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Heya, Windscribe co-founder here. WeVPN indirectly approached us to "make their users whole" for the time that they had paid for. In the spirit of collaboratio

by yegor 4y ago

Heya, Windscribe co-founder here. WeVPN indirectly approached us to "make their users whole" for the time that they had paid for. In the spirit of collaboration, and not further tainting the already murky image of the consumer VPN industry, we decided to comp every WeVPN users with free service for the duration of their remaining subscription. This is a goodwill gesture only, we're not engaged in any official partnership with WeVPN, and are/were not affiliated with them in any way.

Ephil012 4y ago
Just wanted to say I have been using your product for years and it’s been pretty great. I picked it up years ago for some lifetime vpn promotion on stack social that y’all ran. Been using it ever since and it’s been amazing.
- yegor 4y ago
  Glad to hear! Those Lifetime accounts are crazy good value, never to be offered again. :)
sergiotapia 4y ago
This is great marketing. I checked you guys out and I'm in the market for a fast private VPN what's the BitTorrent story like with your VPN? I have gigabit fiber speeds, what kind of download max speed can I see with BitTorrent on windscribe?
- yegor 4y ago
  No VPN is "the fastest" for everyone. There are many factors at play that dictate speeds, these include: your ISP, the ISP of the server location you connect to, protocol you use, 3rd party software installed (AV or firewalls are common speed reducers), etc. Most people think that one VPN oversells and runs severs at 95% NIC throughput, while another does not, and that's the only factor. Sure, some probably DO do this, but I'd wager most do not. I recommend just trying it for yourself, there is free service available. Choose Wireguard as the protocol, and try the closest geographic location to you.
aftbit 4y ago
Why do you still use RSA keys? https://windscribe.net/features/strongest-encryption https://windscribe.net/features/strongest-encryption
- yegor 4y ago
  This page is rather outdated, the answer depends on the protocol you use. Our entire site is being overhauled right now, so this will be addressed part of that release. However the RSA portion only applies to OpenVPN, and for compatibility reasons. Use WG (our default protocol) if you want modern algos and high throughput.
- flangola7 4y ago
  RSA is strong though?
  - retrochameleon 4y ago
    It is instantly (figuratively) broken by quantum computing, which is on the horizon. The industry is in the process of telling everyone to stop using old encryption schemes now - not later - and switch to "quantum-safe" methods instead, like lattice-based encryption. Why? Because of the concept of "store now decrypt later." It is speculated that entities are mass logging encrypted data of interest now, so that they can decrypt and review it as soon as quantum computers are available. Great Veritasium video on the topic: https://youtu.be/-UrdExQW0cs https://youtu.be/-UrdExQW0cs I personally think it is feasible that a quantum computer will exist with enough qubits (the algorithm already exists: Shor's Algorithm) to break all of our current encryption in around 5-10 years.
dehrmann 4y ago
I'd frame it as you bought their customer list at the wholesale cost of their remaining subscriptions, and WeVPN gets a creditor off their books. Which isn't bad, but it isn't just goodwill.
- yagiznizipli 4y ago
  That’s a really good interpretation of what’s happening.
  - askura 4y ago
    WeVPN: No personal info exists in our database. We have a list of email hashes + expiry dates that were provided to us. When you enter your email into the box, we look for a hash of the provided email and see if there is a record for it, which is used to upgrade the Windscribe account. Nah no acquisition. https://discord.com/channels/435955361955053579/435955361955053581/1096111162900365372 https://discord.com/channels/435955361955053579/435955361955...
    - ggeek 4y ago
      If we believe the Windscribe words about only having hashes and an encryption key to compare, an email hash is still an unique identifier and may still break the GPDR policy depending of your country/state. Most emails hashes will be pretty weak to crack even with a 10 years old GPU and a few data sets. john.doe1990@gmail.com hash can be cracked in a matter of minutes although i guess j0h7jkajsdb@gmail.com is safe. It is pretty sad to see that a company like Windscribe and Yegor that has been blaming the VPN industry shady behaviours for years are now part of the gear by trying to hide a possible private agreement with a signed NDA to not make it public and turn it into a good samaritan offer. There was many ways to help all those customers that ended up without service, but this is probably one of the worst ones. Unfortunately we will never know what really happened since there was zero transparency with the WeVPN customers.
      - askura 4y ago

by yegor 4y ago

Ephil012 4y ago

Just wanted to say I have been using your product for years and it’s been pretty great. I picked it up years ago for some lifetime vpn promotion on stack social that y’all ran. Been using it ever since and it’s been amazing.

