No. NymVPN uses AmneziaWG, a censorship-resistant fork of WireGuard, exclusively for Fast mode. OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPSec, and other VPN protocols are not currently supported. Anonymous (mixnet) mode uses the Nym mixnet with the Sphinx packet format, which is not a standard VPN protocol at all.
Why NymVPN standardized on AmneziaWG
- Speed: WireGuard is built from roughly 4,000 lines of code with highly efficient cryptography, and can be upwards of 50% faster than OpenVPN.
- Censorship resistance: AmneziaWG sends decoy packets before the handshake, preventing deep packet inspection from identifying and blocking the connection. OpenVPN and IKEv2 traffic patterns are well known to network filters, which makes them easier to block in restrictive regions.
- Privacy: combined with NymVPN's decentralized 2-hop routing and tunnel-in-a-tunnel encryption, no single node can see both your identity and your destination. See How does NymVPN implement WireGuard?
- Auditability: a small codebase means a smaller attack surface and easier public audits. OpenVPN's roughly 100,000 lines, and its many configuration options, leave more room for misconfiguration.
Will NymVPN add OpenVPN support?
OpenVPN support is under consideration for future releases. Most requests for it come from people who want router-level configurations, firewall compatibility, or specific enterprise setups, since older router hardware often supports OpenVPN but not WireGuard.
If a router setup is what you need, OpenWRT routers can already run NymVPN through a community-built package, no OpenVPN or config files required. See Where can I find the NymVPN WireGuard configuration files? for details and the current state of router support. You can track upcoming protocol support on the NymVPN public roadmap.
Related questions
What is AmneziaWG exactly?
A fork of wireguard-go, the official user-space WireGuard implementation, designed to disguise VPN traffic against deep packet inspection. NymVPN runs it client-side, so you get the protection automatically with no configuration. Read the AmneziaWG announcement.
Is WireGuard as secure as OpenVPN?
Oui. WireGuard uses state-of-the-art cryptography (Curve25519, ChaCha20-Poly1305, BLAKE2) reviewed by leading cryptographers, with security equal to OpenVPN and far better performance. See What is WireGuard? and the blog comparison WireGuard vs. OpenVPN.
Which protocol should I pick in the app?
There is nothing to pick at the protocol level. You choose a mode: Fast mode (AmneziaWG) for everyday speed, or Anonymous mode (mixnet) for maximum privacy. See What's the difference between NymVPN Fast & Anonymous mode?