NYM

NYM is a privacy-focused blockchain aiming to provide anonymity and privacy to normal people in the age of blockchain and AI.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

We will need to rent a VPS or a dedicated bare metal host to run your node on. One key reason for this is that your node must be able to send TCP data using both IPv4 and IPv6 (as other nodes you talk to may use either protocol).

For the moment, we haven’t put a great amount of effort into optimizing concurrency to increase throughput, so don’t bother provisioning a beastly server with multiple cores. This will change when we get a chance to start doing performance optimizations in a more serious way. Sphinx packet decryption is CPU-bound, so once we optimize, more fast cores will be better.

For now, see the below rough specs:

Processors: 2 cores are fine. Get the fastest CPUs you can afford.

For mix node

RAM: Memory requirements are very low - typically a mix node may use only a few hundred MB of RAM.
Disks: The mixnodes require no disk space beyond a few bytes for the configuration files.

For Gateway

RAM: Memory requirements depend on the amount of users your Gateway will be serving at any one time. If you’re just going to be using it yourself, then minimal RAM is fine. If you’re running your Gateway as part of a Service Grant, get something with at least 4GB RAM.
Disks: much like the amount of RAM your Gateway could use, the amount of disk space required will vary with the amount of users your Gateway is serving. If you’re running your Gateway as part of a Service Grant, get something with at least 40GB storage.

OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIREMENT

Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS (for long-term support)

NYM STAKING REQUIREMENT

Before you initialise and run your mix node, head to the NYM website and download the Nym wallet for your operating system. If pre-compiled binaries for your operating system aren’t available, you can build the wallet yourself with instructions here.

If you don’t already have one, please create a Nym address using the wallet, and fund it with tokens. The minimum amount required to bond a mix node is 100 NYM, but make sure you have a bit more to account for gas costs.

NYM can be purchased via Bity from the wallet itself with BTC or fiat, and is currently present on several exchanges.

Remember that you can only use Cosmos NYM tokens to bond your mix node. You cannot use ERC20 representations of NYM to run a node.

NYM MIXNODE pre-requisites and INSTALLATION steps (we are excluding NYM GATEWAYS for now)

Building from Source

Nym runs on Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. All nodes except the Desktop Wallet and NymConnect on Windows should be considered experimental - it works fine if you’re an app developer but isn’t recommended for running nodes.

Building Nym

Nym has two main codebases:

the Nym platform, written in Rust. This contains all of our code except for the validators.
the Nym validators, written in Go.

This page details how to build the main Nym platform code. If you want to build and run a validator, go here instead.

Prerequisites

Debian/Ubuntu: pkg-config, build-essential, libssl-dev, curl, jq, git

apt install pkg-config build-essential libssl-dev curl jq git

Arch/Manjaro: base-devel

pacman -S base-devel

Mac OS X: pkg-config , brew, openss1, protobuf, curl, git Running the following the script installs Homebrew and the above dependencies:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Rust & cargo >= 1.66

We recommend using the Rust shell script installer. Installing cargo from your package manager (e.g. apt) is not recommended as the packaged versions are usually too old.

If you really don’t want to use the shell script installer, the Rust installation docs contain instructions for many platforms.

Download and build Nym binaries

The following commands will compile binaries into the nym/target/release directory:

rustup update
git clone https://github.com/nymtech/nym.git
cd nym

git reset --hard # in case you made any changes on your branch
git pull # in case you've checked it out before

git checkout master # master branch has the latest release version: `develop` will most likely be incompatible with deployed public networks

cargo build --release # build your binaries with **mainnet** configuration

Quite a bit of stuff gets built. The key working parts are:

mix node: nym-mixnode
gateway node: nym-gateway
websocket client: nym-client
socks5 client: nym-socks5-client
webassembly client: webassembly-client
network requester: nym-network-requester
nym-cli tool: nym-cli
nym-api: nym-api

The repository also contains Typescript applications which aren’t built in this process. These can be built by following the instructions on their respective docs pages.

You cannot build from GitHub’s .zip or .tar.gz archive files on the releases page - the Nym build scripts automatically include the current git commit hash in the built binary during compilation, so the build will fail if you use the archive code (which isn’t a Git repository). Check the code out from github using git clone instead.

Mix Nodes

The Nym Mix Node binary was built in the building nym section. If you haven’t yet built Nym and want to run the code, go there first.

Any syntax in <> brackets is a user’s unique variable. Exchange with a corresponding name without the <> brackets.

