Stay Unseen, Unrestricted, and Unstoppable With the BelNet dVPN
The internet once used to be a sacrosanct place for free expression. Before social media and advertising blew up. Now it’s a minefield for cookies, trackers, hackers, advertisers, data brokers, and shady applications monitoring your every move.
Once a symbol for online freedom has now regressed into gatekeepers of data logs, subject to policies of centralized companies. More often than naught, these companies seek to fulfill their own interests than care about your confidentiality.
BelNet — the open-source decentralized VPN, changes that.
Built for confidentiality from the ground up, BelNet offers a way out for those who truly seek to remain confidential. Because you shouldn’t live in fear of being constantly watched, overhead, censored or controlled. That’s not what the Internet should stand for.
Whether you’re a journalist working in ground zero, an activist raising awareness for a cause, a creator hosting content and apps confidentially, a citizen of an autocratic state where online content is heavily filtered, a student who wants to access research papers blocked in your region, a remote worker trying to access company files, a crypto trader seeking to anonymize their transactions, or just the average joe who just wants to browse peacefully without having to expose personal information — BelNet is your gateway to free, fast, and truly confidential internet.
What is BelNet?
BelNet is a decentralized VPN that’s built over the Beldex network. It uses an onion-routing protocol and leverages the Beldex masternodes and exit nodes to route your traffic confidentially. Here are some of the key reasons why thousands of users use BelNet to mask their browsing activity.
- Data Confidentiality and Anonymity: Tracking user data is virtually impossible due to BelNet’s onion-routed, multi-layer encryption. If onion-routing sounds unfamiliar to you, let us break it down. When you peel a layer of onion, what do you get? More layers! That’s exactly how onion-routing and onion-encryption works. Your data or traffic via BelNet is onion-encrypted (encrypted multiple times) and onion-routed (decrypted at each hop). Even if someone were to intercept your data they would have to peel layers of encryption, which is highly unlikely because only the specific node that possesses the correct decryption key can decrypt the data.
- Bypass Censorship and Firewalls: BelNet allows users to easily overcome the geo-restrictions; it can be accessed in any region. For example, BelNet’s global exit nodes let travellers connect as if they were back home — stream content, access news and region-locked services from anywhere.
- Decentralized Resilience: Unlike centralized VPNs, BelNet operates through a distributed network of masternodes, making it virtually impossible to attack and shutdown. With a centralized VPN, when one server is compromised, all incoming and outgoing traffic on that server becomes vulnerable to surveillance. In contracts, BelNet’s decentralized architecture ensures that no single point of failure exists as each masternode independently relays encrypted traffic, maintaining network uptime and confidentiality even if some nodes go offline.
- No Central Authority: Since there’s no central company or server, BelNet cannot be forced or compelled to disclose user data. Even if it were requested to reveal such information, there’s nothing to reveal as BelNet doesn’t log, store, or track any information. It’s fully open-source, decentralized, and run by the community.
- Zero logs by design: BelNet doesn’t store or log user data, not by policy but by design, ensuring complete confidentiality.
- Split Tunneling: With split tunneling, you can manage your traffic efficiently by choosing which data passes through BelNet and which doesn’t. You can route sensitive apps like your email or banking app through BelNet for complete protection. Meanwhile, for less sensitive tasks like streaming YouTube or Spotify, you can choose to bypass the dVPN. This gives you more control over your confidentiality. BelNet’s split tunneling operates at the application level, so users have full visibility over how their traffic flows. It eliminates the need to constantly toggle the VPN on or off, optimizing bandwidth usage and maintaining security where it’s most needed. And since BelNet’s architecture is decentralized, even with split tunneling, your data remain untraceable, something which centralized VPNs cannot promise.
- Host Decentralized Apps: Run MNApps (mobile and web apps hosted on BelNet) using Beldex Name Service (BNS) domains for a censorship-resistant environment.
- Community Governance: The BelNet dVPN network relies on community-run masternodes and exit nodes, which promotes transparency, openness and independence in governance. The Beldex team maintains the dApp’s open-source codebase with the help of community contributors.
In short, BelNet is for anyone who values digital freedom, whether that’s protecting identity, escaping censorship, or hosting confidential web apps.
BelNet vs Traditional VPNs
BelNet gives users control and transparency, where centralized VPNs lack it.
Here are some of the advantages of decentralized VPNs over traditional ones.
How BelNet Routes Traffic
This is where it gets interesting. BelNet’s routing mechanism is what truly sets it apart.
Like we previously stated, BelNet is an onion-routed, decentralized network designed to route your internet traffic through confidential masternodes on the Beldex network.
The traffic is encrypted in multiple layers and sent through various Beldex masternodes (selected using a ‘shortest path algorithm’) that act as relay points. Each session makes at least three randomized hops before reaching an exit node, which anonymizes destination requests and forwards them to the public internet.
This design ensures complete end-to-end anonymity right from client device to destination. Your data in transit can never be compromised or intercepted. Even if a relay node were compromised, it would only have partial meaningless information — just gibberish. Your data would still go through by establishing a different route — connecting to another one of 2000+ masternode relays on the Beldex network.
Since BelNet dynamically reroutes traffic across multiple nodes, it reduces the chance of data leaks or surveillance significantly.
Multiple layers of encryption ensure that your data remains encrypted at every hop.
BelNet Exit Nodes
Exit nodes play a crucial role in BelNet’s ecosystem. They are the final relay points that connect encrypted traffic to the external internet. The exit node knows where the request should be sent to but has no idea of where it came from. It decrypts the final layer of encryption, relays your traffic to the appropriate destination, and ensures the destination sees its own IP. Exit nodes thus help mask your IP.
