Case study · Privacy infrastructure
Sentinel
A global network of autonomous dVPN applications.
- Client
- Sentinel
- Service
- Design and development
- Sector
- Privacy infrastructure
- Model
- Decentralised, autonomous nodes
At a glance
What decentralisation buys
Autonomous dVPN applications rather than one service in one jurisdiction.
Connections stay encrypted throughout, with no privileged position in the middle.
The structural claim. There is no single party who can be ordered to hand anything over.
Which is the practical consequence of the two properties above.
The brief
A VPN is a company you have decided to trust
Conventional VPNs solve a real problem and introduce a subtler one. Traffic stops being visible to a network operator and becomes visible to the VPN provider instead — a single company, in a single jurisdiction, with logs it promises not to keep.
For most users that trade is fine. For anyone whose threat model includes a state, it is not a solution at all, because a single company is exactly the shape of thing that can be subpoenaed, seized or quietly compelled.
A no-logs policy is a promise. No operator to compel is a property.
The build
Bandwidth as infrastructure
Sentinel frames itself as blockchain bandwidth infrastructure rather than as a consumer VPN, and that distinction is load bearing. The product is the network and the incentives that keep nodes on it, not a subscription app — the dVPN applications are what gets built on it.
That is what makes the censorship resistance credible. A single application can be removed from an app store; a network of autonomous applications over shared infrastructure is a harder thing to switch off, because there is no switch and no owner holding it.
Wow Labz contributed design and development to the ecosystem.
How it works
Three structural properties
Autonomous applications
A network of independent dVPN applications rather than one client talking to one company's servers, so there is no centre to attack or acquire.
End to end encryption, no exceptions
Stated without qualification, which matters in a category where 'encrypted' often has an asterisk covering the provider's own visibility.
Nobody to compel
The property the whole design exists for. Decentralisation is not the feature here, it is the mechanism that removes the single point of legal failure.
Stack
What it was built with
Questions
Sentinel, answered
What is Sentinel?
A global network of autonomous dVPN applications enabling private, censorship resistant internet access. Connections stay end to end encrypted with no exceptions and there is no single operator who can be compelled.
How is it different from a normal VPN?
A conventional VPN moves your trust from the network operator to a single company in a single jurisdiction. Sentinel removes that single party, so there is nobody to subpoena, seize or compel.
What does 'no exceptions' mean?
That the end to end encryption has no privileged position in the middle, including for the infrastructure itself. In a category where 'encrypted' often carries an asterisk for the provider, the absence of one is the claim.
What did Wow Labz do?
Design and development within the Sentinel ecosystem.
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