Current version

1.1.36

The nym-mix node binary is currently one point version ahead of the rest of the platform binaries due to a patch applied between releases.

Preliminary steps

Make sure you do the preparation listed in the preliminary steps page before setting up your Mix Node.

Mix node setup

Now that you have built the codebase, set up your wallet, and have a VPS with the nym-mix node binary, you can set up your Mix Node with the instructions below.

To begin, move to /target/release directory from which you run the node commands:

cd target/release

Viewing command help

You can check that your binaries are properly compiled with:

./nym-mixnode --help

Which should return a list of all available commands.

Console output

You can also check the various arguments required for individual commands with:

./nym-mixnode <COMMAND> --help

Adding --no-banner startup flag will prevent Nym banner being printed even if run in tty environment.

Initialising your Mix Node

To check available configuration options for initializing your node use:

./nym-mixnode init --help

Console output

Initialise your Mix Node with the following command, replacing the value of --id with the moniker you wish to give your Mix Node. Your --host must be publicly routable on the internet in order to mix packets, and can be either an Ipv4 or IPv6 address. The $(curl -4 https://ifconfig.me) command returns your IP automatically using an external service. If you enter your IP address manually, enter it without any port information.

./nym-mixnode init --id <YOUR_ID> --host $(curl -4 https://ifconfig.me)

If <YOUR_ID> was my-node, the output will look like this:

Console output

The init command will refuse to destroy existing Mix Node keys.

During the init process you will have the option to change the http_api, verloc and mixnode ports from their default settings. If you wish to change these in the future you can edit their values in the config.toml file created by the initialization process, which is located at ~/.nym/mixnodes/<YOUR_ID>/.

Node Description (optional)

In order to easily identify your node via human-readable information later on, you can describe your Mix Node with the following command:

./nym-mixnode describe --id <YOUR_ID>

Node description is a short text that describes your node. It is displayed in the ./nym-mixnode list command and in the ./nym-mixnode node-details --id <YOUR_ID> command. It also shows up in the node explorer to let people know what your node is about and link to your website.

You can set your node description, by creating a file called description.toml and put it in the same directory as your config.toml file (~/.nym/mixnodes/<YOUR_ID>/config/description.toml). The file should look like this example:

name = "Winston Smith"
description = "I am the Sphinx"
link = "https://nymtech.net"
location = "Giza, Egypt"

Remember to restart your nym-mixnode process in order for the new description to be propagated.

Running your Mix Node

Run your Mix Node with:

./nym-mixnode run --id <YOUR_ID>

Have a look at the saved configuration files in $HOME/.nym/mixnodes/ to see more configuration options.

Bonding your Mix Node

Caution

From v1.1.3, if you unbond your Mix Node that means you are leaving the mixnet and you will lose all your delegations (permanently). You can join again with the same identity key, however, you will start with no delegations.

To initialise, run and bond your Mix Node are the minimum steps to do in order for your Mix Node to work. However we recommend to do a few more steps before bonding. These steps will make it easier for you as a node operator on a long run as well as for others to possibly delegate Nym tokens to your Mix Node. These steps are:

Describe your Mix Node
Configure your firewall
Automate your Mix Node
Set the ulimit, in case you haven’t automated with systemd

Bond via the Desktop wallet (recommended)

You can bond your Mix Node via the Desktop wallet.

Open your wallet, and head to the Bond page, then select the node type Mixnode and input your node details. Press Next.
Enter the Amount, Operating cost and Profit margin and press Next.
You will be asked to run a the sign command with your mixnode - copy and paste the long signature as the value of --contract-msg and run it.

./nym-mixnode sign --id <YOUR_ID> --contract-msg <PAYLOAD_GENERATED_BY_THE_WALLET>

It will look something like this:

Console output

Copy the resulting signature:

# >>> The base58-encoded signature is:
2bbDJSmSo9r9qdamTNygY297nQTVRyQaxXURuomVcRd7EvG9oEC8uW8fvZZYnDeeC9iWyG9mAbX2K8rWEAxZBro1

And paste it into the wallet nodal, press Next and confirm the transaction.

This image is just an example, copy-paste your own base58-encoded signature

Your node will now be bonded and ready to mix at the beginning of the next epoch (at most 1 hour).

You are asked to sign a transaction on bonding so that the Mixnet smart contract is able to map your nym address to your node. This allows us to create a nonce for each account and defend against replay attacks.

If everything worked, you’ll see your node running on the either the Sandbox testnet network explorer or the mainnet network explorer, depending on which network you’re running.

