if this passes?

“Some companies have announced they will leave Switzerland.”

Q: Would users just have to accept it?
Simon acknowledged the network effect problem but emphasized: use privacy-first apps with your inner circle, and privacy awareness is growing - it’s becoming easier to convince others.

“You need laws that protect us as citizens from companies that go too far.”

Announcement: NymVPN Referral Program & Squad League Rewards
Before wrapping up, Sudo dropped some alpha:

• NymVPN referral program is launching soon - refer friends, get extra months
• For Nym Squad League participants: the reward pool is going 10x, from 50,000 NYM to 500,000 NYM if you play your cards right
• Referrals made now will count toward the next season (starting April)
• Physical prizes are also coming

Bonus: Net Neutrality
The POAP password was “Net Neutrality” - leading to a quick discussion. Simon explained that in Switzerland, net neutrality is enshrined in law and enforced. ISPs cannot block or throttle specific services.

Sudo noted that for Americans watching, this sounds like a dream - net neutrality was killed under the Trump administration and still hasn’t returned.

Timestamps

• 00:01:51 — Simon’s intro: privacy lawyer & tech background
• 00:05:31 — Is Switzerland really a privacy haven?
• 00:08:51 — Why privacy companies choose Switzerland
• 00:13:41 — The controversial surveillance ordinance explained
• 00:22:52 — Encryption removal vs end-to-end encryption
• 00:26:54 — Targeted surveillance vs mass surveillance
• 00:32:07 — What’s changing in the new draft?
• 00:35:29 — Will it pass? Simon’s crystal ball
• 00:38:15 — The global trend: frog in boiling water
• 00:46:19 — Q&A starts
• 00:54:44 — Referral program & Squad League announcement
• 00:57:12 — POAP & net neutrality discussion

Watch the full recording

Huge thanks to Prof. Simon Schlauri for the illuminating conversation - and to everyone who tuned in!

See you next week!

What’s new?

• A new UI for measuring data usage
• Improved diagnostics & error reporting
• An important fix to bandwidth exceeded error warning
• Improvements to DNS for censorship resistance

Want to see some cool stuff to look out for in the coming releases of NymVPN? See the roadmap and full release notes below.

Reply to this post with the features you’d like to see next!

Our February event in Tampa had a great turnout and many attendees grabbed nym 1-month vouchers, thanks to all the Nym contributors that are getting this tool into users’ hands.

Im excited to keep bringing Nym to meetups around the US, and inform the privacy conscious people that they have a great tool in their reach

We’re actively working through requests from users hitting this error, and in most cases we can top up your bandwidth at no extra cost (though this may change if network abuse is detected).

We’re also working on more accurate handling of bandwidth tickets and an anonymous top-up flow so users won’t need to contact support at all.

As for the other features you mentioned, they’re on our radar. Ad blocking, custom DNS, and alternate login methods were all community requests from recent months, and all of them are already part of our latest releases!

If you are an Open Source software developer, for the Nym ecosystem, you may appreciate the release of yubisigner, because yubisigner’s detached signature content can’t be faked, like Comment: and untrusted-comment, in GnuPG and signify-openbsd can be faked.

yubisigner is GUI based and allows additionally to create a Merkle-Tree of your source code folder, prior uploading to your repository or website and additionally includes four popular hashes in the detached .sig file. It is advised to sign the merkle-tree.txt file as well and time stamp all .sig files with opentimestamps.

Hope you like!

While the tone of these posts (and poor grammar (not that i am much better)) annoy me, im grateful for @stryken bringing these issues/potential issues to the forefront and making the community aware. Edit again: Nvm i see where it captured the reply

Hey everyone!

This was a special call dedicated to the network operators - the people who keep Nym running. Serinko hosted this call with warmth and deep gratitude for the community that continues to develop and defend the network, despite the turbulence in the world and the crypto market.

Gratitude to the Community
Serinko expressed deep appreciation for everyone who goes beyond just running nodes:

• Operators who keep the network running, update their nodes, and patiently wait for fixes.
• Those who organize events and educational sessions: @code-zm, @unclelem, Pollux, @DiaNym , @writtenmajority, @rocio.gonzalez.toral and others.
• Everyone who helps in the chat, answers questions, and supports newcomers.