yegor 4y ago
Glad to hear! Those Lifetime accounts are crazy good value, never to be offered again. :)

sergiotapia 4y ago

This is great marketing. I checked you guys out and I'm in the market for a fast private VPN what's the BitTorrent story like with your VPN? I have gigabit fiber speeds, what kind of download max speed can I see with BitTorrent on windscribe?

yegor 4y ago
No VPN is "the fastest" for everyone. There are many factors at play that dictate speeds, these include: your ISP, the ISP of the server location you connect to, protocol you use, 3rd party software installed (AV or firewalls are common speed reducers), etc. Most people think that one VPN oversells and runs severs at 95% NIC throughput, while another does not, and that's the only factor. Sure, some probably DO do this, but I'd wager most do not. I recommend just trying it for yourself, there is free service available. Choose Wireguard as the protocol, and try the closest geographic location to you.

aftbit 4y ago

Why do you still use RSA keys? https://windscribe.net/features/strongest-encryption https://windscribe.net/features/strongest-encryption

yegor 4y ago
This page is rather outdated, the answer depends on the protocol you use. Our entire site is being overhauled right now, so this will be addressed part of that release. However the RSA portion only applies to OpenVPN, and for compatibility reasons. Use WG (our default protocol) if you want modern algos and high throughput.
flangola7 4y ago
RSA is strong though?
- retrochameleon 4y ago
  It is instantly (figuratively) broken by quantum computing, which is on the horizon. The industry is in the process of telling everyone to stop using old encryption schemes now - not later - and switch to "quantum-safe" methods instead, like lattice-based encryption. Why? Because of the concept of "store now decrypt later." It is speculated that entities are mass logging encrypted data of interest now, so that they can decrypt and review it as soon as quantum computers are available. Great Veritasium video on the topic: https://youtu.be/-UrdExQW0cs https://youtu.be/-UrdExQW0cs I personally think it is feasible that a quantum computer will exist with enough qubits (the algorithm already exists: Shor's Algorithm) to break all of our current encryption in around 5-10 years.

dehrmann 4y ago

I'd frame it as you bought their customer list at the wholesale cost of their remaining subscriptions, and WeVPN gets a creditor off their books. Which isn't bad, but it isn't just goodwill.

yagiznizipli 4y ago
That’s a really good interpretation of what’s happening.
- askura 4y ago
  WeVPN: No personal info exists in our database. We have a list of email hashes + expiry dates that were provided to us. When you enter your email into the box, we look for a hash of the provided email and see if there is a record for it, which is used to upgrade the Windscribe account. Nah no acquisition. https://discord.com/channels/435955361955053579/435955361955053581/1096111162900365372 https://discord.com/channels/435955361955053579/435955361955...
  - ggeek 4y ago
    If we believe the Windscribe words about only having hashes and an encryption key to compare, an email hash is still an unique identifier and may still break the GPDR policy depending of your country/state. Most emails hashes will be pretty weak to crack even with a 10 years old GPU and a few data sets. john.doe1990@gmail.com hash can be cracked in a matter of minutes although i guess j0h7jkajsdb@gmail.com is safe. It is pretty sad to see that a company like Windscribe and Yegor that has been blaming the VPN industry shady behaviours for years are now part of the gear by trying to hide a possible private agreement with a signed NDA to not make it public and turn it into a good samaritan offer. There was many ways to help all those customers that ended up without service, but this is probably one of the worst ones. Unfortunately we will never know what really happened since there was zero transparency with the WeVPN customers.
    - askura 4y ago