Nym Technologies has raised $300 million to advance internet privacy.
The money will support the NYM Innovation Fund, with grants for developers looking to build on top of its decentralised infrastructure.
It comes from Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain, Greenfield One, Huobi Incubator, Tioga Capital, Eden Block, NGC Ventures, HashKey Capital, Figment, Fenbushi Capital, Tayssir Capital, KR1, Lemniscap, and new backers OKX Blockdream Ventures.
Nym’s native token NYM launched on major crypto exchanges, including OKX and Huobi, recently.
Its platform uses mixnets, network protocols that hide individuals’ metadata footprints to protect applications, coins and wallets against mass surveillance.
Tails software, which was used by Edward Snowden to leak NSA secrets, is among the first to win a grant.
University researcher Carmela Troncoso has also won a grant for her privacy-enhanced COVID contract tracing system.
Harry Halpin, CEO of Nym Technologies, told Cointelegraph the fund was “a drop in the ocean compared to the endless amounts of cash possessed by vested interests at Silicon Valley companies and nation-states that benefit from mass surveillance”.
He added: “Cryptocurrency originally had a vision of defending the privacy of ordinary people, but US government funding has historically ignored privacy in favour of NSA mass surveillance.
“Up until recently, VCs have funded privacy-invasive advertising business models by companies like Facebook.”