How Deeper Network Leverages Decentralization for Better Privacy

Over recent years, online privacy has become an increasingly concerning issue for many people. Following the Snowden revelations in 2014, the extent to which firms like Google are harvesting our user data became apparent. Since then, it’s become more and more evident that almost nothing we do online can be considered private. 

In the US, T-Mobile customers now have to opt out if they don’t want all of their online activities shared with advertisers. However, the ramifications also stretch beyond individual user’s concerns about privacy. The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal unveiled that tech firms are perfectly happy to sell our psychological profiling data to those who would use it to manipulate election outcomes.

Meanwhile, big tech firms and ISPs alike effectively control our access to the internet. At the same time, they’re are doing very little to help us stay safe online. In fact, if cybercrime were a national economy, it would be the world’s third-largest after the US and China. 

Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that innovators who care about privacy are taking steps to provide the technological infrastructure to redress the balance. Deeper Network offers an intriguing technical solution to online privacy, fusing the concept of a virtual private network (VPN) with decentralization for a lifetime guarantee of privacy that also promises to make the internet more secure and democratic using blockchain technology.

What is Deeper Network?

Deeper Network operates on three core beliefs. Firstly, in net neutrality and freedom online. The project aims to lift the restrictions resulting from politics and censorship to enable information to flow freely among everyone. It also aims to be a decentralized blockchain network that’s open to everyone but controlled by no single individual or group. Finally, it also places the same value on personal data as other assets like real estate or investments.

The Deeper technology stack is sophisticated and comprises many components. However, to keep things simple, here we describe the key elements needed to understand what the project offers.

Deeper Connect – Personal Connectivity Device with DPN

Many will be familiar with the concept of a VPN, which goes some way to helping protect online privacy by routing a user’s internet connection through a remote server. Mostly, these services are cloud- and subscription-based, charging a recurring fee to use the necessary software.

In contrast, Deeper Connect is a physical device that you connect to similarly as you connect to a router. It acts as a physical wall between your main router and your device, connecting via an Ethernet cable.

It’s a plug-and-play device, meaning that once you’re connected, you’re protected. What’s more, you only pay once when you purchase the device, with no recurring subscriptions. 

The Deeper Connect acts as a decentralized private network (DPN), allowing you to circumvent censorship, participate in bandwidth sharing, and mine on a blockchain, all while protecting you against cyberattacks.

The Deeper Connect device serves as a connection to the Deeper Network, the blockchain layer that lays the foundation for Web 3.0. It also acts as a decentralized gateway to Web 3.0 applications and services, in the same way that your smartphone or desktop allows you to access Web 2.0.

The Deeper Connect device is already available for purchase via Amazon, BestBuy, and IndieGoGo.

Deeper Network – Decentralized Blockchain Layer 

The internet depends on architecture, including domain name services (DNS) for resolving IP addresses and querying the internet and content delivery networks (CDN) for a smooth browsing experience. However, centralizing these services leaves the internet prone to censorship resistance and attacks. For instance, CloudFlare is one of the primary DNS and CDN providers, and when its services go down, much of the internet follows.

Deeper Network decentralizes these services to align with its core values of democratizing the internet. With Deeper’s decentralized DWEB, anyone can build a website and register it on the network. The IP address is hidden, making it resistant to censorship. 

When users connect to Web 3.0 via their Deeper Connect devices, they’re accessing the Deeper Network services, but because the project is developed on Polkadot’s interoperable infrastructure, they can also connect to other third-party applications such as decentralized storage or DeFi. 

DPR Token 

Finally, the DPR token is the native token of Deeper Network. In general, P2P networks don’t necessarily operate incentive models aligned with the need to balance bandwidth usage and consumption. With Deeper, users who share their bandwidth earn DPR tokens, while those who consume pay in DPR. You can learn more about their public sale here.

It’s not a stretch to say that few, if any, projects have gone as far in their ambitions to fix the broken and heavily centralized current version of the internet. If Deeper Network can achieve its ambitions, it will provide immeasurable improvements in privacy, security, and usability long into the future.