“You are a real-world example that there is an alternative to the system of hegemony. Together, we’re making surveillance capitalism technically impossible, economically undesirable, and socially redundant.”

Tech Updates & Operator Improvements

1. New Troubleshooting Page
The team is working on a complete overhaul of the troubleshooting documentation. A new section on server hygiene and maintenance (including Ansible) is now available, but Serinko warned that the scripts might be too aggressive - use with caution.

2. Dashboards & Metrics

• The team received survey results on which tools (explorers, dashboards) operators actually use.
• This will help make official dashboards (Harbormaster, Explorer) more clear and useful.
• Goal: operators shouldn’t have to guess which metrics actually matter for rewards.

3. Ticket-Based Rewarding
Major work on overhauling the reward system continues. It aims to align real node performance (what actually matters for the network) with incentives. Expected completion in Q2–Q3.

4. Network Tunnel Manager vs UFW
Serinko announced an important security configuration change, proposed by operators themselves (special shout-out to Wunderbar):

• Old logic was confusing.
• New approach:
  • Mixnodes- use only UFW (6 ports).
  • Gateways & WireGuard - use only Network Tunnel Manager (unified port and exit policy management).
• This will simplify setup and reduce errors.

5. Gateway Probe & Port Scanning

• In development: an extension to Gateway Probe that will scan node ports from the outside and check them against governance requirements (operator voting).
• This will help identify nodes with required ports closed.
• Currently in testing, but may eventually affect performance scores and grant program eligibility.

What Happened With the Last Update?
Serinko explained why some nodes had restart issues during the last update. The problem wasn’t the exit policy - it was that the file was hosted on Vercel, and Vercel changed its DDoS protection settings. Some nodes got a 403 error instead of the file and went into infinite restart loops. It’s fixed now - thanks for your patience.

Grant Programs (Applications Open!)

1. Residential IPs

• Looking for operators willing to run nodes (especially exit nodes) with IPs that show up on ipinfo.io as ASN type = ISP (residential, not data center).
• This is critical for bypassing blocks and CAPTCHAs (streaming services, social media, etc. trust residential IPs more).
• Grant paid in Bitcoin. Slots available. DM Serinko.

2. New Locations

• Network currently has 67 countries. Goal is to stay above 70.
• 5 slots open for new locations, 10 slots for Residential IP in total.
• Before spinning up a node, check the list and DM @merve or Serinko. Don’t start until confirmed!

Announcements & Plans

• Late March / early April: Operators Town Hall - a big live stream on YouTube with Serinko, @jayapapaya , @claudianym , and likely @sudonym as moderator. They’ll discuss technical details, the protocol, and upcoming changes.
• Serinko reminded everyone to participate in NIP (Nym Improvement Proposal) votes. Quorum is always met - thanks for the engagement.

Celebrations

• Ramadan is ending soon. Serinko wished everyone who observed the fast a happy Eid al-Fitr.

Closing
Serinko thanked everyone for helping each other in the chats, for their patience, and for keeping the community alive and responsive. He urged everyone to stay safe and keep their defenses up.

See you at the Town Hall!

Side notes that may be of interest (or not): im running the app on grapheneOS via Fdroid. I can’t remember where i first heard of Nym. Im just testing out the free trial but will most likely take advantage of the 2year discount. Paying via cc so thanks for the option, i know yall arent fans. My political views are not totally aligned with yalls but that is okay, im happy to support and ultimately we are against a lot of the same things. Hope things continue well for you and keep working hard!

While it may be painful, it’s not just some arbitrary decision Nym decided to implement.

Without a cap, a small number of heavy users could easily overwhelm the node operators’ infrastructure. Every byte gets multiplied across multiple hops, so one person torrenting 20TB actually costs the network 40-100TB of aggregate bandwidth across operators. Their VPS costs would blow past what they’re earning in rewards, and the rational thing to do at that point is shut the node down. The bandwidth limit is basically what keeps the operator economics viable, without it the whole incentive model falls apart.

Let’s dive into the incredible achievements from the final stretch of the Winter season!

NymSTAR - 2500 $NYM rewards

Big congratulations to @unclelem on being named the champion of the Nym community in Feb 2026! A special shoutout for hosting an incredible streak of three distinct cybersecurity lectures under the auspices of NymVPN in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Want to earn more points and $NYM?

