Decentr Announces Standalone dVPN As Part of New Privacy-Friendly Software Suite
One of Sentinel's oldest partners is about to deliver a brand-new decentralized VPN experience.
• Longtime Sentinel partners Decentr have been building their privacy-focused blockchain web browser since 2019.
• In 2022, they became the first team to bring Sentinel dVPN service to Windows through a native extension in the browser. DEC was also the first cross-chain asset to be accepted by dVPN Nodes for subscription payments.
• This year, Decentr has refreshed their branding and broadened their strategy. They've shipped several all-new products over the past few months as part of an ongoing effort to build a full open source software suite.
• That software suite will soon include a brand new standalone Decentr VPN app built on Sentinel.
Keep reading below to learn more!
"The Sentinel Network offers us something that no other VPN service can: A globally-distributed, community-supported network of real people who genuinely share in our mission: To provide internet freedom to everyone, regardless of where they live or work."
Decentr has been a valued partner of Sentinel stretching all the way back to 2022, when they earned the immense distinction of becoming the first team to ever offer Sentinel dVPN service on Windows.
This came by way of their cutting edge Web3 browser, which launched in 2019 and originally allowed its users to earn passive income with their traffic in a similar manner to Brave. Although the Decentr team does hope to eventually revamp and reintroduce the browse-to-earn features—underpinned by their signature Personal Data Value (PDV) system—they've been busy intensifying their focus on privacy, security, and consumer adoption this year. As you'll learn reading this article, they've even expanded their work beyond the browser itself.
The Decentr project is spearheaded by longtime Lead Developer/CTO Nikita Anikeev, COO/Product Designer Flynn Jameson, and Creative Director Aaron K. Metz. Much like their Sentinel partners, perseverance and fortitude are undeniably the qualities which best define them as a team.
Now over six years old—a seasoned age by industry standards—Decentr has survived multiple harrowing bear markets which extinguished innumerable newer, larger, and better-funded blockchain projects. Their foremost priority is creating compelling mass-market software which can bring Web3 to ordinary, everyday people; a philosophy which has kept them building regardless of short-term macro conditions and made them a natural ally for the Sentinel Ecosystem.
Decentr & Sentinel
The past, present, and future of the partnership.From 2022 until last year, the Decentr web browser featured a native embedded dVPN extension which allowed users to seamlessly connect with Sentinel's dVPN Nodes right from their toolbar.
Subscription payments could be made with DEC, the Decentr blockchain's native digital asset. Thus, Decentr was not only the first team to bring Sentinel to Windows—DEC was also the first cross-chain asset which dVPN Nodes could accept, setting the stage for the interoperability with a diverse spectrum of payment denominations that Sentinel is known for today.
That early chapter in Decentr's long-term dVPN strategy was a success: The extension proved popular with the browser's userbase and garnered many paying customers despite barely any money being spent on marketing or advertising. Decentr was the sole standard-bearer for Sentinel on Windows for the better part of a year until it was joined on the platform by Meile dVPN in early 2023.
Decentr VPN
Next month, Decentr will be building on the momentum from the alpha phase and taking the service to the next level: They'll be releasing a standalone mobile dVPN application. Decentr VPN is projected to be launched before the end of year on Android, with an iOS version to follow in 2026. It will be available to download both from app stores and directly from the Decentr website.
Just as they have with their browser, Decentr plans to eventually expand the VPN's supported platforms beyond mobile to all three major desktop operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux).
"The Sentinel Network offers us something that no other VPN service can: A globally-distributed, community-supported network of real people who genuinely share in our mission: To provide internet freedom to everyone, regardless of where they live or work," COO Flynn told us when we asked about his company's history with Sentinel.
The new app is being developed with assistance from freQniK of MathNodes, the lead developer of Meile dVPN.
"MathNodes has been a supporter of Decentr for three years," said freQniK when asked about his experience working with the latter project. "Nikita [Anikeev] is a workhorse and has always showed strong support for the MathNodes and Meile brands."
Indeed, Decentr and MathNodes have a long-established working relationship: freQniK was a backend contributor and node curator for the in-browser version of Decentr's VPN. That partnership has now deepened even further, and the new app will even contain a graphic indicating that it is "powered by Meile."
"In March 2024, Decentr integrated our Meile Plan API to revive their web browser dVPN... Decentr will once again be using our API for their forthcoming dVPN mobile app, and we have negotiated pricing with them for our services deemed fair and balanced by both parties," said freQniK of his company's contributions. "We hope to springboard Decentr into a new wave of success and profitability."
The announcement of a new standalone dVPN client developed by a trusted ecosystem partner has generated excitement within the Sentinel community and team alike: It will be the first new third-party standalone dVPN to launch on the chain since Valt in early 2024 (encryptSIM's dVPN, launched this past summer, is exclusive to their eSIM subscribers).
Fortress Protocol & Modulus
Decentr's forthcoming contributions to the dVPN space won't be limited to launching a single app—they're positioning themselves to become a key player in the proliferation of the technology. Decentr will have a major role in onboarding new dVPN teams and developers to Sentinel going forward, laying the groundwork for even more new apps in the years to come.
This year they established an all-new SaaS (software as a service) side company called Fortress Protocol, which will work to open up Decentr's proprietary architectures and technologies to whitelabeling and co-development partnerships. Decentr will be shipping whitelabeled dVPNs for both Fortress and another project called Modulus.
Modulus is a brand new "Layer X" blockchain which delivers an entirely new method of generating zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs using mathematical expressions called polynomials. Thirty-one projects are already building on their testnet, with a full v2 mainnet rollout scheduled for next month.
Yesterday, Decentr and Fortress joined Modulus for an hour-long X Space in which the trio discussed their dVPN strategy. Click the button below to listen in.
Decentr Software Suite
New Mission, New Products
During 2025, Decentr has had a very similar arc to Sentinel—namely, an immense expansion in scope and ambition. Sentinel evolved from a network of dVPN applications into a global DePIN marketplace for internet bandwidth; likewise, Decentr has grown from a single web browser into an entire suite of privacy-focused software and applications.
In this year alone, Decentr has already shipped four new products: File Manager Secure, Password Manager Secure, Secure PDF Reader and Signer, and a lightweight privacy-focused offshoot of their main browser called Decentr Lite.
They've also revamped their logo and branding; and re-calibrated their chain-level strategy to prioritize versatility and interoperability with the rest of Web3. For a more in-depth look at Decentr's progress in 2025, their new products, and their plans for the year to come, check out their recent developer blog post.
Related
Anonymous Contributor
Read our other "Meet the Ecosystem" articles, which profile other dVPN builders such as NORSE Labs, MathNodes, and Valt Data.
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Sentinel is a peer-to-peer global bandwidth marketplace which powers both privacy-focused consumer products and development utilities. The most prominent of these usecases at present are decentralised VPN (dVPN) applications and data acquisition for the training of AI models.
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