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A VPN works by establishing an encrypted connection (often called a “tunnel”) between your device and a VPN server. When you connect to a VPN, all your internet traffic is first sent through this secure tunnel to the VPN server, and only then out to the public internet. Because the data is encrypted, your ISP or any intermediary can’t read it. They see only scrambled packets destined for the VPN server. The VPN server then decrypts your data and forwards it to the intended website or service. In turn, responses from the website go back to the VPN server, get encrypted, and are sent securely through the tunnel to your device. This process ensures that anyone monitoring the network only sees gibberish – not the actual contents of your web requests.
VPNs use strong encryption algorithms (like AES-256 or ChaCha20) and standard protocols (such as OpenVPN, WireGuard, or IPSec) to secure your data. Encryption scrambles your information using cryptographic keys so that only the VPN client and server can decrypt it. This means even if someone intercepts your VPN traffic, they can’t decipher it. VPN protocols govern how this tunnel is formed. For example, OpenVPN sends data over UDP/TCP with SSL/TLS encryption, while WireGuard uses UDP with state-of-the-art cryptography for faster performance.
Regardless of protocol, the result is the same: your data is locked away from prying eyes during transit.
In addition to encryption, VPNs change your apparent IP address. Normally, your IP (assigned by your ISP) is visible to every website you visit, which can reveal your approximate location and identity. When using a VPN, the websites see the VPN server’s IP address instead. For instance, if you connect through a VPN server in Germany, sites will think you’re coming from Germany. Your real IP (perhaps in Australia) stays hidden.
This is how VPNs help you bypass geo-blocks – you can appear to be in a region that grants access to certain content. It also adds anonymity: online services can no longer easily tie activities directly to your home IP.
Anyone takes the VPN concept a step further with multi-hop routing. Typical VPNs use one hop (your device → one VPN server → internet). Anyone’s decentralized network uses multiple hops: your traffic might go through three different relays operated by independent community members before reaching the internet. Each relay adds its own layer of encryption (like layers of an onion) and knows only the next hop, not the full path or final content. This approach, inspired by Tor onion routing, means no single relay ever has both your identity and your destination.
Even if one node were compromised, it couldn’t see everything. Multi-hop VPNs greatly reduce the risk of any entity monitoring or correlating your traffic. The trade-off is a bit more latency due to extra hops, but smart routing in the Anyone network finds efficient paths to keep speeds as high as possible.
In a traditional single-hop VPN, you must trust that server completely (for no logging, no spying). With multi-hop, trust is distributed. Each hop only decrypts one layer and passes data on; it never sees the whole picture.
Anyone further enforces this with a decentralized incentive model – no single company controls all the nodes, and node operators are kept honest through blockchain-based staking and rewards (the Anyone Token system).
Essentially, the network’s design and economics align to make it against any one node’s interest to misbehave. This technical design replaces blind trust with verifiable privacy.
A VPN works by encrypting your data and tunneling it through a different point on the internet, hiding your IP and activity. Anyone’s VPN uses multiple encrypted hops to amplify these benefits, providing privacy without having to trust any central server. You get a secure, private connection that you control.