• Join the upcoming quiz on discord.gg/nym
• Collect POAPs for upcoming events
• Post submissions for missions & grants on the Nym forum

There’s space for everyone in the Nym Squad League.

Join now | Missions & Grants

It may well be that you never or rarely exceed 2TB. But did you know they were introducing this? Were you informed about this by Nym? But the fact that it has now been introduced quietly and secretly and the customer has not been informed about it, I do not think is fair and not good. No other VPN provider (that I know of) limits the use of the VPNn’ or bandwidth, but Nym does it. It is and was introduced secretly without the customer knowing about it.

I wonder what that’s all about?!

You pay something but only get a limited benefit and if you want more, you are asked to pay. Or you still have to justify to support why you need the more bandwidth you want.

They are welcome to do this with the mixnet, but not with normal surfing.

But not even the basics have been incorporated yet, like:

• Lockdown mode
• Automatic connection when the computer starts
• no protection against AI snooping/location
• no protection against being recognized as a VPN customer, as X does
• App start after computer restart takes an extremely long time to start.

And much more! They promise a lot but don’t implement! But there is a bandwidth limitation, as they are very quick to introduce/build this, instead of finally getting their construction sites (errors, missing functions, etc.) finished.

Gerhard

I have to get rid of criticism of you again.

What do I need to see, in version 1.26? You’re now adding a bandwidth limit? Are you really serious now? This has never happened before, and you don’t see it with any other VPN provider. And you don’t inform customers about it? Sorry guys, but you’re clearly going a step too far!

What’s the point of this nonsense? How do you come to that conclusion? This is very customer-unfriendly and does not correspond to a VPN provider that restricts its customers. What is 2 TB? They’re gone in no time, donwloads, surfing streaming and so on and so forth…

Other problems seem unimportant to you, like lockdown mode, etc. But you can quickly implement a bandwidth restriction. And then you should also write to you if you want more bandwidth? But certainly only for a fee.

I don’t think we’re going down well with customers like this. I can guarantee you!

Greetings

Gerhard

• Split tunneling
• Built in updates
• Signed release binaries
• Documentation website

Latest release:

Welcome to Kazakhstan, @sudonym — hope you love it here!

https://support.nym.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Switching to different exit gateways should work if you’re seeing this type of issues.

I have a problem with Nym, but only with torrents. I am using Arch Linux / EndeavourOS.
In general, the VPN works very well with YouTube streams or any other use.

However, when downloading torrents with Transmission, Deluge, or qBittorrent, I always have the same problem: the speed is very slow or sometimes almost nonexistent.

I have tried many things, but now I don’t know what else to do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

A more detailed article will be available soon. If you want to test how it’s working, there are many tests available to check ad blocking online.

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

• 00:01:49 — Serinko on node operators
• 00:06:23 — Mark on post-quantum
• 00:09:08 — Alexis on anonymity by crowd
• 00:13:47 — Theo on community growth
• 00:18:35 — Justin on beta to stable
• 00:22:43 — Andrej on catching up
• 00:26:00 — Jack on censorship resistance
• 00:30:35 — Casey on pirate ships
• 00:35:16 — Hux’s visual journey
• 00:43:37 — Harry’s full roadmap
• 01:07:54 — Q&A
• 01:34:04 — Sudo’s Kazakhstan announcement & closing

Watch the full recording:
(Link to YouTube)

Thanks to everyone who’s been part of this incredible first year. Here’s to many more!

Please note: Now the source code is also secured, with a new function in yubisigner, which creates a merkle-tree.txt file, also signed with yubisigner and additionally time stamped, so that third parties can not manipulate the source code.

Hope you like!

I have almost 20 years of experience as freelancer translator of various projects. Today, I contribute only to opensource projects that I consider valuable. Some of my past & current contributions are on Weblate, Transifex, Localazy, Crowdin, Onesky.

As already explained in my email, I completed the app translation in italian (nym-vpn-android, nym-vpn-app), including reviewing ALL the already translated phrases. Most of them were badly machine-translated and some completely wrong.

