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Are Peer to Peer Subscriptions the New Web3 Business Model?

There is a price for everything. But what about the Internet? Sure, you pay your Internet Service Provider a few sats a month for an internet connection.

But, how can that be enough to pay for the hundreds of thousands of websites that are out there and the ones that you visit on a daily basis? Shouldn’t there be an entry-pass for each website that lets you through only after a.. Subscription?

Well, here’s the awkward truth.

The internet is not really free to use. It has never been. There’s a price for that messaging app, streaming platform, and even a P2P VPN service.

The price of using the internet is your data.

How is your data of any use to anyone you ask?

Data is indeed the source of revenue for Web2 companies. The data economy has grown manifold in the past couple of decades.

Meta, formerly Facebook, made $114.9 Billion in advertising revenue in 2021, with the help of its user data.

And here’s a report by IBM that outlines the various ways in which companies can monetize your data. It is evident from the report that any Web2 company that fails to make efficient use of user data will fail in the digital transformation race.

Archaic Business Models

Yes, your data is instrumental in the upcoming data revolution in which, and here we quote, “he who controls data will control the world.”

Web2 companies that don’t have a subscription-based business model to generate revenue depend on user data and ad-revenue for sustainability.

Because, how else would they break even or turn over a profit? But, when users pay for their products and services, there’s a viable business model that liberates them from collecting user data.

Applications that make revenue off of subscription models needn’t sell your data to generate revenue. Subscribing to a service ensures that your privacy is protected.

But all things considered…

Your data is still being collected.

You need to trust the entity providing the service to NOT sell your data.

While there are a few Web2 companies that adhere to ethical practices in handling user data, not all do. Instances where businesses and institutions use data without consent has been observed again, and again, and again.

Besides, subscription options are subject to the decision of the service provider and you may not be able to find a plan that suits your goals and needs.

Say, you need a subscription plan that lets you use a service for just a couple of hours, a few days or a couple of weeks.

These are called micro-subscriptions and they’re here to change the game. Because why should you pay monthly or yearly when you can pay for just what you use?

For example,

You subscribe to a P2P VPN for 5 days, pay usage fee for the service by the hour to the vendor and be done with it. This way, you don’t need to worry about mandatory monthly subscription fees.
Another example is downloading a free version of the application and adding additional features as you go for a fee. This gives you the ability to customize the features that you want to use.
This way, you also get the chance to support the small players who offer competitive pricing and an exceptional service.

Is such a thing even possible?

Yes. Micro-subscriptions have been around for sometime now. Many platforms have begun adopting this business model. But, the true potential of micro-subscription is achieved when combined with a peer to peer business model that empowers the users!

Eliminating the Middlemen, for Good

Web3 is all about empowering the community and giving back control of the web back to the users. The corporations have owned the greater part of it for long enough.

Beldex takes this a step further by adding a layer of privacy to every transaction, message, and internet connection.

But we didn’t stop there. We want to create an privacy-preserving ecosystem that’s self-sufficient and run by its users.

To achieve this, we are developing a peer to peer subscription service which will let you subscribe to – not a company – but a node run by another community member!

Before we go into the details of how this might work, let’s think about how a community run economy might look like.

There would absolutely be no gatekeepers. None.
This would create maximum decentralization provided the entry barrier is low.
And boost cross border interaction between users. There are no borders when you’re using a cryptographically generated address instead of a bank account. This paves the way for truly globalized peer-to-peer services.

Peer to Peer Subscriptions on BelNet

Peer-to-peer subscriptions on BelNet are being developed so that users can run localized exit nodes and get paid for it everytime someone opts to use their node.

Masternode operators can make use of their passive income by running exit nodes.

There are two types of nodes on BelNet.

Relays and exit nodes. While relays encrypt your connection with onion routing, exit nodes help you mask your IP and location.

