Mysterium is both a Foundation and a Network. The Mysterium Foundation is developing the Mysterium Network, an open-source decentralized VPN service based on the Ethereum protocol. The Network is based on an architecture utilizing existing VPN and proxy protocols, Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts, state-channels, decentralized database solutions, and privacy coins like Monero and Zcash.
Decentralized VPN
Members who join the Mysterium Network can register as a VPN service provider and list out their fees (MYST tokens) for this service. Other members will be able to find VPN services matching their needs via a search engine and establish a connection to the service provider once payment terms have been agreed upon and available in the member's account. Since MYST is the native token on the Mysterium network, this token is used to provide the VPN service, so it is therefore truly a utility token.
Privacy
Since the sending and receiving of data is all about communication, it should be obvious that any type of breach could result in personal information being leaked. Also, since many governments, including the US have reversed regulations allowing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to track and sell customer activity and data, internet security is whittling away. More and more, consumers are being subjected to ‘new and invasive ways of being tracked and served targeted ads’. As a result, there has seen a surge in the demand for VPNs for the protection of privacy. But, moving data from a centralized ISP to centralized VPN is not the solution. That is simply changing the holder of your personal data.
Mysterium plans to change that with their decentralized VPN. Their protocol is being designed to ‘dissolve’ or 'obfuscate' users data to keep it as far away from prying eyes as possible whether browsing on a private network or a public Wi-Fi hotspot.
Mysterium's Whitepaper (version 4) provides a detailed description on how their protocol will enable the creation of this decentralized VPN network so make sure and check it out.
Funding and Market Cap
MYST, an ERC-20 utility token, was created May 30, 2017. The current market cap of the MYST is valued at $6,793,028, with a circulating supply of 19,429,024 tokens and a fixed total token count of 32,433,366 MYST. MYST is the utility token used to either "pay" for the decentralized VPN services or "earn" by becoming a VPN service provider.
During their ICO, the Mysterium Foundation sold just over $13 million USD worth of MYST. They state on page 11 of their whitepaper that these funds will be used solely for development and administrative purposes. Here is the breakdown as it was noted in their whitepaper:
- Core Development – 40% - Core development of the needed technology as described in the whitepaper. This includes: Mysterium node network, integration of VPN protocols, smart contract systems, supporting protocols and services, and end user applications.
- Operational – 25% - Costs incurred for a functional system including: hosting and infrastructure costs, staffing, outsourcing, management, and other related expenses.
- Marketing and Sales – 25% - Used for partnership development and direct consumer marketing. Sales costs will largely be incurred by selling Mysterium as a platform solution to businesses.
- Legal and Compliance – 10% - Costs associated with privacy protection and fighting censorship. The legal costs might vary from region to region.
Exchanges
To purchase or sell the MYST token, you have the following options.
Changelly - It seems that you can no longer buy or sell MYST via Changelly. This might be wrong as it is still listed as a support token but it is not available to select in the drop-downs.
Liqui
IDEX (decentralized)
BigONE
ForkDelta / EtherDelta (decentralized)
Lykke (semi decentralized)
WandX (decentralized)
Because MYST is an ERC-20 based token, a good wallet option is myetherwallet, but any ERC-20 Wallet should work.
Development
Development of the Mysterium Network is spread out into distinct phases starting with Phase I and Phase II. Each phase is further divided into several internal stages.
Currently, Mysterium is in Stage 1 of Phase 1 (there are 3 internal stages within Phase 1) with the focus on building the foundation of the Mysterium Network as well as testing. The goal of this phase is to build a fully decentralized VPN, making it secure, usable, and scalable available for Linux, Windows, MacOS, and Mobile. They have also tested the services thoroughly with an initial group of testers in the following countries: China, United States, Ukraine, Vietnam, France, Belarus, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Netherlands, Ireland, Mexico, Italy, Russia, Portugal, and Hong Kong. Work has also begun on smart contracts for clearing payments. During Stage 2 & 3 of Phase 1, Mysterium plans on integrating additional VPN protocols into the node and to complete decentralization.
In Phase II, Mysterium hopes to develop the Mysterium protocol as standard, capable of erasing user data providing end to end encryption. According to their whitepaper, they needed to raise at least $9.1 million USD to finish Phase 1 and begin Phase II, but it does not look like the remaining $4 million USD raised during their ICO will be enough to finish out Phase II. In their whitepaper they do state that part of the MYST supply will be reserved as a future fundraising mechanism but it seems Phase II is a little of a mystery.
You can see all updates on their GitHub site.
MVP Product Demo and Bounty Program
Mysterium also provide access to MVP product demo. You can download the Node (Ubuntu version) and Client. The Client is available for everyone who wants to test running nodes. As of today, there are 200 nodes but all are offline because the current testing phase is over.
Mysterium also has a bounty program where participants can test the MVP demo. At this time, the bounty program has ended but if it is something you are interested in, you should keep up to date because I am sure more testing is to come. By doing so, you can earn MYST coins for acting as a Node for VPN services and allowing clients to connect to your Node to utilize these services. Please check their Bounty Page, for more information. If this is something you are interested in, please take note that by signing up for the bounty program, you accept all RISKS associated with setting up the node and allowing others to connect to your service. Mysterium does not accept any of the risk related to your network or IP.
Roadmap
As of May 18th, Mysterium is well underway with its VPN development. And, during 2018, they have several milestones for having VPN clients for macOS, Win, Linux, and mobile. By having these clients ready, they hope to allow anyone to run a VPN node. They are also planning for a proof of concept around payments. From there, they will keep improving the protocol and network by adding more features including: decentralizing payments, adding multi-hop routing, creating a marketplace for various VPN services, and eventually creating a complete End-to-End communication protection layer, where developers can integrate a secure communication channel into their app for secure 2-way communication without the threat of third party interference.
It seems the best place to keep up with their progress and roadmap is here - Roadmap, Product Update, Testing Results.
The Team
The team consists of the 3 Founders, Robertas Visinski, Paulius Mozuras, and Valdas Petrulis, 6 software engineers, 2 community Managers, 2 product Managers, 1 Strategist/ Biz Dev, and one technical advisor (Ričardas Pocius), most of which are in Lithuania. They are also hiring at the moment with 7 open positions. 4 of these are development roles, 1 is a marketing role, 1 is an accountant, and the last is for legal counsel. This might be a good sign that they are growing.
Robertas Visinski is also an advisor to Miner One which is a crowdfunded cryptocurrency mining operation that buys hardware, software, and electricity for mining and then pays back community members who helped finance the project in MIO tokens. He is also an advisor to Iungo and Monetha.
If you want to stay up to date on the Mysterium Network or MYST, the team has many ways to get in touch or find out more. Here is a list:
Community Channels
- Website
- Slack
- Telegram group
- Medium
- Bitcointalk
- Steemit
- YouTube
- GitHub
- Newsletter
- Whitepaper
As with all cryptocurrencies, do your own research and stay informed.
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