# Next generation of privacy infrastructure by Daniel Vasquez x Nym // Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress #2

- Channel: [Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress](https://streameth.org/ethereum-cypherpunk-congress)
- Date: 2026-01-09
- Duration: 17:03
- Topics: web3, privacy, now, crypto, cryptography, blockchain, data, security, human right, rights, tech, technology, internet, open source, free, freedom, ethereum, hackers, ethics, cypherpunk, dev, developer, dapp, decentralization, bitcoin, computer, surveillance, cyber, peer2peer, p2p, love, solidity, zk, zero knowledge, education, academy, w3pn, congress, ethereum cypherpunk, buenos aires, argentina, vitalik buterin, privacidad, filecoin, foundation
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-u4aI61qmJ-Y
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4aI61qmJ-Y

## Description

Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress by Web3Privacy Now is the world's largest cypherpunk and human rights event.

4500 people gathering in Buenos Aires to celebrate privacy with internet freedom leaders like Richard Stallman, Vitalik Buterin, Roger Dingledine, and Eva Galperin. 

Join us in building a free internet for all.

Website: https://web3privacy.info/
Congress site: https://congress.web3privacy.info/

## Transcript

[applause] Hi. [clears throat] Hi all. One second please. We are charging the slides. Well, that first of all I want to say you that um English is not my first language. So I ask for your forgiveness to me if I not able to speak some things really detailed but I'm going to try to do my best. Uh and probably some little parts I'm going to say that in Spanish like okay here we go. So I'm Daniel uh I'm the head of growth for Latin America for nintage nint.com. You can look that web page later. I'm going to share some links. Uh so we are going to talk about this is a little overview about [clears throat] the problem of the digital privacy that is broken mostly related to metadata and surveillance and how we solve it with the noise generating mix networks. And then we are going to talk about um how to easy access to a mixet, how it works, about censor resistant features, the new Ethereum payments and announcing the new NIM RPC for Ethereum and how to use the free NIM SD key. So uh digital privacy is broken and without privacy uh on the network uh not only there but not just the blockchain uh every action online leaves a trace end to end encryption is not enough. We have a youth problem there with the metadata leak. Uh later we are going to see why but basically metadata talks everything they need to know about the origin, destination, time, leng and detect table patterns and expose financial and consumer patterns and personal relations and all kind of uh personal data. Even if they told we are going to see that that they if they have enough metadata they really don't need to decrypt the data of our communications and this is a problem in all the protocols it's not just a question of TCP IP but HTTP UDP FTP all of them have the same problem is a design problem uh and who can get that information from us like internet server providers change autonomous BGP routters, the wall internet backbone uh is able to access to your metadata but also your Wi-Fi router LAN if droppers uh multiple national security agency programmers under cover bias node then they are mostly focused on capturing metadata uh and metadata harvesting and traffic pattern analysis are in full motion right now and it's only right now it's a problem that we have for more than last 10 20 years old uh like Stewart Baker the NSA former general council said you have enough metadata you don't really need the real contact. So how we are solving this hard problem on the network combining the power of other centralized M networks and blockchains uh using what we call a noise generation network. Erh the noise generation mix nets is overreal. We have 700 mix nodes all of them administrated by a community they are not our servers uh that work today. So this is the four critical points of the mix nets like the first one is that we inject cover traffic in the network. So the what we are trying to do is hiding avoiding the analysis of the patterns of the communication because if they control the enter of the communication and see some patterns on the TCPI IP size of the package length and timing and they control the same point on the exit side they are able to the anonymize every people that is making communications. So the first thing is to inject cover traffic which try to decoy packets of skate the real traffic make communication patterns automatically uniformative and uh we made packet mixing. So we identically encrypted and equally streams packets we um modify the packets and put them inside a strings with the same size packets. Um then we made timing ofation. So we change the timing of the package. This uh makes the mix nets by definition a little more slow than a normal TCP IP communication. But uh even more if you change the timing of the packets and you need to reconstruct that later. that uh with the timing of the adversary is not able to see the order of your packets and um then we pass that through multihop routing and each node in the pad process only local forwarding instructions with no global knowledge of all the communication that you are doing there. So the what we use to access this is NIVVPN a tokenized decentralized network a mixnet that is so easy to use as a normal VPN. Uh there is one EP that you can use in five platforms. You can use in uh Linux, Windows, Apple, uh Android and you can get it also in Froid. And this is how the network works. You see like you can see here uh this is with Nimbpn in anonymous mode with Nimbpn in fast mode and a normal VPN how this works. So if we start from the beginning we realize that from your computer your laptop or your phone all the packets can go inside things with the same sides uh altering the timing of the packets and introducing fake packets on the communication. So they are totally anonymized and offiscated packets and then they go to the entry gateway they jump on three different mix nodes and then go to the exit gateway. All these servers all these machines are part of the community. We we have absolutely no control over the system and then the end side if it's connected also to the mixet is totally anonymized. Uh so in a fast mode is a way that we've um create with worldw uh to speed up the connection. So it's not anonymized package but at least the difference with a normal VPN with this you are totally They can see absolutely all your communication. The BPN provider know more from you that you really know from yourself. But in this case uh with um the Nimbpn speedy mode uh the first servers really knows who you are but the second one does not know who you are and the final provider also is not able to know your notification and it it cannot uh identify the the origin. So this is a a fast mode for the VPN is different from other VPNs because you have two servers that are