TL;DR
A VPN enhances your online privacy (although it cannot provide complete privacy).
A VPN hides your location from the websites you visit and hides the websites you visit from your ISP.
Even if you use a VPN, you need to protect yourself from malware and other online threats.
We do not recommend using free VPNs from commercial companies.
VPNs offer a compromise between speed and convenience.
Some governments take steps to block VPN use.
Your VPN provider may be hacked or subpoenaed.
What is a VPN?
A virtual private network (VPN) is software that encrypts your online data and transmits it through another computer, making it difficult for others to see what you are doing online. This improves both security and privacy.
A VPN’s encryption layer provides additional security. For example, if you are connecting to an unencrypted service (such as a website that uses http instead of https) or a weakly encrypted service (even https websites may have weaknesses in their configuration), the VPN’s encryption prevents: It helps. Prevents eavesdroppers on your network from seeing your traffic.
A VPN connection also protects your privacy because it wraps and transmits your data through another computer (the VPN server). Sending data through this “secret tunnel” limits the amount of online activity that your Internet service provider can observe. And the Internet service you’re connecting to can’t see your home IP address or physical location either. Instead, your internet traffic will appear to come from the VPN server you tunneled from.
A VPN hides your location and increases your privacy.
Who uses VPNs?
People use VPNs for many reasons. They may want to:
- Adds a layer of encryption to protect against eavesdroppers while using untrusted wireless networks.
- Securely connect to your employer’s network to access services or machines on your internal work network.
- Pretend to be in a different location to avoid the rules. For example, some online services limit the countries in which they offer their services.
- Hides your activity from your Internet service provider.
- They hide their activities from the government and police.
Ultimately, a VPN is a tool that adds data protection and privacy for legitimate or illegal reasons.
When should cryptocurrency consumers use VPN software?
Cryptocurrency has prioritized the importance of user privacy since its inception. The Bitcoin white paper devotes Section 10 to “Privacy”, clearly distinguishing the concept of a cryptocurrency user’s identity from publicly visible transactions.
If others know that you own cryptocurrency or other digital assets or use certain software or hardware wallets, you are more likely to become a target for theft or hacking. You may not even want your ISP to know that you are connected to a cryptocurrency exchange or that you have a habit of checking cryptocurrency prices. You may not want cryptocurrency exchanges to know which country you are in, your IP address, or information about your location.
The unpredictability of the laws and restrictions that may apply to cryptocurrencies in the future in different jurisdictions will naturally make some cryptocurrency owners hesitant to share more information about their transactions than necessary.
Cryptocurrency users who value privacy are advised to use a VPN when connecting to cryptocurrency-related websites or services.
How much privacy does a VPN provide?
VPNs offer more privacy from your ISP and the services you use, but VPN service providers still retain logs that can identify where you connect from. (If you pay for service from a VPN provider, that provider likely also has additional personal information about you.) Some data may be stored on the VPN provider’s computer that captures the destination address (e.g., unencrypted website URL). There may also be logging. Your VPN provider may log this). So while a VPN doesn’t provide complete privacy, it does reduce the number of people who can analyze your Internet traffic.
Enhanced privacy protection does not guarantee complete anonymity. If you use a VPN to log into a website with an account linked to your contact details, the site still knows it’s you, even if it doesn’t know what your information is. The location is.
How to Choose VPN Software
Here are a few things to consider when deciding which VPN service to use:
- In general, avoid free services offered by commercial companies. They are making money somehow. (Open source software is great and can be free because it avoids the conflict of interest of having to make money.)
- Look for a VPN provider that says they respect your privacy. They must be transparent about the logging they do and state that they do not resell their customers’ personal information.
- Look for a VPN provider based in a country with strong privacy laws, such as Switzerland (use ProtonVPN), Panama (use NordVPN), or British Virgin Islands (use ExpressVPN and SurfShark).
