Bitcoin Forum

We all know that the blockchain itself guaranties anonymity on its own and now Brave browser want's to integrate it into a vpn service creating a fully decentralized virtual private network which means you don't have to be worried about your data being sold by the vpn providers.

However we all know that everything has a good and bad side and one of its disadvantages is that it gives people who perform illegal activities more freedom. What do you think about it? Do you think it's worth it or not?

Read full article here: https://decrypt.co/9937/brave-proposes-decentralized-crypto-enhanced-vpn

Why does this always get brought up when discussing privacy? Privacy is a right and we should not limit our privacy just because criminals can use it to do what they do. The member above rightly said that cash also allows criminals to do things anonymously but that never gets brought to light.

I really don't know how they're going to launch a "fully" decentralized vpn though. "Fully decentralized" is a huge buzzword that certain projects mindlessly throw around for marketing sake. And knowing that Brave's company is in the United States, it wouldn't be very surprising for them to require KYC like what they did with Brave rewards.

Though I'm hugely skeptical, time will tell. The Brave/BAT project is still better than majority of the altcoin projects out there so let's just see. At the mean time, I'll enjoy using existing VPN services that doesn't require that much information to submit.

That just gives criminals a bigger platform to perform their crimes. The idea is great though since giving out a decentralized VPN system would guarantee anonymity for the entire usage, the process is still a little bit blurry since the project is still in its initial phase. It's just that there are still a lot of factors to consider like what I initially said about how criminals could use it as a platform to perform their illegal activities. It's still very difficult to judge it at the moment so I'd wait for more news about it since it is quite interesting.

You are on point. VPNs are available to all. You can find a free VPN service with ease or use a 30 day free trial option and switch to another VPN when the period is over.
The only downside of using a free VPN is that you don't know what they do with their logs. Paid services usually "guarantee" that they won't keep any logs.
Privacy is our right and the possibility if it being used in a bad way should never be used to deny us this right. Like we have the right to free speech and sometimes someone uses this freedom to lie and defame but the right remains and it should always be there.

I'd rather use Tor, which can be done even from that browser. And with Tor, you have access to resources not found anywhere else, as people running Tor nodes can host their own content, away from the clear Internet. This content is free of censorship, because while its possible to detect Tor users, its impossible to determine what content is seen or provided by each particular Tor user.

Tor was designed for this specific purpose, while VPN is not. A VPN is not a privacy tool, and never was. You are using the wrong tool for the job, it might do it more or less, but not as good (think: hammering with a wrench).

And guess what? blockchain by itself DOES NOT guarantee anonymity. Quite the opposite, in fact, it preserves your traces and prevents you or anyone else from erasing/changing them later.

Imagine if your browser used a blockchain to keep track of your history. Goodbye to clear history, ad marketers rejoice!

exactly! only becuse you dont want to get tracked on the internet does not mean you are into doing shady stuff or a pervert of some kind.
i have been using brave browser for 4 months now and i love it , this whole vpn thing only makes me love it more.

What does this have to do with Bitcoin Discussion?

The truth is that VPN can protect us from being seen by ISPs about what we actually do on the internet, but if you do something really bad most VPNs will provide your information in case of a police/court request, by that I mean your real IP address. It is also wrong to think that Brave will not share our information with third parties, especially since it is a US company. Privacy in this country is just a dead letter on paper.

The advantage of this decentralized VPN is, we can now have double layer anonymity. this will make the brave browser the most anonymize browser of all time and this kind of browser is the most recommended for all crypto fans out there. they no longer need to worry about being hack because this two-layer anonymity will get the hacker to lose their hair trying to track your location. any trader will want to have this browser if they tired using TOR because sometimes TOR's browsing is so slow.

If the Brave developers could pull this out it would be a huge feature that will attract even more users from the other conventional browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Opera is the only browser I know that has a VPN feature integrated, not decentralized though..

Most people are just looking for privacy. I've just seen a study that only 2% of bitcoin transactions are illegal. Not a big number in my opinion. I think more illegalities are done with cash.