P2P subscriptions create unique value for exit node operators based on the location they’re in! Unblock geo-restricted content is the No. 1 use case for a VPN.

If you’re based out of the U.S., then any user who wants to unblock a website or streaming service available only in the U.S. would opt to use your exit node!

You can attract users by offering a competitive edge over others by customizing your exit nodes to provide flexible subscription periods, pricing, and bandwidth.

The more people use BelNet, the higher is your chances of building out a successful business and a strong user base who trust in your exit node service.

Ofcourse, users pay you in BDX, which creates a feedback loop for BDX. Demand for BDX rises as a result which inturn leads to a positive price discovery.

Try BelNet Beta

Why Choose A Decentralized VPN?

BelNet, Privacy / By Beldex

VPNs around the world are either censored or hacked. So, how can users secure their connection and mask their IP address? Using Censorship-resistant decentralized VPNs like BelNet can help.

VPNs are considered the key to unlocking websites and hiding your internet activity from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Cellular Network Providers, hackers and even the Government. But do VPNs really grant uncensored access to all websites? Do they really protect you from threats in the vast cyberspace?

Sadly, not always.

There are limits to what a VPN can do. Though some VPN providers adhere to protecting user data, some maintain activity logs of their users. They are not free of the regulatory hammer and censorship. There have been cases of VPN censorship in several jurisdictions.

So, how can we prevent censorship? Shouldn’t the internet be free for everyone to use? Absolutely. It should. Because that’s the ethos on which the Internet was founded. But with incessant censorship and blackouts, can we find the light at the end of the tunnel?

There are several open-source projects that are working towards providing a censorship-resistant open-source P2P VPN service. P2P VPNs aren’t centrally controlled and thus they don’t have a central point of failure. They aren’t owned or managed by a company and do not keep activity logs of their users.

Sounds like free internet right? Well, it’s quite close. Let’s see how centralized, decentralized, and open-source VPNs operate.

What are centralized, decentralized, and open-source VPNs?

Centralized VPNs

Centralized VPNs are companies that provide VPN services by masking your IP and routing your requests through their servers.

For example, if your IP address is 185.177.124.254, you could connect to a VPN service to mask your IP.

In this case, your connection would be routed through a server maintained by the VPN service provider. Thus, the website you’re trying to connect to will see a different IP address than yours, enabling you private internet access.

But here’s the catch. Since the servers that receive your request are centrally managed, the VPN service providers can see your original IP and log the information about your location and identity.

Decentralized & Open-Source VPNs

Decentralized VPN services, on the other hand, use what is called onion routing to route your connection through relay nodes in a decentralized network. The relays encrypt your connection along the way such that the original IP is not visible to your ISP or the destination. The relays don’t maintain a log of the users who connect to the network, thus your IP, location, and identity are protected at all times.

Here’s an article that talks about the differences between centralized VPNs and decentralized VPN services based on onion routers in detail.

Open source VPN services provide a free to use code base without intellectual property restrictions for the community to use and develop. Most decentralized VPN services are open-sourced.

Bypassing The Great Firewall?

Did you know that The Great Firewall was once called The Golden Shield Project? The Republic of China began restricting access to certain internet content from within its borders in 1996.

Internet censorship in the Chinese Republic has been around for so long that it has changed the way people in China use the internet. For instance, while the rest of the world use Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Reddit, the Chinese people are accustomed to using Baidu, Youku, Baidu Wiki, Weibo, and other alternatives.

While this helps them develop the local tech industry, it is also a tool to severely restrict and limit the free flow of information. Yes, the Great Firewall has not spared journalism. Popular news websites like The New York Times, The Guardian, and the South China Morning Post are also blocked.

Censoring VPNs Left, Right, and Center

Residents of such countries use VPNs to bypass the restrictions. They use VPNs to unblock the services that are otherwise blocked.

Thus a resident of a politically oppressed country with extreme demarcation on the Internet would naturally depend on VPNs on a daily basis.

