Mysterium has officially launched on mainnet!
These past years have been spent building technology from scratch. We had an idea, but no blueprint for it. This means solving riddles in a backwards way; we only know the answers, but not which questions to ask.
So after four years of building, breaking, and questioning, it’s finally time to release Mysterium Network into the wild.
The Web3 King of the Jungle...
As we all know, the crypto market has exploded in the past couple of years. The DeFi bubble has led to insane Ethereum transaction fees, which locks many people out.
As a team committed to making the Web3 experience as accessible (and enjoyable) as possible, we put serious thought into how we could alleviate this friction point. Ethereum’s transaction fees would kill our ability to reach the emerging markets that we are a natural ally to.
In the past few months, just one Ethereum transaction can cost hundreds of dollars in gas fees...
So we delayed our original plans to launch mainnet in 2020 - and we’re glad we did.
A very calculated scalability integration resulted in not just one, but two extra payment layers (Polygon as L2, and our own protocol as L3).
And the wait has paid off. We now have millions of micropayments taking place within the P2P network each day - instantly, without friction, and costing almost nothing.
We have over 120,000 monthly active users, before we even hit mainnet! We also have over 6,000 nodes getting paid in almost-real time. And now we’ve officially launched, the network is stronger than ever.
Check out our live testnet stats on Grafana to see for yourself.
How does mainnet affect our users, nodes and holders?
Mysterium VPN users
With over 400,000 downloads so far, our Mysterium VPN users continues to grow. Currently, the latest mainnet version is available on Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Fiat payment options are now available for all desktop users (Mac, Windows and Linux). In addition to using cryptocurrency to pay for the untraceable and censorship-resistant VPN, you can now use regular fiat to top up your account!
Update your desktop application now for the latest version of Mysterium VPN here.
A new version of our Android application will be introduced next week, and fiat integration will be rolled out for other devices next month.
Nodes
For all current and future nodes, we have created a new node runner dashboard living at mystnodes.com. This new and user-friendly experience allows you to easily view the latest stats and earnings for all your active running nodes.
For those who are new and just starting to be part of our community, this website walks you through the onboarding process step by step, with visual descriptions.
Installing Mysterium Node is now super simple for all of our users, and the software is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi and AVADO.
For those familiar with My.Mysterium.Network, please bid your farewells, as this will be phased out.
You can check out the new dashboard here by logging in with your regular Mysterium node credentials, or sign up for a new account directly.
The following will also affect newly registered nodes:
In some cases, there may be a requirement to stake a small amount of tokens (between 0.1 and 10 MYST) upon registering, proving skin in the game and ensuring nodes are proactive network participants. This is also to prevent random bots sending fake proposals into the network.
Our Hermes protocol will allow nodes to withdraw whenever they like and save on transaction fees, which is especially important for those who only withdraw or settle occasionally.
Nodes will have a higher chance of being in the smart (re)connect selection, which means they’re more likely to get sessions.
NOTE: All Testnet3 nodes migrated into mainnet will be not required to stake, and will be registered for free (Mysterium will cover the blockchain fees required for these node registration). All current bounty programs will stop on the 1st of December, and the last day for collecting bounties is the 30th of November.
Tokenomics
We already introduced our upcoming Tokenomics 2.0 model earlier this year. Mysterium will be utilising the new IQ Protocol by PARSIQ to simplify payments for users and node runners, and add a staking mechanism that enables all network participants to earn yield in a low-risk and secure way.
We aim to launch the BETA version of the Mysterium Delegation Pool in the next few weeks. This version of the staking pool will enable delegators to earn rewards in MYST, as we manage the testnet version of the pool.
The full Tokenomics 2.0 model will launch sometime in Q1 2022, introducing DAI as a means of payment and rewards in the network. This is when holders of MYST token can stake their tokens in the Mysterium Delegation Pool and earn rewards in DAI.
Nodes will be able to borrow MYST from the Delegation Pool, staking 1 MYST to receive $0.01 DAI. Those who stake in the Delegation Pool will also begin to receive their rewards in DAI.
What next? From single dapp to a whole ecosystem
Mysterium will evolve into an entire ecosystem.
Our network is now powerful enough to be a building block for developers and entrepreneurs worldwide to pioneer the next generation of the internet.
Our post-mainnet plans will centre around growing this privacy ecosystem to include many more products and services, all working towards a truly borderless internet.
While other decentralised ecosystems may reveal their impact in five or more years, Mysterium can already spread its protocol to all corners of the internet, whether Web2 or Web3.
We will be releasing more info about Mysterium 2.0 this week. Hang tight!
Until then, we'll see you in the metaverse.
(Actual footage of Mysterium mainnet launch).