Yes I was wondering what will happen with Brave's TOR feature if they got to implement it? I guess its either they will remove it or retain it since most users would prefer it over VPN and it could even result to public criticisms once they take out TOR altogether from Brave.

Now with their proposed decentralized crypto enhanced vpn system, I would assume they will integrate BAT token to it and  make the Brave ecosystem more easily to monetize and thus will encourage and stimulate the use of BAT token within the platform. This I think is a valid and unique use case I seldom see within the crypto industry.

thanks for that info guys , i didnt know that brave browser has a built in tor feature  but i did already knew that brave has an anonymity feature before but i didnt know that if what kind of anonimity was that  . now if they are going to introduced this new vpn technology , what would happen to tor ? makes no sense to me on why they still add it or on why wil remove it ( if ever ) because what i know is that tor is more better and more anonymous that vpn's

It for sure sounds fishy , it would attract 90% criminals and scammers and then there would be a problem involving this , there is a reason why we need identification and all , that's because it helps controlling people who might not think good for the society and unfortunately the number runs High. , I do think that it is very essential to somehow give the freedom to people but also keep them in control and identification is necessary .

Yeah, really? I didn't know at all that blockchain guarantees anonymity. Could you please explain to me how I missed this out?

Is that why the silk road guys all got caught? Is it because they weren't actually using blockchain? You mean Bitcoin isn't enough, they had to blockchain their entire operations?

Brave gonna save the world with VPN right?

This.

And the block chain does not guarantee anonymity.

And I don't know where the person who thinks you can't have more than $10,000 in cash lives, but that it not true in the US.

What i meant to say is that a Decentralised Vpn powered by blockchain will have more anonymity than a regular vpn
I don't know who the silk road guys are but i just googled them and i don't see how that relates to blockchain
I didn't say anything about Brave saving the world

Yeah naturally even criminals use it, because they like use the services that actually work. I would be more concerned investing time on anything doing with privacy when criminals would avoid it. Also i am interested in following anything that contains zero-knowledge proofs.

Considering one of Brave's creator is also one of the founder of Mozilla, I would expect this browser to be fully equip with great features such as TOR and  VPN services but I don't think that it doesn't have any competitors since there are other browsers out there that are also worth mentioning such as Chrome, Firefox and Opera - all of which has excellent features and own style. The only downside with Brave is being based on Chromium technology where I think they could have easily made a new  browser from scratch.

But now, I think Brave is up one notch on this browser competition with their plan to integrate crypto into a VPN service not to mention its already  existing digital advertising ecosystem with BAT token. So I think this so called browser competition  is becoming more healthy and beneficial to end users as well.

Good for them. I like how they're paying people for watching ads. They have a great business model and are really better than mainstream browsers. I hope they will succeed.

With VPNs it's not that easy to be good. You need good servers to handle the traffic and competitive prices. Free VPNs are usually awful and good ones are expensive. Brave's business model is to be as cheap as possible and help people. I wonder how they'll do with this new feature.

Brave are now taking some serious movements here, before it was just a referral system, later it was followed but blog posting using brave as well, now they are implementing VPN across the browser. My perception about it is that, brave will going to dominate  the altcoin bat, as well as the growth of BAT as well, as people around the world even with restrictions will be allowed to utilize BAT token into their benefits.

As of now Tor is integrated with Brave I believe (only on desktop version). If you click new private tab theres an option to use Tor as well. A private VPN would be a huge step in the right direction.

The ad payment feature is nice but it doesn't add up to much. I've heard from some platforms that advertised with Brave Ads that the results were disappointing which is probably a result of people click farming ads just for the $0.02 it pays.

Without these added features I use it just because it's awesome. Page load times are great. Still highly compatible with most websites even with the shields up. Think I've talked about 50 people in real life in to using it at this point.

Brave Browser give fantastic offer for every participants, I think is altcoin more amazing because have real product, how many altcoin always give promised have some thing big with their product but not real. For Brave Browser is different because they have real product for the investor trust with brave coin.

