Web 3 Blueprint: Sentinel’s Decentralized VPN (dVPN)

Network Security Must Adapt To Remote Workforces While Ensuring Consumer Privacy

The shift from on-site to work from home (WFH) settings due to Covid-19 is creating new opportunities for bad actors to capitalize on network security weaknesses. The importance of security and privacy is even more paramount considering individuals will toggle between work and personal use via the same device. Whether an organization provides virtual goods or physical products is not a factor — ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) is increasingly a threat that needs to be addressed. Many times the financial loss is minimal compared to the downtime that occurs. In concert with the WFH movement is increased emphasis on consumer data privacy. Due to the nature of how centralized virtual private networks (VPNs) log and store user data, they will increasingly be under pressure given demands of the consumer-centric, privacy-first era. 

The Decentralized VPN: Improved Security, Privacy and Transparency

Ransomware attacks and the call for stronger consumer data protection protocols creates challenges for traditional VPNs. In this vein, the decentralized, immutable properties of blockchain position it for use cases beyond cryptocurrency, including secure and anonymized “tunnels” for data transfer. Enter: Sentinel — a decentralized VPN (dVPN). The Sentinel Network is open source, permissionless and maintains distributed logs via nodes. These elements add higher levels of privacy and transparency for consumers and organizations.

As blockchain technologies continue to gain adoption en route to Web 3.0, next-gen network security protocols are a logical component. There are a number of benefits of leveraging a dVPN for organizations, as well as consumers.

Below are key benefits of Sentinel’s dVPN per the company’s white paper:

1. Provable Encryption – The provability of the establishment of end-to-end encryption between the user and the server which the user intends to access data from, through open-source transparency and application integrity verification systems
2. Proof of Bandwidth – Having a system of bandwidth provability which allows for the provision of bandwidth the server provider in exchange for the agreed upon compensation from the user in a trustless and provable manner
3. Proof of No Logs – Ability to provide evidence that no logs pertaining to the user’s browsing or data history are being centrally stored by the application developers
4. Distributed Exit Nodes – Having a network of ‘exit nodes’ (dVPN servers) whose ownership is distributed amongst many participants who do not know the identity of the user
5. Distributed Relay Network – Having a robust relay network with strong governance and participation to mitigate the risk of bad actors, while ensuring that exit-node hosts do not know the identity of the user

Web 3.0 Blueprint Includes dVPN

WFH is not a fad, nor is consumer privacy. Ransomware attacks will accelerate and become more sophisticated. As adoption of blockchain technology and web 3.0 construction continues, decentralized network security protocols should be part of the blueprint. The team at Sentinel is laying the foundation for security, trust and transparency.

Seth Ulinski is a research analyst, digital strategist and blockchain enthusiast with a background in IT business analysis, competitive inteligence and digital marketing.