EDIT: sorry for the rambly post here’s a quick clarification I wanted a decentralized/open source variant of something like NordVPN etc.

Crypto-based options I found: Sentinel, Mysterium , Orchid All of those are on the Blockchain and use their own coins as a payment system, both to pay usage fees and to pay out node-hosts. Not sure if that’s my jam.

I tried to use the search and came up short - so point me elsewhere if there’s already a discussion.

Let me preface this by saying I’m pretty green when it comes to a lot of the deeper aspects of FOSS privacy tools. Meaning that i’m probably more clueless about this topic than I realise.

Had a bit of a shower thought moment earlier and googled if decentralized VPNs are an option for the occasional torrent.
Did a bit of a google and came up with a couple of options, seemingly all tied into a blockchain with their own coin for payments - either using or hosting a node.

I’m a bit allergic to cryptobros and their blockchain-everything-mentality but I suppose it’s not a terrible system for the usecase?

So are there people on here who have hands-on experience with this? Is it a valid tool for safer browsing and torrenting?

Are there any obvious alternatives I should look into?

Are there any obvious risks I’m not aware of?

Is the concept flawed altogether?

  • shapesandstuff@feddit.orgOP
    1·
    12 days ago

    Yeah I was thinking of TOR when I read about the concept, but I did read a lot in the past how a lot of the nodes aren’t really secure anymore.
    I’ll check out the other suggestions. The sidebar doesn’t mention piracy, so I’ll just come out the gate and say that that’s my usecase via torrents.
    Which can get pretty expensive where I live due to absurd legal definitions. My thought process was if a P2P VPN gets me through another country where it’s not persecuted as much I’d be safer than going with the proprietary big names.