Their sole purpose on BelNet is to communicate your requests to the clearnet or the public Internet.
To ensure speed, stability, and security, BelNet has strict eligibility criteria for community-run exit nodes.
Operators who run exit nodes are rewarded in BDX tokens for supporting the network. The reward mechanism is currently off-chain, but efforts are being made to ensure on-chain rewards based on uptime, bandwidth, hardware specifications, and availability of actual resources.
Current Exit Node Reward Formula:
1000 (base rewards) + (Extra CPU cores × 100) + (Extra Gbps × 500)
Base rewards are awarded for nodes with at least 2 core processors & 1 Gbps bandwidth (port speed).
This reward system encourages node operators to maintain high-performing, reliable exit nodes, thereby ensuring users enjoy a smooth and secure browsing experience.
Here is the list of current operational Exit nodes located across the globe:
https://belnet.beldex.io/belnet-exit-node-list
You too can run an exit node on BelNet, contributing to the community’s resilience and anonymity. Reach out to outreach@beldex.io with your proposal and someone from the team will get back to you.
Beyond routing and infrastructure, BelNet also redefines how users find and connect to services within its network through the Beldex Name Service.
What is the Beldex Name Service (BNS)?
The Beldex Name Service (BNS) is a decentralized domain naming system designed to simplify access to websites and services on the BelNet network. Instead of long alphanumeric addresses, BNS allows users to create human-readable names that map to their wallets, chat IDs, or BelNet addresses.
For example:
- A wallet address can be linked to “alice.bdx” for simplified payments.
- A BChat ID can be linked to “alice.bdx,” your decentralized identity.
- A BelNet-based web application can also be hosted at “alice.bdx” and you get a censorship-resistant, confidential, Web3 app!
BNS simplifies how users interact within the Beldex ecosystem just as typing “amazon.com” is easier than remembering an IP address.
BNS ensures that each domain is secure, tamper-proof, and fully owned by the user. Unlike traditional DNS systems controlled by centralized authorities, BNS operates in a distributed and confidential manner, giving users and website hosts complete control over their digital identities and the hosted content.
Key Features of BNS for BelNet:
- Blockchain-Based Domains: Domains are registered and verified on the Beldex blockchain for authenticity and transparency.
- Easy-to-Remember: Replace lengthy alphanumeric URLs with simple, human-readable domains for convenience.
- No Centralized Control: BNS domains cannot be taken down or censored by external entities.
- Website Hosting on BelNet: Use BNS domains to host websites within the BelNet intranet.
- Confidential Browsing: Promotes anonymous and encrypted access to content without intermediaries.
- Complete Ownership: And because it’s built on the Beldex blockchain, BNS domains are immutable and owned only by you — not rented from a registrar.
Learn more about registering a BNS name/domain here:
https://beldexcoin.medium.com/how-to-buy-a-bns-name-716cd882bbb9
Now, let’s take a look at MNApps, the web apps that anyone can host on BelNet.
MNApps: Web Applications on BelNet
BelNet isn’t limited to browsing or tunneling, it’s also a hosting platform for confidential web apps known as MNApps.
MNApps are hosted on BelNet using .bdx addresses (BNS domains). They can only be accessed inside BelNet.
These apps are designed to ensure that user communication and web activities remain anonymous, secure, and free from surveillance or interference.
Why MNApps Matter:
Example:
MNApps can power social media platforms, e-commerce stores, blogs, crypto exchanges, and e-learning platforms all within a confidential, censorship-free network.
Beldex AI: The Next Step for BelNet
BelNet’s performance is already exceptional, but the future belongs to AI-optimized confidentiality networks and that’s exactly where BeldexAI steps in.
BeldexAI is an upcoming innovation under Beldex Research Labs, designed to make BelNet smarter, faster, and more adaptive.
This AI layer enhances performance, security, and scalability through intelligent automation and real-time analytics. Below are the key ways in which BeldexAI empowers BelNet’s ecosystem:
- Optimizes Traffic: AI dynamically manages data flow to ensure smoother and faster network performance.
- Assesses Node Quality: Evaluates node reliability and performance to maintain a stable and efficient network.
- Enhances Security: Detects potential threats using AI-driven monitoring and fortifies network defenses.
- Analyses Behavioural Patterns: Learns from user and node activity to predict and prevent network anomalies.
- Balances Network Load: Distributes data traffic evenly to avoid congestion and downtime.
- Uses Predictive Maintenance: Identifies system issues before they occur, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity.
- Offers Personalized User Experience: Customize network settings to user preferences for seamless interaction.
- Handles Energy Efficiently: Optimizes power consumption across nodes, reducing operational costs. Makes use of idle nodes.
- Adjusts Routing Protocols Dynamically: Continuously adapts routing paths for optimal data transfer speed.
- Enhances Anonymity: Strengthens confidentiality mechanisms, safeguarding users’ identities online.
Essentially, BeldexAI transforms BelNet into a self-optimizing dVPN, one that learns, evolves, and secures the network, ensuring maximum confidentiality with minimal latency.
The Future of Confidential Browsing
Every click, every connection, every search you make tells a story. A story about you. But who owns that story?
Without BelNet, everyone else.
With BelNet, you and only you.
As the digital world moves towards Web2 & Web3 analytics, AI-driven monitoring, deep state-sponsored surveillance, and region-locked ecosystems, the need for confidential communication and browsing isn’t optional anymore. It has become a fight for survival.
The future belongs to those who build and browse confidentially. Let us not be marionettes that dance to someone else’s tune. With BelNet’s decentralized architecture, community-driven development, and AI-enhanced evolution, we can choreograph our own online confidentiality.
Don’t just browse the internet — reclaim it with BelNet.
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