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- 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
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