Privacy Startup Nym Technologies Launches “Nym Sandbox” Testnet for Community Participation

Ahead of its highly anticipated mainnet release, Switzerland-based privacy startup launched the Nym Sandbox testnet to serve as the permanent testnet alongside the recently launched Nova testnet. The Nym Sandbox is open to developers, node runners, and researchers who want to try out the Nym mixnet architecture before joining or deploying on the mainnet. The launch of the Sandbox testnet is a critical milestone in Nym’s development cycle of the three-step mainnet release. As part of the Nym Sandbox launch, the Nym development team has also released a critical “CosmWasm 1.0” upgrade to enhance further the capabilities of its smart contract platform that powers the NYM tokenomics. With each new release bringing the team closer to its mainnet launch, Nym CTO and Co-Founder Dave Hrycyszyn notes, “The permanent testnet is an important step in the development of the entire Nym architecture. It will contain most major components and smart contracts, but in a secure test environment for us to tweak any issues before we begin the launch.” Unlike Nym’s previously launched testnets, the Nym Sandbox won’t be incentivized. Developers can use the Sandbox testnet to build and integrate wallets and other apps, send messages, process transactions, and run nodes and gateways. However, the testnet will include “test” tokens and reputation design that replicates the mainnet tokenomics such as reward sharing, active, standby, and inactive nodes, a...