The content of `Direct Messages` [NIP-04](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/04.md) is encrypted, but everyone can see who is chatting with whom. This is far from ideal from a privacy perspective.
This NIP describes a way to obfuscate DM communications from the "general public", it does not deal with the relay tracking of clients (for that see [NIP XXX](xxx)).
[BIP32](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki) is used to derive the paths. A client can generate multiple `direct message parent keys`, one for each peer that it is communicating with.
Nostr `coin_type'` is `1237'` (see [NIP-06](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/06.md)). This NIP defines purpose `25709'` (`dm` -> `0x646d` -> `25709`) for deriving `Direct Messages` related keys.