However, countries like Iran have gone a step further to prevent the use of these VPN services. There’s a silent war on VPNs that’s been inhibiting free speech. China, Iran, India have introduced laws and tools that prevent the operation of VPN servers. The 2022 CERT-in mandate in May this year requires VPN companies to maintain a log of their users in India for no less than 5 years. This log includes a users,

Names of subscribers
Email address and IP address of users
Home Address and phone numbers
IP allotted to users
Period of use (date of subscription)

This would reveal the kind of device you’re connecting from, your device IP, the websites that you visit, and even the purchases that you make. This prompted the centralized VPN companies like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, ProtonVPN, and SurfShark to pull the plug on servers in India.

But all is not lost. Decentralized VPNs are here to save the day.

An All Access dVPN With No Activity Logs

BelNet doesn’t log information about users. There are no central actors to log this information. Masternodes or relays on the network cannot see the incoming traffic. Your IP, location and other personal information remains safe at all times.

BelNet essentially adheres to the three main functions of a VPN,

Masking Your IP & Location: Your IP address is hidden as it is routed through the nodes on the Beldex network.
Unblocking Websites & Content: Irrespective of your geographic location, you will be able to access geo-restricted websites and content such as video streaming platforms.
Encrypting Your Data: Your data is encrypted at each node via BelNet’s onion routing protocol.

With the introduction of BNS domains, you can host your own MNApps on BelNet. You can find more information about BNS domains in this article here.

There is no need for you to provide your email address, phone number, or other personal data. BelNet is free to use and is available on PlayStore. Subscription services on BelNet will be introduced at a later time, however, it will still not require your personal information. Subscription services are designed to ensure that exit node operators on the network are rewarded for the bandwidth they provide. A cross-platform desktop version of BelNet will soon be launched.

Protecting Yourself from Hacks, Malware & Viruses

VPNs do not protect you from malware, viruses, or hackers. Centralized VPNs on the other hand are prone to hacks. Last year, hackers exploited several vulnerabilities on Pulse Secure VPN that allowed them to bypass two-factor authentication and pilfer credentials. This in turn gave them access to other sensitive information.

Decentralized VPNs share the security of the underlying network and are only as secure as the network they are built on. BelNet, which is built on top of the Beldex network, is supported by over 1000 masternodes that relay network traffic. A significant collateral needs to be invested into setting up a masternode which would be slashed if the masternode were to undermine the network. This prevents them from acting dishonestly.

The most a malicious node could do is not relay a connection request or reduce the bandwidth that it provides which would result in its decommission or deregistration.

VPNs secure your connection with the website that you’re visiting. They do not provide a firewall against the malware and viruses. To protect yourself online even while using VPNs is to stay agile and follow best online security practices.

Join our community to know more about our recent developments.

How fast is BelNet ?

BelNet, Privacy / By Beldex

Slow internet makes us go crazy. Nobody wants to buffer audios and videos all day long. Well, for one, it is not the 90s or the 2000s anymore and two, there are much better and reliable broadband networks now than before. But, is this the case with P2P VPNs and onion routers too? How fast are the networks that anonymize your internet traffic?

Most people would agree of having a subpar experience of using onion routers based VPNs. That’s because these VPNs use archaic routing protocols and depend on an unreliable network of nodes, which makes them slow on an architectural level.

Before we delve into onion routers and how we make them faster, you might be interested in learning more about them.

Why are onion routers slow?

Onion routers are slow. Period. They trade off speed and scalability for privacy. On a regular connection, you go from point A to point B without making any stops along the way. But with onion routers, you make stops at certain points that are bound to take longer than usual to get to your destination.

For example, on the Tor network, your connection makes stops at at least 3 relay nodes before it is routed to an exit node and reaches the clearnet.

To put it in perspective, when you’re accessing amazon.com from your web browser, normally you’d be sending a connection request to a server that hosts amazon.com’s web content. The server then returns your request by displaying amazon.com’s web page on your browser.