Note that your node’s public identity key is displayed during startup, you can use it to identify your node in the list.

Bond via the CLI (power users)

If you want to bond your Mix Node via the CLI, then check out the relevant section in the Nym CLI docs.

Node Families

Node family involves setting up a group of Mix Nodes that work together to provide greater privacy and security for network communications. This is achieved by having the nodes in the family share information and routes, creating a decentralized network that makes it difficult for third parties to monitor or track communication traffic.

Create a Node Family

To create a Node family, you will need to install and configure multiple Mix Nodes, and then use the CLI to link them together into a family. Once your Node family is up and running, you can use it to route your network traffic through a series of nodes, obscuring the original source and destination of the communication.

You can use either nym-cli which can be downloaded from the release page or compiling nyxd.

Change directory by cd <PATH>/<TO>/<THE>/<RELEASE> and run the following on the family head to obtain the signature for the member:

./nym-mixnode sign --id <YOUR_ID> --text <TEXT>

Console output

Using nym-cli:

--mnemonic is the mnemonic of the member wanting to be the head of family.

/nym-cli cosmwasm execute <WALLET_ADDRESS> '{"create_family": {"signature": "<base58-encoded-signature>","family_head": "<TEXT>","owner_signature":"<NODE_OWNER_SIGNATURE>","label": "<NODE_LABEL>"}}' --mnemonic <MNEMONIC_FROM_THE_NODE_TO_THE_HEAD>

Using nyxd:

--from is mnemonic of the member wanting to join the family.

./nyxd tx wasm execute ${MIXNET-CONTRACT} '{"join_family": {"signature": "<base58-encoded-signature>","family_head": "<TEXT>"}}' --node ${VALIDATOR-ENDPOINT} --from mix1 --chain-id nyx --gas-prices 0.025unym --gas auto --gas-adjustment 1.3 -y -b block

To get the node owner signature, use:

./nym-mixnode node-details --id <NODE_ID>

Joining a Node Family

Change directory by cd <PATH>/<TO>/<THE>/<RELEASE> and run the following on the family head to obtain the signature for the member:

./nym-mixnode sign --id <YOUR_ID> --text <TEXT>

Console output

Using nym-cli:

./nym-cli cosmwasm execute <WALLET_ADDRESS> '{"join_family": {"signature": "<base58-encoded-signature>","family_head": "<TEXT>","owner_signautre": "<OWNER_SIGNATURE_FROM_NODE_TO_JOIN>", "label":"<NODE_TO_JOIN_LABEL>"}}'  --mnemonic <MNEMONIC_FROM_NODE_TO_JOIN>

Using nyxd:

./nyxd tx wasm execute ${MIXNET-CONTRACT} '{"join_family": {"signature": "<base58-encoded-signature>","family_head": "<TEXT>"}}' --node ${VALIDATOR-ENDPOINT} --from mix1 --chain-id nyx --gas-prices 0.025unym --gas auto --gas-adjustment 1.3 -y -b block

To get the node owner signature, use:

./nym-mixnode node-details --id <NODE_ID>

Leaving a family

If wanting to leave, run the same initial command as above, followed by:

Using nym-cli:

./nym-cli cosmwasm execute <WALLET_ADDRESS> '{"leave_family": {"signature": "<base58-encoded-signature>","family_head": "<TEXT>","owner_signautre": "<OWNER_IGNATURE_FROM_NODE_TO_LEAVE>"}}'  --mnemonic <MNEMONIC_FROM_NODE_TO_LEAVE>

Using nyxd:

./nyxd tx wasm execute ${MIXNET-CONTRACT} '{"join_family": {"signature": "<base58-encoded-signature>","family_head": "<TEXT>"}}' --node ${VALIDATOR-ENDPOINT} --from mix1 --chain-id nyx --gas-prices 0.025unym --gas auto --gas-adjustment 1.3 -y -b block

Checking that your node is mixing correctly

Network explorers

Once you’ve started your Mix Node and it connects to the validator, your node will automatically show up in the ‘Mix Nodes’ section of either the Nym Network Explorers:

Enter your identity key to find your node. There are numerous statistics about your node on that page that are useful for checking your up-time history, packets mixed, and any delegations your node may have.

There are also 2 community explorers which have been created by Nodes Guru:

For more details see Troubleshooting FAQ

Maintenance

For Mix Node upgrade, firewall setup, port configuration, API endpoints, VPS suggestions, automation and more, see the maintenance page

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Last updated 9 months ago