TL;DR
Mysterium’s mainnet launch signifies the maturation of our technology and the validation of our ongoing mission - to make the internet truly open, accessible and borderless. Our global network is now powerful enough to act as a building block for developers and entrepreneurs pioneering a more ethical internet for all.
Mysterium 2.0 evolves the project into an entire ecosystem, with the development of a new suite of web products and services via our in-house R&D Labs, development fund and B2B partnerships. Mysterium is being test-run by cryptocurrency wallets, browsers, search engines, data scraping solutions, and streaming services, building default privacy and censorship-resistance into the apps we already use.
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Mysterium 1.0 ; How it all Started
Four years ago, Mysterium Network began its mission to make the internet truly borderless.
While our solution to fight widespread Internet censorship was being developed, governments and corporations continued to aggressively scale their tactics, denying entire communities of their basic freedoms - freedom of speech, information and the press.
But years of open-source development has laid the groundwork for an advanced technical solution, brought to life through Mysterium’s first iteration.
Mysterium started as the first ever network of its kind, in what is now considered the decentralized VPN (dVPN) category. This initial phase was our Web3 playground, letting us explore novel technologies and use cases for unblocking the internet and making it universally accessible.
Since such a network did not exist, building it required years of testing and R&D of routing techniques and infrastructure components.
The peer-to-peer VPN became a leading dapp by Monthly Active Users, surpassing some of Ethereum’s most popular DEXes. While on testnet, it was channeling over 900 Terabytes of traffic each month, and the amount of nodes in the network grew by 773% in one year!
Mysterium is a rapidly adapting project that continues to anticipate changes in censorship technologies, long before the market response. In this same timeframe, the VPN industry has nearly doubled, now valued at over $30 Billion with a projected yearly growth rate above 15%.
But VPNs are fundamentally the same as they were five years ago, and are no longer sufficient for circumventing the Internet’s unethical and unjustified borders.
Our mission to provide anonymous and open internet access to everyone cannot be achieved with a single VPN app, and Mysterium no longer fits into this existing dVPN classification.
Like most advancements in Web3, adoption comes from community crowdsourcing of a technology stack that every Internet service can plug into.
This leads us to our project’s second iteration, Mysterium 2.0
Mysterium 2.0 - from Single Dapp to Builder's Platform
Following our mainnet launch, our global, privacy-first network is now powerful enough to act as a building block for developers and entrepreneurs worldwide.
Mysterium will go beyond its proof of concept phase to become a breeding ground for open web innovation. The project will evolve from a singular product into an entire ecosystem, with the development of a new suite of tools and services via in-house funding and B2B partnerships.
Consumer-facing technologies often provide a standalone service. This is because their default development path is proprietary and use case-specific. Though quality of service is high, it’s also severely limiting, as routing technology should be about unblocking the world wherever necessary.
The ecosystem approach we’re adopting makes our network a tool and base for builders, extending use cases from a single service offering (such as a VPN), to every imaginable routing solution.
Though there are many more, the first use cases which have already shown promise and will be a major focus in the short-term are:
VPNs and DPNs; with new and existing commercial applications that can plug into our node network, creating a truly borderless web experience.
Enterprise-level proxy services; a new proxy protocol will be developed for unblocking corporate censorship, allowing projects to scrape the web at a fraction of current costs. By removing these centralized middlemen, we can bring even more value to our node runners.
Third-party Integrations; Mysterium has developed easy tooling and APIs for major Web2 and Web3 platforms, which could be utilised by browsers, search engines, cryptocurrency wallets and streaming services, bringing our unblockable tech to everyone through the applications we already use.
As a fast-growing network, stability also remains a top priority. Network uptime is one of our core focuses, ensuring consistent quality and uninterrupted experience for both B2B partners and users of the network.
Mysterium will also continue its work in pioneering censorship-resistance, led by an R&D Lab. Our vision as a young team was to make the internet borderless. This will take time as we work against governments and corporations determined to make the Splinternet a reality. We already have a number of talented developers who have experienced censorship first-hand and understand its nuances on both technical and social levels. We will be applying their brilliant minds to the problem of censorship while we continue to scale our commercial efforts.
Lavafy, Mysterium’s Network-as-a-Service (NaaS)
Eight projects are already connected via Lavafy, Mysterim’s Network As A Service (Naas) business, including five commercial VPNs and three proxy services. The tech is bridging the gap between Web3 solutions and Web2 users, including for those who may not yet be comfortable using (nor care about) cryptocurrencies.
Despite millions of customers, there is a global shortage of high-quality, stable and ethically sourced residential proxies. Businesses mostly offer access to data center IPs, which are constantly rotated and blocked.
Mysterium's homegrown network helps VPN and proxy businesses scale competitively in a market that is desperate for genuine local connections.
