NOTE: Here’s an article that is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it describes a rather new technology that I suspect will interest many newsletter readers:
The Internet has undoubtedly revolutionized the way we live. It has changed how we work, access information, travel, communicate and interact with each other. Along with it comes a greater level of freedom that we enjoy because of the democratizing and decentralizing information. By doing so, the Internet has opened up far greater debate, analysis, and scrutiny by the general public on matters that impact them and the world. Thanks to the Internet the sphere of influence is shifting away from centralized authorities and the mainstream media.
In our rush to grasp the freedoms offered by the Internet, we have neglected or been made to neglect something just as important: our privacy. As billions of people flock to join the latest social media networks, they fail to realize that they themselves are the actual product behind these new free services.
Incentivized by “free” platforms and peer pressure, parts of the Internet became factories for data collection, with valuable user data and information passed on to the platforms’ real customers — the highest bidder. A few powerful corporations seized large sections of the Internet, harvesting data property that does not belong to them, diluting privacy rights, and opening the doors to censorship.
This centralizing factor, alongside other concerns surrounding accessibility, surveillance, and net neutrality, has led to increased privacy awareness. With this, there’s a rise in the use of VPN, and now DPN, services to deliver a more democratic, private, secure, censorship-resistant, and decentralized Internet of tomorrow.
Decentralized Private Networks (DPNs)
The main difference between a centralized network and a decentralized network is that the latter relies on the service of multiple servers rather than a single master server. In a centralized network, clients can’t act as servers as they require specific hardware and enough computing power to perform the processing.
In a decentralized network, any unit can act as both a client and server, meaning that the workload is distributed among all the network users. Computers today have significantly more computing power than before, and decentralized networks can harness this to render every involved unit a mini-central server, which then can interact with each other quickly and consistently.
A fully decentralized and distributed network, share data ownership and computational power evenly between the participating units. This way, the web can be hosted via a peer-to-peer network with information being distributed and stored all around the world, enabling nodes to communicate with each other without a governing entity.
Similar to VPNs, Decentralized Private Networks (DPNs or decentralized VPNs), also use encrypted tunnels to route web traffic, but they do this over decentralized rather than centralized networks. DPNs are serverless and distributed, ensuring higher security levels such that user data is not logged, hacked, or subpoenaed.
In a decentralized private network such as Deeper Network or Mysterium Network or HOPR, user devices may act as both the client (like individual Internet users) and server (like Amazon Web Services or Google). And the IP addresses automatically change based on their routing rules, establishing tunnels to other nodes all over the world.
Decentralized private networks offer the same basic benefits as VPNs, but with additional advantages that include the negation of a central point of control. This means, there are no central points to attack and the network cannot be taken down. Users also have control over their data as no centralized provider has access to the information they were trying to protect.
With users now more aware of the privacy issues and the problems around centralization of data and information, DPNs are becoming increasingly popular. Innovators in the blockchain and crypto space are already leveraging this demand to offer better protection to the netizens.
For example, one DPN project called Deeper Network combines network security, blockchain, and the sharing economy to create a global peer-to-peer network to offer the same resilience against data theft and censorship as traditional VPNs, only without the need for a central server. The same goes for DPNs like Mysterium Network and HOPR that allow applications, people, and organizations to share information in complete privacy.
Apart from the software solutions of DPNs, there are also hardware devices such as the Deeper Connect that create a private network for users to browse the Internet just like any VPN. However, these hardware decentralized VPNs offer a one-time purchase and no-subscription model. The users of hardware VPN can also share their idle bandwidth with other users and earn a profit for their contribution.
This altogether creates a truly private, more secure, and rewarding network for users to browse the Internet. There’s a great possibility that DPNs will lead the Internet from where it stands today to a point of secure communication space where technology and ethics meet to preserve human dignity, freedom, and independence.
Virtual private networks (VPNs)
I rather like the Wikipedia definition of VPNs:
"A virtual private network (VPN) is a mechanism for creating a secure connection between a computing device and a computer network, or between two networks, using an insecure communication medium such as the public Internet.
A VPN can extend access to a private network (one that disallows or restricts public access) to users who do not have direct access to it, such as an office network allowing secure access from off-site over the Internet.
The benefits of a VPN include security, reduced costs for dedicated communication lines, and greater flexibility for remote workers.
A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of tunneling protocols over existing networks. A VPN available from the public Internet can provide some of the benefits of a private wide area network (WAN)."
You can read more about VPNs on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network as well as on dozens of other web sites.
Private Networks That Are Decentralized
Decentralized Private Networks, sometimes known as decentralized VPNs (often abbreviated to DPN or DVPN), function similarly to virtual private networks (VPNs) in that they transit web traffic via encrypted tunnels over decentralized networks as opposed to centralized ones. Higher security levels are ensured by serverless and distributed architecture, which prevents user data from being tracked, compromised, or subpoenaed.
VPNs are growing in popularity as people become more conscious of privacy concerns and challenges related to data and information centralization. Blockchain and cryptocurrency innovators are already taking advantage of this need to provide decentralized enhanced security for online users.
User devices function as the client (typically individual Internet users) and a server or multiple servers (such as Amazon Web Services or Google or even individual desktop or laptop computers in use in private homes) in a decentralized private network such as Deeper Network or Mysterium Network. Additionally, the IP addresses automatically shift in accordance with their routing rules, creating global tunnels to connect to other nodes.
Similar to virtual private networks (VPNs), decentralized private networks (DPNs) have the advantage of not requiring a central point of control. This indicates that the network cannot be taken down and that there are no central locations to attack. Because no centralized supplier has access to the data that users were attempting to secure, the individual users (clients) also retain control over their data.
For instance, Deeper Network and other DPNs integrate blockchain technology, network security, and the sharing economy to build a worldwide peer-to-peer network that provides the same level of resistance against censorship and data theft as conventional VPNs, but without the requirement for a central server. The same is true with other services that enable total privacy for information sharing between apps, users, and organizations, such as Mysterium Network and HOPR.
Deeper Network and Mysterium and others insure privacy and increase security simply because there is no central organization that can retain records that can be subpoenaed by central governments. Rather than use high-tech language to explain how DPNs work, I will revert to a non-technical explanation:
DPNs work by creating an environment whereby interested users can "meet" and negotiate connection services. It is as if a client in Singapore says "I am available" and a client in the United States says "I am looking for an available client in Singapore." The two clients remain anonymous to each other, then connect and data is exchanged directly between the client in the United States and the client in Singapore" with no other "middleman" involved. The client in Singapore typically provides data from local online connections in Singapore, encrypts it, and then provides that data to the client in the United States. Unlike traditional VPNs, the central DPN organization does not know which clients are communicating with each other and never sees the data being exchanged. Therefore, a central government or any other organization or an individual hacker cannot monitor the connection and cannot later obtain any records of what transpired, even with a subpoena.
In addition to software, there are hardware solutions that, such as Deeper Connect, also establish a private network that allows users to browse the Internet normally through a DPN. These hardware-based decentralized DPNs provide a one-time purchase option without a subscription. Additionally, DPN users have the option to profit from sharing their unused bandwidth with other users.
All of this combines to produce lower costs, more pleasurable, safe, and genuinely private network for Internet browsing. In addition, most DPNs are available either free of charge to the end user or else may be available at greatly reduced charges when compared to traditional VPNs.
Deeper Network provides FREE networking service (after purchase of the required hardware) while Mysterium costs money but typically at greatly reduced prices when compared to VPNs.
DPNs have a strong chance of guiding the Internet from its current state to a safe communication area where ethics and technology converge to protect individual liberty, freedom, and dignity.
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