I don't think there's much people that's complaining about Brave anyway. Most of the criticisms it got from the community, is that why did they need to create another altcoin, Brave Attention Token(BAT), instead of using existing coins like bitcoin. I know that they needed funding hence the ICO, but still.

Having deployed an innovative digital advertising platform, I wonder how Brave is doing right now in terms of revenue and adoption? Will it ever have a chance to challenge Googles supremacy over this field? I'm sure this VPN project from them is designed to attract more customers and foster adoption.

Although its business model seems unprecedented, I think they will have a hard time competing with Google's Adsense program which is more established and widely adopted. But in any case, given more time to grow, I'm sure Brave and BAT token will definitely have a significant share of the pie once advertisers looks for other alternative aside from Google.

They are not the first to implemented that Opera did it first and because of that they now have many users so instead of subscribing to a VPN they just go to the setting and use the vpn option, it's good that Brave is going to add this to protect people's privacy, which is the concern of people whoa re buying in the first place.

Nah, as much as I want them to defeat Google(because screw Google for privacy reasons), Google is just currently too big. Not saying that Google is going to be undefeatable, it will definitely be very difficult and it will take a lot of time(probably more than a decade) for a competitor to do so. I mean, their brand name became a verb[1] for fucks sake lol. It just shows how much they dominate the search engine niche(and other niches in general).

Knowing that people are still very skeptical on cryptocurrencies, I don't see advertisers outside of the crypto industry to be trying BAT at all.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_(verb)

The adoption is seems kinda lacking after few years but there are still some people who are using it but their idea is truly unique and not just repeating other's idea and demand funding for that, this decentralized vpn if it got decent network or atleast fast and fully decentralized I guess it will be revolutionary.
I'd give it a try once it is released because although i'm not really fond of using VPN because I just rarely do something that need to hide my real IP anyway. However if compared to adsense program I think BAT token is using a different approach and can't really compare it to adsense progam because it is different.

I'm using brave browser now. I can say that I am quite pleased with the interface and usability. I'm also proud to use a blockchain-based browser.

But things change a bit when it comes to decentralized VPN service. I am currently using a decentralized vpn service called BolehVPN. A simple e-mail confirmation is enough to become a member here. The system does not keep users ' logs and thus provides full privacy.

But as long as I use Brave Browser, all my information is in the hands of Brave browser, such as my e-mail address, my location. I don't think it's enough for brave to just offer a decentralized VPN service. They should use a completely decentralized internet network, like Skycoin. Maybe then I can change my mind.

Aside from Google chrome, firefox and internet explorer. I mostly use brave, and knowing its token is BAT, I can sense they are in the right track protecting those privacy of people. Privacy is important to most, so having this idea and plan can very well help a lot. Well I know some will disagree but that's youre opinion.

Not because Brave has it's own token for their ads platform, it doesn't make the browser "blockchain-based".

BolehVPN is not decentralized. The fact that you need an email confirmation automatically makes it not decentralized.

all things have good and bad sides, we just need to continue to develop the good side I know it can not be avoided, when someone has a problem of course the solution will be created even though there are bad sides, I have read the article and the beginning of the word is very bad, but that not the worst, depending on how people use it / respond to it.

Will this functionality be available in countries excluded from the Brave Browser ecosystem

Ohh you got me. Yes you're right, just because brave has it's own token does not mean it's blockchain-based.

Regarding BolehVPN: They said, they don't save the logs i mean any logs, including e-mail logs. But your opinion is right too. Do you have a recommendation for decentralized VPN service? I already bought and using the bolehVPN, i thought they are full decentralized :(

I do not like any project against our privacy, why i come to crypto market, it is free world, do not have to send my id to any one send money as i want.
This is the crypto market.

indeed it is very difficult to be able to choose the safest browser from data theft that often occurs in the internet world, it is very easy for these hackers to take action when the target surfing the internet should indeed be equipped with technology such as VPN that can change IP to be difficult to trace and brave this browser I'm still a little afraid when using it.

Many people have advised me to use Brave browser, but until now I have not installed it. There are some real reasons. First, I still feel comfortable using chrome or mozilla. Secondly, as others say, using a VPN is very vulnerable to theft of consumer data. Therefore I will review first before using it.

