sentinel VPN fud shitpost v1.0

== About the author
I have a degree in computer science. That doesn't really matter,
but people who buy crypto get easily convinced by superficialities like titles, so there you go.

== A quick primer on VPNs
Nomenclature: VPN Server = VPN endpoint = VPN node. The terms are completely interchangable.

A VPN (virtual private network) is nothing more than a glorified proxy. You send your data to the VPN Server
and they send it on to wherever you want it to go. The communication between you and the endpoint is encrypted.

This achieves one simple goal:
To mask your activity from your local network owner(s) (ISP, workplace, etc).
They can still see that you're communicating and most importantly WHO YOU'RE COMMUNICATING WITH.
For example China has laws to prosecute VPN users and operators that are now (since mid-2019) enforced.

You're NOT invisible when you use a VPN,  and they WILL come and get you if they feel like it.
There's more sophisticated ways to avoid detection but this document is not about that.
Google VPN via ICMP or DNS if you care about that.

== Sentinel claims

- Decentralized
Compared to a commercial VPN like NordVPN and the likes the project has some degree of decentralization.
The VPN endpoints are run by "literally who"s and are only tied together by the payment structure
(and possibly the software they run. More about that below).

Conclusion: More decentralized than commercial products

- No Logs
This one infuriates me because it's so obviously bullshit. Sentinel bills you per GB of traffic.
How the fuck do you expect them to keep track of your bandwidth usage without some kind of logging?
Additionally, they claim to have "strict code integrity principles" in order to enforce a no-logging policy,
which, again, is complete bullshit.

Your operating system knows (and HAS to know) who is connected to it. There's no way to keep anyone from logging
connections at the OS level. Let alone the fact that there's no real way to enforce code integrity
(e.g. alack of modifications to the sentinel software) on anyone's computer. The industry standard to actually achieve
something like that is to scan your RAM and filesystem for modifications to the software (examples include various
gaming anti-cheat softwares). They do not ship such a system with the sentinel executables.

Conclusion: The no-logging guarantee is a lie.

== General observations

- It's risky to run an endpoint (assuming the promises are true)
As VPN provider it is strongly reccomended to keep logs. The reason being that if someone does something illegal through
your connection (e.g. wanks off to CP) and gets caught, you have no way to prove that it wasn't you without logs.
In that case YOU are in really REALLY deep shit.
There's a reason why commercial VPNs are regularly caught break their "no logging" promises, and this is it.

- Sentinel is really damn expensive
The average household in central Europe consumes about 150GB of bandwidth per month. 1GB on Sentinel is about 10-50c,
highly depending on daily exchange rates and endpoint chosen. At that price it is more expensive than any of the commercial
VPN providers.

- It's just OpenVPN/SOCKS
When you first install Sentinel and try to connect to a node you'll be prompted to install OpenVPN. While that's not an
inherently bad thing, it's also quite disillusioning. There's no special purpose-built VPN software behind all of this.
It's quite simply just OpenVPN.

== My reccomendations regarding privacy

If you really NEED to be anonymous a VPN is the wrong technology; you want to use TOR
(which is really nothing more than a whole lot of VPNs stringed through eachother and chosen at random for confusion)
And even TOR offers no real protection against a global observer (e.g. NSA's PRISM)

If you need a VPN and want to make sure absolutely no logs are kept on-site (the ISP managing the endpoint's connection
can and WILL still log your activity from that point on) just rent a low-powered VPS from a small server provider.
They shouldn't cost more than $5-10/mo. Install docker and some VPN server on it and enjoy your personal VPN endpoint.
The only one that can guarantee a logless server if yourself.

If you just want to escape your local watchdog (e.g. you want to play video games at work), use a free VPN.
I personally recommend https://www.vpngate.net/, but there are several others.
For mildly illegal activity (e.g. torrenting) use a location with bad or no formal ties to your local jurisdiction.
They all have a two-weeks logging policy (that they may not honor, keep that in mind) and unless you do some seriously
illegal shit there's almost no chance the logs will be subpoenaed before the two week period is over.

== Answering some dumb questions that surely will come

> Does this mean SENT tokens are a bad investment?
Yes. I believe it is highly unlikely that Sentinel has a favorable long term chance of success.
Their product is simply too expensive, too legally ambiguous and too overpromising.

> But the token mooned just now. Your stouped!
I have no doubts the token will experience a short lived hype and price surge.
They might make you a good chunk of money, but I wouldn't treat it as a long term investment.

> They will make more products and mainnet and moons and lamobs n we wuz kangz
Come again when it's more than promises. The crypto world is full of things that sound great yet never come.
(and they don't even sound great. Like who the fuck going to pay for a chat)


The end.
Love, anon.

PS: Buy Bitcoin