What is Nillion (NIL)

I. Project Introduction

1. What Is Nillion?

Nillion is a Blind Computation network built for decentralized privacy-preserving storage, confidential computing, and private AI. Its computational layer leverages modular toolkits—including nilDB, nilCC, and nilAI—to combine secret sharing, multi-party computation (MPC), fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), and trusted execution environments (TEEs). This enables data to be stored and processed securely without exposing plaintext to the underlying nodes. In 2026, the project successfully migrated its public coordination and verification architecture from the legacy Cosmos-based nilChain to Ethereum and the Nillion Ethereum L2; the legacy nilChain officially ceased operations on March 23.

2. How Does Nillion Work?

Privacy-centric storage and computing tasks are executed by the specialized infrastructure of the Blind Computer / Petnet framework. Meanwhile, the Nillion Ethereum L2 and Blacklight nodes manage network staking, task verification, and public state coordination. Developers can tap into nilDB, nilCC, and nilAI via a unified access gateway, blending secret sharing, MPC, FHE, and TEE configurations based on the bespoke performance and privacy mandates of their applications. The legacy Cosmos-native NIL token can be migrated at a strict 1:1 ratio into an Ethereum ERC-20 token, which can then be bridged directly to the Nillion L2.

3. Who Founded Nillion?

Publicly available corporate documentation confirms Alex Page as Co-Founder and CEO, alongside Andrew Yeoh, whose public title is listed as Founding CMO. Public fundraising events include a raise of over $20 million in 2022 and a $25 million round led by Hack VC in 2024. Nillion's updated MiCA white paper discloses that the Nillion Association has raised a cumulative total of approximately €47 million.

4. Nillion Tokenomics

The genesis supply of the NIL token is fixed at 1 billion tokens. The initial genesis allocation structure is designated as follows: Ecosystem and R&D 29%, Community 20%, Protocol Development 10%, Early Supporters 21%, and Core Contributors 20%. Under the 2026 Blacklight incentive mechanism, new tokens equivalent to 0.5% of the total NIL supply are programmatically minted annually to reward network verification nodes. NIL tokens have officially migrated at a 1:1 ratio from their legacy Cosmos-native format to the Ethereum ERC-20 standard.

5. Timeline of Key Milestones

March 24, 2025: Official launch of the Nillion Alpha Mainnet alongside the introduction of the NIL token.

February 2, 2026: Nillion Blacklight goes live on the Nillion Ethereum L2, opening up public verification node onboarding for the community.

March 23, 2026: The legacy Cosmos-based nilChain officially ceases operations, while the 1:1 NIL token migration to Ethereum continues seamlessly.

April 2026: The Phase 2 developer platform goes live, delivering a unified access gateway for nilDB, nilCC, and nilAI integration.

II. Token Information

III. Related Links