Do you know how to received airdrop coin from brave browser with BAT coin, today many people show us about their payment from brave browser with BAT coin giving to their wallet, I like coin have real product with brave browser and always give reward for every one promote brave coin for investor.

there have been many blockchain based dVPN,seems all were dead,no activity.
dVPN surely have a good use.

Look forward to VPN⁰ developed by a 'big' company brave.

I think it's worth it if giving VPN service will be safer and do not need to worry about using other VPN services.
Surely still there is a good and bad side whether that is what we still have to be careful of our data all to keep it safe.

I would love a Brave VPN. I believe they are more reliable than other VPNs.

The bad side is always taken into consideration too. The criminals are happier and more beneficial with this kind of product. But if Brave won't do this then someone will also do this. Time will tell how a decentralized VPN affects the general public. 

of course it's very feasible if BRAVE provides additional VPN to the browser, but is it free or paid? because we know a lot of paid VPN platforms and I use them, and if the VPN that BRAVE uses is free is the quality the same as the paid one? of course this also needs to be considered.

A lot of people are using VPNs and if I am one of them it does not mean that I am a criminal. However, you can use the same argument by privacy coins that would be eliminated sooner or later, because governments have the same point of view.

Looks like Brave Browser is heading towards the dark zone of the cryptos. Anyone here remember Anon Coin and how it was excluded for every exchange because it had real cases of use into the criminality and dark web ? I still remember that coin and how it all went.

If Brave somehow pull a decentralized vpn then I guess it will have 2 faces , one a normal browser and the other one will be used by other type of people :)) , if this is the case , I will remain to my Chrome as they could use your IP to browser the net , right ? And you will never know what IP will use...

This article kills me "Brave’s proposed VPN system would use zero-knowledge proofs to allow people to search dodgy things without incriminating themselves." lol.

I like that you can control the nodes and what content is on them so you do not have to be tarnished with such things as piracy. I am not so sure what other "grim Internet gunge" they are talking about but I guess it is nice to stay clean. I am more interested in how much money can be made running a node and what the collateral amount will be.

This article us actually a load of crap. Waste my damn time with this shit. It's just about people going on about criminals and how this service will be used for crime and that moron "Chris Monteiro? the "dark web researcher" (whatever the hell that is) claims brave is run by criminals. What an absolute idiot.

The biggest criminals are not using those kinds of VPN, they are in the seat of power in the pillars of this society. That is why I don't think releasing this kind of VPN would do much with cybercrimes. Having privacy will help us a lot to keep us safe from those big criminals that want to buy&sell your online profile.

I thought the current version they have isn't centralized. Does this means that they've been already collecting data from their users and the growth of the browser is impressive which means they've a lot of insight already from their users. But they have already a TOR version right? what's the difference?

I know many people talks about brave and how it can be better than Chrome as a browser. But since the VPN will offer this kind of service, I was thinking on how will their company earn from this. So, I assume that the VPN will cost more than our regular VPN available in the market right now. Though, it will be a good innovation especially tht there are a lot concerns about data privacy and anonymity of our online selves.

well, so that mean Brave browser will be similar like TOR browser ?
VPN⁰, which would keep users connected while masking their online identities , i smell this will bring a lot of cyber theft.
about it , according to that article :
"Brave says Tor does a similar-ish thing, but exit nodes are still “responsible” for all traffic they direct."

Brave team are seriously working and looking at what is best for each location. If this can continue, then it might replace a lot of other browsers, most especially decentralized.

honestly i have trouble believing Brave when they say things
they did their whole ICO based on BS, promising USERS they could monetize their own data
made all that money and years later still a pipe dream, tho now you can pay websites? (so dumb)
ill believe this when i SEE it haha

Many people love brave browser give reward for every member install and use brave as their computer or hand phone browser, still working if you want to promote brave browser and earn BAT coin every month, you will get depend on how many people you can ask for joining and installing brave browser, but your referral have use rave browser and not uninstall it forever, you can use many way how to get traffic where many people install your brave browser link.