Datagram Enters the VPN Market With a Decentralized Alternative Focused on Speed and Privacy

As concerns around online surveillance, data retention, and transparency continue to grow, users are increasingly questioning whether traditional VPN services can deliver on privacy promises. The global VPN market is booming as more states try to limit citizens' digital access and companies use location-based pricing, but critics argue that many providers still rely on centralized infrastructure that requires users to place a great deal of trust in a single company.

Against this backdrop, Datagram, a decentralized infrastructure project best known for its work in DePIN, has announced the launch of a closed beta for its own VPN. Its goal is to launch a privacy-focused network designed to combine the performance of centralized VPNs with the trust-minimizing benefits of decentralization.

VPNs Are Under Pressure to Change

VPN adoption has surged worldwide, driven by remote work, geo-restricted content, and rising awareness of data privacy. Yet, despite widespread “no-logs” marketing claims, several high-profile cases over the past decade have shown that some VPN providers were still able, or compelled, to hand over user data.

This has created a fundamental problem: even if a VPN promises privacy, users must trust that the provider is telling the truth and that its infrastructure is set up correctly. For many tech-savvy users, that trust gap is becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

Decentralized VPNs have emerged as one possible solution, but they bring their own trade-offs, with slower speeds and unreliable routing due to multi-hop relay systems. Datagram created its VPN in an attempt to address this tension between privacy and performance.

A Decentralized VPN Without the Usual Performance Problems

Rather than routing traffic through large data centers or long relay chains, Datagram VPN connects users directly to a single independently operated node on its global network. This node functions as both the entry and exit point to the public internet, eliminating the latency that comes with multi-hop designs.

Traffic is encrypted using WireGuard, a modern VPN protocol known for its efficiency and strong cryptographic foundations. Datagram’s implementation uses ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption, Curve25519 key exchange, and ephemeral session keys, ensuring forward secrecy without adding unnecessary overhead.

By keeping routing simple, but still avoiding centralized control, Datagram can offer speeds comparable to mainstream VPN services, without needing users to place trust in a provider or server cluster.

Privacy Enforced by Architecture, Not Promises

One of the most notable aspects of Datagram VPN is its approach to logging, or rather, the lack of it. Instead of asking users to trust a privacy policy, Datagram has designed the system so that logging is technically impossible.

Nodes on the network run reproducible, stateless software images with logging disabled by default. Session keys are stored only in volatile memory, and there are no analytics or telemetry systems built into the infrastructure. Because Datagram itself does not operate centralized servers, and node operators lack the ability to persist data, no single party can collect or reconstruct user activity.

This architecture-based approach aligns with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA while removing the need for trust-based assurances that have failed users in the past.

Jason Brink, CEO of Datagram, says the goal was to remove trade-offs users have come to expect:

How Datagram Maintains Network Quality

Decentralization does not automatically guarantee good performance, which is why Datagram places strict requirements on node operators. Nodes must meet defined benchmarks for bandwidth, uptime, CPU availability, and geographic distribution before being certified.

On the user side, the VPN client continuously evaluates latency, packet loss, physical proximity, and historical reliability. This allows the system to automatically route users to the strongest available node at any given time, avoiding congestion and underperforming routes.

The result is a decentralized VPN that behaves much more like a premium centralized service in day-to-day use, without inheriting the same trust risks.

Revenue to Build an Ecosystem

Datagram VPN is also tied into the project’s broader crypto-native ecosystem. The service uses a dual revenue model built around the DGRAM token.

Roughly half of the monthly VPN revenue is allocated to periodic token burns, with burned tokens returning to the supply pool that supports node operator incentives. The remaining revenue is used to fund engineering, infrastructure expansion, customer operations, and continued development across the Datagram network.

Users will be able to subscribe using DGRAM on the Datagram Layer-1 blockchain or pay with traditional fiat currency, lowering the barrier to entry for non-crypto users while still supporting the network’s decentralized economics.

From DePIN Infrastructure to Consumer Privacy Tools

Datagram is not entering the VPN market from scratch. The company operates a global, AI-driven “Hyper-Fabric” network that aggregates idle bandwidth and hardware to optimize traffic across gaming, telecom, AI workloads, and enterprise connectivity. According to the company, its infrastructure has already supported more than 200 enterprises and over one million users worldwide.

By launching Datagram VPN, the project is extending that same decentralized backbone into a consumer-facing privacy product — one that reflects growing demand for tools that are both fast and verifiably private.

As the closed beta progresses and a public launch approaches, Datagram VPN will be closely watched as a test case for whether decentralized infrastructure can finally compete with — and potentially outperform — traditional VPN providers on both speed and trust.\

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.