While using an onion router based VPN, your device (the client) doesn’t directly make this request to amazon.com but instead sends it to a node on the respective network. This is the entry node and the entry point for your connection. The request is then routed to three different relay nodes where it is encrypted. The relays know where to send the request but not where it came from, making it difficult to trace back the connection. Finally, the request is sent to the exit node which queries the destination on behalf of the client. Thus, the destination amazon.com only sees the request originating from the exit node while information about the client is completely masked.

The relays are chosen at random from the network nodes so as to prevent the prediction or interception of a connection. On the Beldex network, through which connections over BelNet are routed, there are 1086 masternodes that act as relays (at the time of writing). BelNet also uses an onion routing protocol but it is much quicker and easier to connect to your destination using BelNet. Let’s see why.

How is BelNet faster than other onion routers?

BelNet uses the Beldex network to enable the working of an onion routing protocol with a very low latency in its connection.

BelNet is faster because of the unique protocol that it uses. Unlike other onion routing protocols, BelNet doesn’t use a centralized architecture like Directory Authorities (in case of Tor) or a Distributed Hash Table (in case of I2P) to store relay node information. Instead, BelNet uses the network nodes from Beldex to relay your traffic. Beldex nodes work based on swarms and swarm IDs, which makes it faster and easier to establish a connection and create a path (tunnel) for routing the connection.

Since Beldex masternodes are economically incentivized to act in the best interest of the network, they can be relied upon to provide the required bandwidth for transporting the data. In addition to supporting TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), BelNet also supports UDP (User Datagram Protocol) & ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol). This means that BelNet also supports the relay of real-time voice and video calls.

Is Sky the limit?

We believe BelNet has the potential to grow into a global network of nodes that become the de facto anonymity layer of the internet.

The maximum upload and download speeds of BelNet are at over 10 Mbps however these figures could change depending on the number of relays and exit nodes, their bandwidth, and the number of users who use BelNet.

Though there are only a few thousand people using BelNet today, even at maximum capacity, BelNet would be able to support hundreds of thousands to surf anonymously on a day to day basis.

Beldex is currently working on a reward and subscription mechanism for exit nodes that would allow exit node operators to be paid in BDX for the services that they offer. This will allow users to subscribe for faster bandwidths while remaining anonymous.

Join our community to know more about our recent developments.

BelNet: Gateway to Global Access

Beldex-Blog, BelNet, Privacy / By Beldex

You’ve probably heard of VPNs and how they help you anonymously surf the internet and unblock websites that are restricted to certain geographic locations.

But what’s a dVPN and how does it help you stay truly anonymous? Does it reduce data costs or increase the speed of your connection?

Well, not quite. But it’s cool. So hear us out.

Before we dive into how a decentralized VPN works, its associated routing mechanisms, unstoppable domains and web applications, let’s talk about the clearnet.

The internet you’re using right now to read this article is called the clearnet. It is the publicly accessible internet that lets you browse web applications such as medium.com or even our very own beldex.io.

Clearnet: the elephant in the room that nobody talks about

There’s a catch to using the clearnet. Wherever you go on the internet, you leave a trail. It is similar to a residue or dust on your shoes that can be used to track where you came from and what you did. There are several trackers and cookies on the websites that you visit. These trackers follow you around and hamper your browsing experience. They collect your IP address and information about your location, identity, gender, language among others. The metadata so collected is used to create your digital profile (about your likes and preferences) which inturn is used to target you with personalized ads.

VPNs to the rescue, right?

VPNs help you prevent these trackers from identifying your IP address and identity. But most VPN providers are themselves centralized entities and need to be trusted to keep your information safe from prying eyes. Regulations also play a major role in the extent of privacy offered by VPN companies and service providers. A regulator, an entity with vested interest and the means to access the VPN’s servers, or the service provider themselves possess the ability to access your data.