I’m unable to promise any action plan of my contributions, due to life becoming more and more busy. Anyway my goal is to keep the Android app updated (highest priority), eventually the iPhone app (lower priority). I’d like to work on the website too, but honestly I think I’ll never have time.

A year ago, we launched NymVPN together. This Friday we’re getting on a call to look back on everything we built in year one, and drop the 2026 roadmap live with all of you.

Live Town Hall + Q&A
POAPs for attendees
NymVPN free passes dropped in chat

Hosted by Sudo
Guests TBA

Friday, 13 March 2026 · 15:00 UTC

YouTube | Twitch | X

Unfortunately, the security posture of your opsec is dependent on the OS level, not NYM VPN. Your success of mitigating malware on your system is highly dependent on your OS/anti-virus. In the event, an attacker is able to break the sandbox of NymVPN, the attacker can silently intercept traffic, doxx your real IP address, deploy spyware, and even steal password credentials.

The most secure method to use NymVPN on a laptop/PC is arguable on http://qubes-os.org/ (not an endorsement, do your own due diligence). By utilizing a Virtual Machine, you can eliminate the possibility of malware ever reaching NymVPN, by separating your VPN in its own dedicated Operating System. This way it makes it incredibly difficult for malware to escape the XEN Hypervisor and affect your standalone VM. XEN is also open source and has significantly less attack surface than traditional linux systems, Windows, Mac.

Here is how I setup NymVPN on the most secure OS

Nym does not offer wireguard configuration files by default, so the VPN APP is required to use Nym. To take advantage of mixnet, follow this guide below:

1. Create standalone VM. Use Debian for template (preferably Trixie). Check off box for provides network

2. Install Nym VPN:
   Follow the instructions from the official site.
   i. wget https://apt.nymtech.net/pool/main/n/nym-repo-setup/nym-repo-setup_[VERSIONNUMBER]_amd64.deb -O /tmp/nym-repo-setup_[VERSIONNUMBER]_amd64.deb
   ii. sudo dpkg -i /tmp/nym-repo-setup_[VERSIONNUMBER]_amd64.deb
   iii. sudo apt install nym-vpn

3. Dns handling:
   i. Create script: sudo nano /usr/local/bin/nym-dns.sh
   ii. Insert the following into script:

#! /usr/bin/env bash
update_dns() {
  nym_on=$([[ $(grep -v -c "nameserver \+10.139" /etc/resolv.conf) -gt 0 ]] && echo 1 || echo 0)

  if [[ $nym_on -eq 1 ]]; then
    echo "Nym is on"
    nym_dns_ip=$(grep "nameserver" < /etc/resolv.conf | awk '{print $2}' | head -n 1)

    sudo nft flush chain ip qubes dnat-dns
    sudo nft add rule ip qubes dnat-dns meta l4proto {tcp, udp} ip daddr {10.139.1.1, 10.139.1.2} th dport 53 dnat to "$nym_dns_ip"
  else
    echo "Nym is off"
    nameserver_ips=$(grep "nameserver" < /etc/resolv.conf | awk '{print $2}')
    sudo nft flush chain ip qubes dnat-dns

    for ip in $nameserver_ips; do
      sudo nft add rule ip qubes dnat-dns ip daddr "$ip" udp dport 53 dnat to "$ip"
      sudo nft add rule ip qubes dnat-dns ip daddr "$ip" tcp dport 53 dnat to "$ip"
    done
  fi
}

update_dns
inotifywait -m -q -e close_write /etc/resolv.conf | while read -r; do
  update_dns
done

4. Make script executable: sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/nym-dns.sh

5. Run script at boot: echo "/usr/local/bin/nym-dns.sh &" | sudo tee -a /rw/config/rc.local

6. MTU issues and killswitch:
   i. Check app for killswitch setting
   ii. disable ipv6
   iii. add the following rule: sudo nano /rw/config/rc.local

#!/bin/sh

/usr/sbin/nft flush chain qubes dnat-dns
/usr/sbin/nft add rule ip qubes dnat-dns meta l4proto {tcp, udp} ip daddr {10.139.1.1, 10.139.1.2} th dport 53 dnat to 1.1.1.1
nft add rule qubes custom-forward oifname eth0 counter drop
nft add rule ip6 qubes custom-forward oifname eth0 counter drop
nft add rule ip qubes custom-forward tcp flags syn / syn,rst tcp option maxseg size set rt mtu

7. Make script executable if not already: sudo chmod +x /rw/config/rc.local

Now you can switch between Mixnet and Double VPN on the most secure OS. The mixnet is quite slow so be patient. If you are in a censored country, double vpn with QUIC setting turned on should work.