- Don’t rule out VPN providers from countries with “stronger-than-average” privacy laws and a strong commitment to user privacy (e.g. MullvadVPN).
- Your VPN provider must provide a VPN connection server hosted in the location where you want it to appear as if you reside.
- Make sure your VPN provider supports the device platform you need.
- VPN providers should be able to state that they have undergone independent security and privacy audits from industry-recognized security organizations.
- This is a nice feature if it allows cryptocurrency payments. (If you can pay with cryptocurrency, you don’t need to share much information about your identity.)
Popular VPN providers include ProtonVPN, NordVPN, and ExpressVPN.
Two specialized sites that provide independent reviews of VPN software are:
Some popular user forums that can provide sound advice include:
Limitations of using a VPN
There are some downsides:
Using a VPN may slow your connection speed.
Some online services may block your access if they detect that your IP address is associated with a VPN. You may or may not be able to avoid the block by connecting to a different server from your VPN provider. “VPN blocking” can be inconvenient sometimes.
Some governments have taken steps to completely block the use of VPNs to limit communications and privacy. This makes using a VPN much more difficult in some countries around the world. The legality of VPN use in countries that ban or ban VPN use is something you should carefully research and consider if you find yourself in such a situation.
A VPN does not protect your computer from malware. This is not what a VPN is for. You are responsible for following all reasonable Internet security guidelines.
Websites may still leave cookies and other privacy-related traces on your local computer. To further protect your privacy, you should clear your browsing history after any online activity.
Even if your VPN provider claims to limit traffic logging, they could potentially be required to provide traffic logs if a court order is issued.
Just like any other company, VPN providers can get hacked or suffer data breaches. If your VPN provider’s access logs are inadvertently published, any information the VPN provider has about you could be leaked. This has happened with several VPN providers, including LimeVPN and UFOVPN.
Other types of VPNs
Instead of running traditional VPN provider software on your laptops and mobile devices, you can install a VPN client on something else, such as a wireless Internet router. However, the setup can be tricky and inconvenient.
There are also browser extension VPNs that only protect data transmitted through specific browsers, but many people find the scope of these partial VPN tools too limited.
Additionally, new types of decentralized open source VPNs such as mysterium are entering the market. While these VPNs offer interesting technology, they don’t yet have the large user base or long track record of traditional VPNs, nor are they as user-friendly as traditional VPNs.
VPN Alternatives
Apple announced that iOS 15 is bringing a new privacy tool for iCloud users in the form of a Safari browser feature called Private Relay. It’s not a VPN, but it adds a layer of encryption and masks your IP address (but it doesn’t circumvent geo-blocking controls, so you can’t pretend to be in a different location).
Cloudflare offers a VPN alternative called “1.1.1.1 Warp”. This service acts as a DNS resolver that can hide the Internet-based services you are connecting to from your Internet service provider. However, the service you are connecting to still displays your real IP address.
Alternatively, you can choose to use an open source P2P browser like Tor. Tor is not a VPN, but the Tor network breaks data into smaller pieces and routes them individually through nodes that anyone can run, making it nearly impossible to reassemble who did what. Tor traffic can be very slow and may be blocked by your service provider more than a standard VPN.
When to enable VPN
While almost all cryptocurrency-related websites and internet services already protect your data “in motion” with HTTPS/TLS encryption, providing a high level of security, you may not want the website you are connecting to know your location or IP. there is. Address, you may not want your ISP to know your online habits. If you want to add an extra layer of security and privacy to your cryptocurrency activities, using a VPN may be helpful.
Some people leave their VPN tunnels enabled all the time and only temporarily disable them when they are blocked from using certain services. Others only activate their VPN before connecting to the cryptocurrency exchange where they want to trade cryptocurrencies. As with many things in cryptocurrency, the choice is up to you. However, it’s a good idea to have a VPN and know how to use it so you can make an informed decision. Get some experience using a VPN so you can activate it when you feel it’s wise to do so.