What Is Nillion and How to Interact With Nillion Testnet

How to Interact With Nillion Testnet

Nillion is introducing a secure computation network for handling high-value data. Users can now interact with the Nillion testnet by acquiring test NIL tokens from the faucet, before sending and staking NIL tokens.

Key Takeaways

• Nillion is a decentralized project that utilizes Privacy-Enhancing Technologies to encrypt data for processing across multiple nodes through blind computing.

• The founding team is made up of Andrew Masanto, Alex Page, Andrew Yeoh, and many more. Together they have successfully raised a total of $50 million from investors such as Hack VC, HashKey Capital, and more. 

• Interested users can now claim testnet tokens and interact with Nillion’s testnet chain by sending tokens to others as well as staking.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as Large Language Models (LLM) can be helpful for users to answer questions, find vulnerabilities in code, and complete tasks. However, the question now is how much privacy and security do users have? Many large companies have restricted employees from using popular tools like ChatGPT over concerns of data leaks. 

One solution would be to encrypt data but even that comes with its own set of challenges. For example, it would be a heavy requirement on computational resources which risk slowing down the system’s performance. On top of that, when data is encrypted and stored, decrypting it to perform necessary actions and then re-encrypting it can also create potential security vulnerabilities and inefficient data handling. 

What Is Nillion?

Nillion is a decentralized project taking these challenges head on by introducing a secure computation network for handling high-value data. The founding team is made up of Andrew Masanto who is known for being the founder of Hedera and Reserve, Alex Page as Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Yeoh as Chief Marketing Officer, Conrad Whelan as Chief Technology Officer, Slava Rubin as Chief Business Officer, Dr. Elizabeth Quaglia as Head of Cryptography, and Dr. Miguel de Vega as Chief Scientific Officer. 

Both Alex Page and Andrew Yeoh have experience from financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Rothschild. Meanwhile, Conrad Whelan was previously a founding engineer at Uber, Slava Rubin is the founder of Indiegogo, Dr. Elizabeth Quaglia is a Reader at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Dr. Miguel de Vega is a mathematician and innovator who has filed more than 30 patents. 

Nillion has successfully raised a total of $50 million in funding which includes a recent undisclosed round on October 30, 2024. The list of investors include Hack VC, HashKey Capital, Distributed Global, and Big Brain Holdings. 

Nillion Brings Secure Data Encryption

The project’s architecture can process encrypted data without needing to decrypt it first, referred to as blind computations. This is done by integrating Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) like Multi-Party Computation (MPC) to ensure data confidentiality. As a result, users can securely store data on Nillion’s peer-to-peer network of nodes that collectively manage and process data. On top of that, Nillion can be used across different industries like healthcare, finance, and even private AI training. 

MPC is a cryptographic technique that allows multiple parties to perform joint computations over inputs without revealing the actual data to each other. The method enables each participant to maintain the confidentiality of their data while still facilitating collaborative analysis and processing. 

An example, known as the Millionaires Problem, was introduced by Andrew Yao in 1982 and describes one of the situations that MPC can come into play. If two millionaires want to know who has more money without revealing their individual net worths, MPC will let them input their net worth into a shared computation that then runs a series of cryptographic operations. The results only show the comparison result, or who is the richer one, without having to reveal their inputs. 

The NIL Token

The NIL token will play an important role in securing and managing the Nillion network. Users can stake NIL to accrue voting power, pay to request blind computations, and vote on on-chain proposals or delegate their voting power to others.

Nillion is currently running its testnet phase where interested participants can get testnet NIL tokens and interact with the Nillion platform. Given the project’s potential for improving high-value data encryption and the opportunity to interact with its testnet, now is an opportune time to get familiar with Nillion! 

Do note that at the time of writing, the Nillion team has not made any official announcements regarding a token airdrop and any requirements. Therefore, following the steps below does not guarantee a future token allocation. 

Step 1: Add Nillion Testnet

In this guide, we will be using a Keplr wallet because at the time of writing ,Nillion’s documents note that Keplr and Leap are the supported wallets. If you don’t already have a Keplr wallet, you can follow this guide: https://help.keplr.app/articles/installation-guide-for-keplr-extension-for-beginners 

Once you have your Keplr wallet, go to https://chains.keplr.app/ to add Nillion testnet. 

After adding Nillion testnet to your wallet, go to https://faucet.testnet.nillion.com/ to claim your testnet tokens. You can claim tokens here every 24 hours.

To get your Nillion testnet wallet address, open the Keplr extension and click Copy Address. You can then choose the Nillion testnet by typing it into the search bar. The beginning of the address should include “nillion” like in the example below. 

Paste that address into the faucet and complete the Captcha verification. 

Step 2: Send NIL Tokens

Now that you have NIL testnet tokens, go to https://testnet.nillion.explorers.guru/ where you can select any wallet address to send NIL tokens to. If you have friends or know anyone already on Nillion, you can send it to their address.

In the explorer, scroll down and click on any proposer’s name to view and copy their wallet address. 

You can find the account address listed in the validator’s details.

Then open your Keplr wallet and Send some NIL tokens to the copied wallet address.

Step 3: Stake NIL Tokens

Head over to https://testnet.ping.pub/nillion and Connect Wallet in the top right corner.

After that, select Delegate to stake your tokens.

You can choose from a provided list of validators.

Conclusion

Nillion is a decentralized project that aims to introduce a secure and efficient way to encrypt high-value data without risking data privacy. Currently in its testnet phase, interested users can claim testnet tokens to stake and send to others. 

Note that this article is only for informational purposes. Airdrop farming is highly speculative, and engaging in these activities is no guarantee of attaining an airdrop. Also, always do your own research and ensure you are connecting your wallet to the legitimate protocol.