AeroNyx Node Operator Policy

Effective date: July 6, 2026

AeroNyx is an open privacy protocol. Any person or organization may run compatible AeroNyx protocol nodes, subject to applicable law, technical compatibility, security requirements, hosting rules, and their own infrastructure responsibilities.

This Node Operator Policy explains the baseline rules for node operators who register, report, manage, advertise, or route through AeroNyx-compatible nodes, especially when using AeroNyx-operated apps, Nodeboard, bootstrap lists, discovery services, public statistics, or routing surfaces.

1. Open Protocol Participation

Running a compatible AeroNyx protocol node is permissionless at the protocol layer unless a specific hosted service says otherwise.

Permissionless does not mean unmanaged or consequence-free. AeroNyx-operated services may apply health checks, compatibility checks, abuse-prevention rules, allow lists, deny lists, capacity filters, reputation signals, quality criteria, or other safeguards before displaying, ranking, selecting, or routing to a node.

AeroNyx may remove, hide, deprioritize, block, or refuse to route to nodes through AeroNyx-operated services if we believe the node creates legal, security, privacy, reliability, abuse, or operational risk.

2. Independent Operator Status

Independent node operators are not automatically agents, employees, partners, franchisees, contractors, or representatives of AeroNyx.

Running a node does not mean AeroNyx has approved, certified, endorsed, supervised, audited, or taken responsibility for that node.

Node operators are responsible for their own infrastructure, software configuration, operational security, hosting terms, user-facing disclosures, taxes, licenses, lawful operation, and compliance with any laws that apply to their node.

3. Privacy and No-Inspection Rule

AeroNyx is designed so nodes do not need to read user plaintext to provide protocol service.

Node operators must not attempt to:

• decrypt user payloads
• inspect message plaintext
• inspect MemChain plaintext
• intercept private keys, seed phrases, credentials, or user-held decryption material
• inject tracking code, advertisements, malware, or modified payloads
• perform TLS stripping, man-in-the-middle attacks, DNS manipulation, or content injection
• correlate traffic to identify users, contacts, social graphs, routes, or private destinations beyond protocol-required operation
• collect, sell, or disclose user content or user-derived behavioral profiles

Nodes may process limited operational metadata required to deliver protocol service, such as endpoint, destination IP/port, protocol, timing, byte counts, capacity, health, and routing status. Operators should minimize, secure, and limit retention of operational logs.

Any logging beyond protocol-required operational metadata must be legally required or clearly disclosed by the operator, and must not be represented as AeroNyx's default privacy model.

4. Accurate Node Reporting

Node operators must provide accurate information when registering, advertising, or reporting a node, including:

• public endpoint and region
• service capabilities
• uptime and health status
• capacity and bandwidth claims
• relay, discovery, or memory-chain capability claims
• maintenance and incident status
• operator-controlled configuration that affects routing or user trust

Operators must not forge, manipulate, replay, or misrepresent health reports, capacity metrics, route proofs, lifecycle events, peer discovery data, uptime, geographic region, or node identity.

5. Security Requirements

Node operators are responsible for securing their nodes. At minimum, operators should:

• keep node software and host systems updated
• protect keys, tokens, credentials, and administrative access
• restrict privileged access to trusted administrators
• monitor service health and abnormal behavior
• avoid exposing unnecessary ports or services
• use secure hosting and firewall practices
• investigate compromise indicators quickly
• report serious protocol-impacting security issues to AeroNyx

If a node is compromised or suspected to be compromised, the operator should disable routing, rotate secrets, preserve relevant security logs where lawful, and notify AeroNyx if the incident may affect protocol users or public network health.

Protocol or software vulnerabilities should be reported under the AeroNyx Security and Vulnerability Disclosure Policy: https://docs.aeronyx.network/articles/aeronyx-security-and-vulnerability-disclosure-policy.

6. Prohibited Node Conduct

Node operators must not use AeroNyx-compatible nodes to:

• attack, overload, scan, or disrupt AeroNyx or third-party systems
• route spam, malware, phishing, scams, bot traffic, or abusive automation
• facilitate child sexual abuse material or other illegal content
• intentionally deanonymize users or correlate private traffic
• forge routing, proof, capacity, or health data
• impersonate AeroNyx or falsely claim official certification
• bypass AeroNyx-operated service filters or abuse controls
• interfere with other operators, users, or protocol services
• violate sanctions, export controls, hosting rules, or applicable law

Node operators must also follow the AeroNyx Acceptable Use Policy: https://docs.aeronyx.network/articles/aeronyx-acceptable-use-policy.

7. Nodeboard and Administrative Actions

If a node operator uses Nodeboard or other AeroNyx-operated management tools, administrative actions may be logged for accountability, including restart, upgrade, maintenance, command status, incident handling, and health verification.

Node operators should use remote commands carefully. Operators are responsible for confirming authorization, checking active sessions, planning maintenance, reviewing incident status, and validating node recovery after administrative actions.

8. Discovery, Routing, and Public Statistics

Appearing in a peer store, discovery candidate list, public statistic, dashboard, or Nodeboard view does not guarantee that a node will receive traffic, rewards, ranking, visibility, or continued access.

AeroNyx-operated routing and discovery surfaces may consider health, freshness, reachability, compatibility, abuse signals, region, capacity, policy status, and other protocol-health criteria.

Public protocol statistics are intended to describe network health. They are not an endorsement of any independent node operator.

9. Lawful Requests and Local Obligations

Independent node operators may receive legal requests, hosting provider requests, abuse complaints, or regulatory obligations in their own jurisdictions. Operators are responsible for evaluating and responding to those obligations.

AeroNyx cannot provide legal advice to node operators. Operators should consult qualified counsel when needed.

If a legal request concerns AeroNyx-operated services, see the AeroNyx Law Enforcement and Transparency Policy: https://docs.aeronyx.network/articles/aeronyx-law-enforcement-and-transparency-policy.

10. Enforcement by AeroNyx-Operated Services

AeroNyx may take action through AeroNyx-operated services if we believe a node violates this policy or creates risk. Actions may include:

• removing or hiding a node from official discovery surfaces
• deprioritizing or blocking routing to a node
• revoking or limiting Nodeboard access
• flagging the node as unhealthy, risky, or unsupported
• rejecting heartbeats, descriptors, proofs, or capability claims
• preserving available records where lawful
• reporting abuse or security threats where appropriate

These actions protect users, protocol health, and AeroNyx-operated services. They do not require AeroNyx to supervise every independent node.

11. Updates

AeroNyx may update this Node Operator Policy as the protocol, products, legal environment, or threat model evolves. Continued use of AeroNyx-operated services after updates become effective means you accept the updated policy.

12. Contact

For node policy, abuse, or security questions, contact:

AeroNyx
Email: hi@aeronyx.network