What do you think about decentralized Vpns ?

[jean claud 45]

All is in the tittle :o)

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

What's a "decentralized VPN" supposed to be? The closest description would be something akin to Tor, but Tor is not a VPN.

[jean claud 45]

yes you're right but there is a lot of web pages like these ones who think differently ...
https://www.allthingssecured.com/vpn/faq/what-is-dvpn/
https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-a-decentralized-vpn-how-does-it-work/
https://www.laptopmag.com/features/what-is-a-decentralized-vpn-and-should-i-use-one
etc...etc...

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

So, in effect, it's Tor… because at the end of the day I can setup an exit node at home, too, and people will have a residential IP. Problem: They download things, they view CP, they buy drugs and guns – using my residential IP. I can also setup my node on a server from a conventional hoster, effectively negating one of the biggest advantages of such VPNs since I can setup a node on a hoster as well.

The biggest problem is that trust is simply transferred from a central, visible entity to a random, invisible one. You don't know whether one of the "exit nodes" handling your traffic is not rigged to catch auth tokens, cookies and other interesting tidbits of cleartext connections. Maybe that someone even set up enterprise-grade hardware to perform DPI on the exiting traffic or even breaking your TLS connections. It's distressingly intransparent.

[jean claud 45]

Thank you OS, perfectly clear. I will stay far away this frightning stuff 👾