Article • over 5 years ago

Orchid: Decentralized and Market-based Anonymous Communication and VPN

Orchid

Summary

Orchid utilizes a decentralized marketplace where node providers stake tokens to advertise their VPN services.
Users can distribute trust across multiple distinct VPN providers, increasing privacy and preventing any single entity from gaining complete access to user data.
Traditional centralized VPNs cannot offer the same level of security as multi-hop VPN routes provided by combining multiple different providers.
The system employs staking to align incentives against operator malfeasance and neutralize sybil attacks.
Orchid's technology is modular, employing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain for secure and economically sound operation.
The Orchid protocol is designed for high-performance networking and is built on top of WebRTC, allowing users to access remote network resources and pay for them using Orchid's native cryptocurrency.
Orchid servers maintain registration information and metadata in a stake registry and provider directory for decentralized discovery.
Clients can efficiently select bandwidth-sellers' nodes using a two-step process: random relative stake-weighted linear selection followed by secondary constraint filtering.
The Orchid App offers advanced functionality, including the ability to analyze network traffic and configure multi-hop configurations with multiple providers.
Orchid employs a probabilistic nanopayment system to facilitate decentralized payments on a per-packet basis, enabling low transaction costs.
The Orchid Market is a decentralized network where users can purchase bandwidth from sellers to form a proxy chain to specific online resources.
Orchid aims to give users more control over their privacy and data, while also creating demand to support a healthy marketplace.
Future developments may focus on traffic analysis resistance, payment anonymity, improved double-spend detection, traffic obfuscation, and more.
Orchid believes that a peer-to-peer marketplace and decentralized architecture on the Ethereum blockchain can empower individuals in the face of increasing government and corporate control over online interactions.