Mysterium is one of the fastest growing distributed networks in the world. This highly coveted, global network of residential IPs are hosted by real people, using mostly LAN-connected devices such as Raspberry Pis. That means stable, fast and uninterrupted connections, offered to users looking for a truly local browsing experience.
Most importantly, each and every IP is ethically acquired and sourced. Our homegrown node community places their trust in us. As the network grows with B2B partners, we increase their earning potential via the internet resource marketplace. It’s a win-win for everyone involved, and for the future of peer-to-peer technology as we continue to scale.
The First Use Case in focus; Proxy Solution for Data Scraping
Over the years we have played in various markets and industries. With ongoing business development behind the scenes, we’ve seen there is an ongoing demand from potential clients looking for a robust proxy solution that is different from anything in the current market.
Mysterium’s node network already has the key ingredients to create a first-of-its-kind proxy solution that can provide global coverage, merged with a hyperlocal experience. This means not just country-based IPs, but city-based locations.
In particular, the web scraping market is ripe for disruption and remains a huge opportunity for Mysterium. Our protocol and infrastructure can be repurposed for many B2B partners who’d like to leverage our network for their data analysis and scraping needs, such as content scraping, research, contact scraping, price comparisons, weather data monitoring, and website change detection.
Market Research Future (MRFR) predicts the global web scraper software market size will soon reach almost $1 Billion, registering a 13.1% CAGR from 2020-2026.
To support this data scraping solution, we will make some major technical improvements:
Improve and expand our network services, so it’s much easier and faster to connect to a larger amounts of exit nodes at the same time
Introduce more filtering and tagging possibilities to organise exit nodes more efficiently
Rework the core node code so it can become more portable and adapted to other applications and projects.
In general, the main markets in which Mysterium operates are experiencing huge and consistent surges in growth, including the VPN market and data privacy solutions market.
Tokenomics 2.0 ; Staking, Subscriptions & Skin in the Game
This change in direction also re-energises the tokenomics model to support the growth of the network and the development of new use cases, providing both short and long term benefits for business models and engagement.
Tokenomics 2.0 will add DeFi properties to MYST; in addition to being a value driver which simplifies payments for users and node runners, it’s a bare necessity in reaching our long-time goal of full network decentralization.
In its full implementation, nodes will have to stake MYST to run a node, to demonstrate their commitment and ensure they have "skin in the game".
Mysterium will be the first project to launch an integration of the IQ Protocol, which provides “collateral-less, risk-free asset renting and staking possibilities”. The solution offers a new and innovative way of creating a subscription model for blockchain projects that offer ongoing services, such as Mysterium Network, where nodes offer VPN and proxy services by the minute and Gb.
The IQ Protocol will power the Mysterium Delegation Pool, which nodes can rent MYST tokens from. Holders of MYST can delegate (stake) their tokens in the Pool, receiving their interest rewards in DAI, growing their stake proportionate to pool size and network traffic.
The full Tokenomics 2.0 model will launch in the second half of 2022. However, we will be launching a BETA version of the Mysterium Delegation Pool in the coming weeks. This version of the staking pool allows delegators to earn rewards in MYST rather than DAI, as we manage the test version of the pool to assess its economic model, participation and competitiveness.
We intend to adapt and enhance the tokenomics design over the months and years based on industry trends and changes. We want to introduce additional advantages for Web3 resource sharing and staking in the network.
You can read more about Tokenomics 2.0 here.
Timeline ; "You Can't Rush Genius"
The Mysterium 2.0 whitepaper is currently being finalised, and a litepaper will be released as a first snapshot and summary of what’s to come.
Our new business strategy and product roadmap encapsulates the next five years for the ecosystem’s development and the path it will forge in Web3 privacy and anti-censorship technologies. This iteration for the project will unfold in five stages.
While we are able to provide a more consistent and accurate portrayal of our network development for the next 1 - 2 years, the nature of the space we operate in means that our roadmap could re-route or change altogether, as we adapt to new technological developments and market forces.
The Web3 space is not just about taking what we have and making it better - we are reinventing and building new technology from scratch. That means we need to be cautiously optimistic and agile as we build the unknown.
Our short-term vision will be a critical time for the team as we begin to expand and onboard many new projects and use cases that demonstrate the potential of the network. We will invite many new improvement proposals from partners, developers and the open-source community.
One major point of difference during this development phase is that Mysterium is fully compatible with the legacy internet. While other decentralised ecosystems may reveal their impact in 5 - 10 years, building on Mysterium has immediate impact and utility.
Mysterium 2.0 is about spreading that utility to all corners of the web.
Onward.
Mysterium is a grassroots project that would be nothing but an idea without our node runners, users and partners helping us make a internet blind to borders
If you also believe that open internet access should be a basic human right, then join us, as
🔗B2B partner or
and take your part in defending our digital rights and freedoms.