totally administered by the community. Erh so the company NIM is not absolutely able to understand what you are doing there and is the only one of the very few people or few companies that is able to do so. So we have a little comparation here between NE and to in VPNs as you can see in the five server mixnets we have end to end encryption like to or like centralized VPNs but nimbpn the five server mixets is the only one who protects about metadata not even to do that even if we love really deeply to and I have g hundreds of workshops about how to use to for a lot of social organization during last 10 years But the reality is that they have the same problem that all the others with the metadata leak problem. And uh for sure another one beautiful thing of this is that the online activities cannot be linked to the payment. So NIM don't know absolutely nothing about their clients about the people that is using the networks. They even know they even don't know who pays for the system. And once you pay, nim is not able to link the payment to the traffic or to the user. Uh you buy a NVPN subscription and you get a certain knowledge credential, a proof of payment back. You can pay also with a credit card, ncoin, coinitarian or even physically money fiat. You can send the money by mail to the company and and they are able to give you a subscription. But if you want to do that in electronic way you can use crypto or whatever and then you receive anonymous credential to access the network but it's only cable your payment to your user and to the traffic that you are doing. So in case a court ask us about uh who is that user or who made that payment we are unable technically to give that information. Um now from science 3 days ago we are also able to make Ethereum payments. So it was very easy to pay with Bitcoin or with credit card or with Nim tokens but now Ethereum payment is available since three four days ago and it's a fantastic solution also. Um and now the other surprise that we are going to announce today is that this week we are going to liberate a new version of the software that includes a RPC private uh system to connect directly to your wallet. We are going to make a little demonstration here. So basically well this had been done by a collaborator that is I think he's in this event also. Uh the thing is that when you use the anonymous mode the mixnet could be a slow experience for the users because it is slow down a lot your communication but then you can use the new RPC for example for protecting your wallets and it's super easy. It's a new feature that you simply activate that in the NIVPN client and then you are able to copy uh one URL and avoid using a RPC that could leak your identity and all that while you are using the two mo the two jams the speedy way of the VPN not the mixet one. You could be using the the two jams connection but then you can configure your browser or your wallet or whatever you need just to be absolutely protected in that traffic. Even you can use another browser is another use of case um that you you can have your normal browser connected directly through the VPN with just two hubs but you can have another browser uh and using this sock 5 system you can directly have that browser connected to the mixet. uh so you can speed up when you need it in the other browser and go more safe in the second one. Uh why we do this? Well, currently MetaMask use centralizes RPC providers like Infura send an RPC via the Metamax leaks your metadata. So if you are trying to create a wallet uh and trying to be real anonymous and then when you make the payment when you make the transaction this RPC problem is going to leak your information and they are going to discover who you are. With this solution we try to avoid that also. Uh here is the NVPN client and you need to go to a wallet and well from here I can see really well the screen but uh then you see here the sock 5 connection and then you can copy this URL and configure that in your wallet or in your browser or whatever you need. So in at the moment you make that instantly all your package that are um through that sock 5 are going to go directly to the mixet. And now a little video of how uh you do this in your ninvpn client. I don't know if this part is going to work because it's a video from YouTube and I'm not sure that the internet connection is going to allow it. Yeah. So the first step is enable a in the wallet. You go to wallet as we said you activate the option and once it's activated you attach your provider to the RPC. You copy the link. You go to your browser. You go to the provider for example Solia. You copy the and you delete the last part and put the URL. In the future, this is not going to be needed. You will be able to copy directly the wall link. But by this moment, you are connected directly from your browser using this sock file system. Yeah. And that's all. Okay. So also for builders we have the NEM SDKs for RAS and JavaScript that is absolutely open. It's a freeto use NE SDK and it integrate the mixet functionality into a free for developers. Uh you can use several solution depending on environment native or browser advised application that have different restrictions. Um the roost SD key is plug and play. is a TAP proxy model expose local host sockets constant connection mixet model expose row mixet client and soon we have a mix socket and TCP sockets like interface and the typescript as the keys the process are very restricted environment limited option for external communication web sockets with transport AP webc can run inside any typecript have script a most wallets and no native code needs installing on the user uh MF fetch is a plate replacement for browser fetch API and the mixnet client is one client in web worker for embedding browser web page. I'm finishing don't worry and that's all. So I I really think that this is one of the very little or the only solution in the world that can solve the metadata leak problem that anonymity does really does not exist while we have this kind of problems in the communication is a design problem. So it's it's by design that we have this you uh [snorts] hole in our communication system and the only way to solve this is trying to hideing the metadata and anonymizing package by offiscating timing introducing fate packets and added several of encryption. H you can access the NIVPN downloading from that Q and you have some contacts and social here if you want more information. Um from tomorrow we are going to be at DEP connect we have a booth in the privacy sector. So I really would like to see you there and have a chat and have a demo and make some connections and try to explain you. I didn't talk about the part of um administering mix nodes and how the reward system for the mix node works because there is a lot of economy there inside if you set up a gateway or a mix node in NI then you are mining privacy so you can get tokens for helping people to protect their privacy and communications and we can talk about all that uh tomorrow in the devcon. Thank you very much. [applause]