EDIT: Typos

Nym Node Spotlight #27​:red_paper_lantern:

Got NYM tokens but don’t know what to do with them? Stake on a Nym node now!

Here are this week’s top Nym nodes - specially selected for top performance, and a variety of stake saturation and locations.

p10node
Node ID:
8KbRomAT7JSm95JTe2HuRrryzWWuV2UA44SDTXHq2Enk

mku1tra - EntryNode #2
Node ID:
8g616KUzunb8fqFFGYzYtjk9jH5n9Zo72B2o9NV88K1m

[CyberAlex] (Spectre Explorer)
Node ID:
GoJjAkH5hpcPYeW7JDUVfHdqgcufjwdhY2PLwBGJV3Ar

t-lab | SE II
Node ID:
B5JEJ2ehvyPYv7PGcfXmB1P923i7C6waxJuiZ8rGjoKR

Orlux
Node ID:
AvSqUif3zqZ3Qjv2Q8CV3cDqEsKQekhrWT3awMmcM4Sh

—————————

Browse more nodes on the Nym explorer.
• Operators, promote your node below (once everyday!)
• Stakers, if in doubt, simply ask!

Stake NYM to contribute to one of the worlds most advanced traffic routing networks for the age of AI.

NYM token | Staking guide | How to run a Nym node?

Key issues Identified:

1. . Server switching & boot-up leaks on macOS: When you manually switch servers or restart your Mac, the regular kill switch fails to block traffic. Your real IP address is briefly exposed to any websites or services that were already open before the VPN reconnects.

2. ProtonVPN’s own conflicting statements:
   Their support page still claims: “[regular kill switch] does protect you while switching servers with Proton VPN.”
   Yet when users reported the problem, ProtonVPN replied: “Kill Switch on Mac will not prevent your device from connecting to the internet during manual disconnection events.”

3. Advanced Kill Switch limitation: The stronger “Advanced” version (which actually prevents these leaks) is only available on Windows and Linux — not on macOS.

This isn’t an isolated ProtonVPN problem. It connects to a long-standing Apple ecosystem flaw. In 2023, IVPN was forced to completely remove the kill switch from its iOS app (for iOS 16 and newer) for the exact same reason: even with the VPN running and kill switch active, traffic to Apple’s own servers (Apple Maps, Push Notifications, etc.) leaks your real local IP address. Apple’s includeAllNetworks API simply doesn’t force all traffic through the tunnel on newer iOS/macOS versions. Non-Apple traffic stays protected, but the leak to Apple still happens.

Full sources

PrivacyGuides removal discussion (ongoing since December 2025):

Remove ProtonVPN - #313 by jonah - Tool Suggestions - Privacy Guides Community

IVPN official explanation (August 2023, still relevant):

As of right now, ProtonVPN is still listed on PrivacyGuides.org, but the community thread is gaining traction and a separate proposal has been opened to restructure how VPN clients vs. providers are recommended because of exactly these kill-switch reliability issues.

Bottom line

A kill switch is only useful if it actually works in real-world conditions — including server switches, reboots, and Apple’s opaque network stack. If you use ProtonVPN on macOS or iOS, test it yourself (switch servers with a site like ipleak.net open and watch what happens). Don’t assume the marketing claims are bulletproof.Privacy isn’t about trusting a single provider — it’s about verifying. Share your own test results if you have them.

New release is ready! Release Nym VPN v1.25.0 · dial0ut/nym-vpn-openwrt · GitHub

• Pure rust user space wireguard via Mullvad’s Gotatun
• Ad blocking
• Performance optimization
• .apk files for newer OpenWrt versions

Team: oridamasceno

You can fit it onto weaker devices like GL.inet SFT1200 with some workarounds. Using zram and overlayfs works for me.

Will be purchasing more routers soon for testing. Also, once I get the website up and running I’ll put out an official minimum spec.

Putting out a new release today.

Thanks for your patience!