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Recently been reading up on VPNs? Come across something called a “decentralized VPN” on your travels?
DVPNs offer more privacy and more resistance to censorship than standard VPNs. But are these benefits the real deal? To find out, we first need to look at a conventional VPN and explore why it might not be as secure as we all thought.
Does a conventional VPN stop you from being censored?
A VPN encrypts your traffic which theoretically makes it harder for entities to monitor your online activity. That makes your browsing more secure.
But the main problem with conventional VPNs is that manyentities can detect when you are using one. Anyone who’s ever been blocked from a streaming service when they have a VPN enabled can attest to this.
This occurs because all VPN traffic passes through the VPN provider’s centralized servers. Your IP is then replaced by the IP of the VPN service. Trouble is, these VPN providers only have a limited number of IPs, and many users are often connecting to the same IP at once. So once a platform like Netflix sees that you’re using an IP that they have identified belongs to a VPN, they can block you from accessing the service.
This applies to the government, too. In some countries like China and Russia, for example, you can be blocked from accessing every website on the internet if you use a VPN provider’s IP.
So, to sum up. A conventional VPN won’t stop you from being censored. But do dVPNs have a solution?
Can a decentralized VPN stop you from being censored?
The dVPN is built on a decentralized network of community-run nodes. Each node is like a small server that is hosted by normal people around the world. Together these nodes form a peer-to-peer network.
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| Decentralized VPNs run on peer-to-peer networks of community-run nodes. Credit: Surfshark |
When you connect to the dVPN, your encrypted traffic is sent directly to one of these community-driven nodes rather than passing through the centralized servers of a VPN provider. That means rather than getting one of a limited number of VPN provider IPs, you are instead assigned a residential IP from around the world.
This makes it harder for entities to tell that you’re using a VPN. Your IP will look the same as if you were connecting from a regular residential home. For this reason the dVPN makes it more difficult for an entity to identify your VPN use and censor you from using a website or service.
We should also say that a decentralized VPN has no single point of failure like a conventional VPN. This means that, even if a criminal pr government body wanted to shut the service down, they would have no centralized point to do so. If an entity attacked one node, the rest would be unaffected. This ensures your service stays up and running and reduces the chance that your traffic will be blocked.
So, will a decentralized VPN stop you from being censored? Yes, and it will do a much better job than a regular VPN.
Is setting up a dVPN easy?
One of the primary concerns surrounding dVPNs is that setting them up can be tricky. The decentralized web can be intimidating. Especially if the concept is new to you.
But this is no longer a barrier to entry. Many solutions now combine the dVPN architecture with an easy setup process. That means technical knowledge is no longer a requirement to install the service. It’s now just as easy to install a dVPN as it is a regular VPN. Win-win.
The bottom line? DVPNs do offer superior censorship resistance. And they’re only getting better.
