peaq & NetSepio

On August 6th, I read this message on X: https://x.com/peaqnetwork/status/1820754248793289214, where the peaq family welcomed NetSepio.

What is NetSepio?

As its website indicates, it allows anyone to set up a VPN node, share their internet access, and contribute to the creation of secure and decentralized networks…

Okay, what does this mean? Let’s break it down because I hear a lot of people talking about it, but sometimes it seems like they’re hearing bells but not quite getting it, especially when we want to explain it in simple terms that everyone can understand. First, let me remind you that I don’t recommend anything to anyone; I’m just writing what I believe I understand, but everyone should do their own research and make their own decisions.

Let’s start with the basics…

What is a VPN?

When we connect to the internet, we have to be registered with a provider. This provider, by giving us access as a gateway to the network, sees everything we ask for, the responses, etc. Basically, because it acts as a “transmitter” of everything we request. I imagine you’ve seen a movie where the ship captain says, “Bosun, advance two-thirds.” And the Bosun repeats the order, the one who executes it responds to the Bosun (or whatever the position is, as I don’t know much about ships :) ), and the Bosun repeats it to the captain. Well, we are the captain, the internet is the soldier, and the Bosun is our access provider. They need to know what we want and what we’re being told to be able to retransmit it. Additionally, the provider must keep that information and later access it so they know everything about us… and no, incognito browsing or anything similar will help. They know everything. Now, imagine that between the soldier and the Bosun a new position appears that speaks a language only they and I know. I, as the captain, say what I need in my language, the Bosun repeats it (without understanding it), and this new position translates it for the soldier. We’ve just encrypted the information so our provider doesn’t know what we’re saying, nor does the soldier know who we’re responding to… by placing an encryption system in the middle, no one knows who I am, what I’m asking, or from where I’m doing it… well, not exactly, the position in the middle, called a VPN node, could potentially know, depending on the trust we place in its service and whether it can decode the information. Despite having many VPN nodes around the world, it remains a centralized company that could be tempted…

Now, imagine that these VPN nodes, instead of relying on a centralized point for their configuration, user activation, encryption code, etc., were on a blockchain… we’ve just invented NetSepio. Therefore, NetSepio allows us to access these services in a decentralized manner, providing anonymity (if we want it), security, confidentiality, etc. With solutions like this, not only can we form a VPN connection as users of the service, but we also make part of our internet connection available to the service so that other users become “our clients” and we provide them with security, and the system rewards us… those of us of my age will remember when we played football in the schoolyard and one of us had to be both goalkeeper and forward… 😊

Having VPN services on a blockchain offers many possibilities, such as having an encryption key that only you know, being anonymous because no one really knows which node you’re accessing each time, etc. Unfortunately, many people think that “if you don’t want people to know what you’re doing, you must be hiding something.” Personally, I don’t think that’s the case. It’s like when you put blinds or curtains in your house, it’s not to hide malicious actions but to have privacy, so a company doesn’t control everything I do. Why should my access provider or search engine be able to sell my data and create profiles of me? Many companies can decide what you see or read to their convenience. If I want to be free to choose, I need to decide the information I read, right?

In fact, a VPN has many advantages. For example, companies that do not want, or cannot allow, their information to be public need their data to travel encrypted, and a VPN can help a lot in this regard.

In the case of NetSepio, the whitelist to test a node has already been opened. I’ve signed up to evaluate how it performs, and if you’re interested, I can report later on its speed, whether it really offers security, what rewards it gives for being a node, etc. The combination of DePIN and VPN is very interesting because VPN nodes could use the peaq network and all its features, allowing nodes to exchange information at high speed or even negotiate among themselves to offer better services to users (Economy of Things?). Nodes talking to each other to adapt to the network situation, exchanging connections, and I wonder… could this create a Marketplace that improves performance for both those providing the network and those using it? And all this managed by the nodes themselves in an unsupervised manner? Wow! The possibilities of such a network just blew my mind with ideas! Can’t wait to see how it works!! If this can actually be done, it opens up a world of possibilities!