Layer 1 Protocol Near has hired blockchain security firm Nym Technologies to provide end-to-end encryption and metadata privacy services for its ecosystem and DApps operating across it.
Nym, a blockchain-agnostic layer-0 privacy infrastructure provider, will offer its mixnet tools to encrypt and conceal blockchain traffic and communication across the Near Protocol ecosystem.
Masking off-chain metadata traffic will secure transaction data during communication and create a barrier for malicious actors attempting to de-anonymize users via IP address access.
According to an announcement from the collaborating projects, Near users will have enhanced access to ecosystem decentralized applications (DApps), decentralized finance protocols, and nonfungible tokens.
Nym’s integration seeks to provide added privacy to the Near ecosystem, given that permissionless blockchains typically allow for transaction data and some off-chain information to be accessed by savvy users, including IP addresses and geolocation data.
This facilitates intrusive surveillance, targeted attacks, and cybercrime. A statement from Nym CEO Harry Halpin highlights the significance of privacy-preserving tools to improve the nascent Web3 space:
“Blockchain technology is a large change in digital communications but it’s an open secret that by their very nature, blockchains are not private. Only weaving privacy into the fabric of Web3 can ensure its success.”
By dividing data into encrypted packets and sending them to “mix nodes” worldwide, mixnet from Nym protects blockchain traffic from the comprehensive analysis.
Randomly inserted “cover traffic” provides greater obfuscation of the communication system, thereby making metadata analysis significantly more difficult.
Chris Donovan, the chief executive officer of the Near Foundation, notes that Nym’s technology will afford ecosystem participants greater privacy when utilizing the protocol, which is consistent with the ethos of privacy-enhancing services:
“Privacy is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of the Web3 vision to create a more secure, user-centric and user-empowered web.”
As reported in October 2023, Nym Technologies launched a $300 million fund to identify and support Web3 initiatives building security-focused infrastructure.
The fund will initially seek to support wallets and platforms that store private keys that interact with and control access to decentralized applications (DApps), as well as remote procedure call protocols and open-source Web3 tools and services.
