Decentralized VPN. Anyone using one? Are they safe?

[KhunHeineken]

I've been reading up on decentralized VPN's.  It's an interesting concept, but I have more to learn.  

 

If I understand correctly, people all around the world can rent their unused bandwidth on their home or business network, and instead of connecting to a company's VPN server, as most of us have been doing for sometime, you connect to someone's house, or business, and go through their network, which means you are given an IP address that's most likely not blacklisted or geo blocked, which means it would be great for streaming services, which is why I am considering it.  

 

With a decentralized VPN you are not on a server with many other people, so just about zero chance of the IP address being blacklisted because it's just a house or business in the suburbs you are connecting to.  

 

Is anyone using a decentralized VPN?  Is anyone renting out their network to a decentralized VPN?

 

I'm thinking of trying it, but a bit concerned that even though the connection is encrypted, the owner of the node can see all my traffic.  Also, what if the owner of the node is up to no good by drug dealing, child porn, terrorism etc and is under surveillance, could your device, and therefore yourself, be flagged?  The other side to that is say the decentralized VPN user is up to no good, could the owner of the node be in some trouble?

 

I can VPN back to my house in my home country, but I have a slow internet connection, so not great for streaming.  

 

This guy's quick review of the Mysterion DVPN is pretty good.

 

 

[Roger That]

What problem are you trying to solve with it?

[KhunHeineken]

6 hours ago, Roger That said:

What problem are you trying to solve with it?

My paid sports streaming service has an app.  They apply very strict geo blocking to the app.  The servers to my home country have been blacklisted on two paid VPN companies. 

 

I'm hoping they can't geo block / blacklist a decentralized VPN so easily, and if they did, you would just be re-routed to another node in the country of your choice, not playing the never ending game of emailing your VPN company and asking them for new IP address, only to find their IP addresses are blacklisted again a few weeks later.   

[digbeth]

sounds like tor

[KhunHeineken]

On 3/8/2022 at 12:24 AM, digbeth said:

sounds like tor

Similar, but people get paid to rent out their spare bandwidth from their homes / offices.  The IP address you get could be from a router in a residential house in the suburbs, not a a server in a data center.  

 

The chances of many people joining that same router, in that house, for streaming the same app, is slim, so the streaming company can't blacklist it.

 

As more and more people offer their router as a node, for payment, geo blocking and blacklisting will become a thing of the past.  

 

Tor exit nodes are known, and I don't think you can select the exit node country, so no good for streaming.