If VPNs can still be used to track you, then is there a solution to true privacy on the internet? The short answer is yes.

Here’s the long one. The solution is to use a trustless, autonomous, censorship-free application that is self-regulated and does not require an external entity to operate its services. Such an application would use an onion routing protocol over a decentralized network to encrypt and mask your IP address without the need for a third party to do it. They are P2P VPNs.

Onion Routing: Layer by Layer Privacy

Onion routing, like the layers of an onion, routes a message or a traffic over many layers of encryption using a network of computers (called nodes in case of a blockchain).

In traditional encryption methods, your messages are protected but can still be intercepted.

Onion routing offers a greater level of security and privacy when compared to traditional encryption and routing protocols as it obfuscates your identity while ensuring that none of the information that you requested to access (your connection) or accessed (browsing history) is intercepted or disrupted by anyone who wants to tap into your connection.

Some of the prominent networks that implement onion routing are the Tor protocol and the I2P protocol. However, as Tor maintains Directory Authorities, it is not as decentralized while I2P has its own set of issues and is not completely anonymous when accessing the clearnet.

Onion routing with a decentralized VPN anonymizes your IP & browsing history not only to ISPs and third parties, it also cannot be compromised, intercepted, or disrupted by the network’s node operators.

What is BelNet?

BelNet is a decentralized VPN built on the Beldex blockchain. It is akin to a P2P VPN network as every person who hosts a relay or exit node adds to the anonymity of the P2P network.

Anonymous browsing

BelNet is an open source network that masks the IP addresses of the user with the help of relay and exit nodes. Users can surf both the clearnet and applications hosted on BelNet (MNApps) with the help of these nodes.

No username or password required

BelNet does not store user data and can be easily accessed by anyone. BelNet will be available as a cross-platform mobile and desktop application. Since it is a DApp built on the Beldex network, you can access it without the need for a username, email address, or a password.

When you connect to BelNet, your connection (IP address) is encrypted at each hop (from one node to another node) until it reaches the exit node. Every request (from the user) is routed through at least three nodes before it exits from the exit node. The destination example.com will only see the exit node’s IP. This protects you from exposing your location or other personal details.

Enabling BelNet on your device lets you surf the internet anonymously from anywhere in the world. It provides you with true global access to all the websites.

The BelNet P2P VPN can be used to unblock websites that are otherwise restricted to certain geolocations.

Who can use BelNet?

Everyone. The BelNet dVPN was created to provide equal access irrespective of a person’s race, class, creed, gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. BelNet is for digital rights and human rights everywhere and, to everyone.

BelNet will especially be of use to vulnerable and marginalized communities, civil rights activists, ethnic minorities, refugees, journalists and reporters who are in need of digital privacy and confidentiality.

Beldex Name Service (BNS) & MNApps

Whatever business you may own, the first thing your customers would ask you is, “Do you have a website?” Today, every business has a website as it plays a major role in the business’s success.

Purchasing a domain is the first step when starting a website. Web2 domains have the TLD .com, .org, .co, .io and so on and so forth.

Such domains are sold by a domain registrar and so they hold a monopoly over them. They could choose to block or restrict access to your domain if they wanted to, severely affecting your business. Once a domain is blocked, it can only be recovered at the sole discretion of the domain registrar. Oftentimes, it might be unrecoverable.

Should domain name registrars be the proprietary holders of domain names? Do you think domains should be free from centralized control?

We do too and that’s why we’ve come up with unstoppable domain names on BelNet called Beldex Name Service (BNS). These domains end with the TLD .bdx. For example,

yourname.bdx

yourbusiness.bdx

yourorganization.bdx

We call them unstoppable domains because they’re truly unstoppable. They provide you with censorship-free private internet access.

Example.bdx domains can be purchased via the Beldex Name Service using BDX. The apps hosted using .bdx domains on BelNet are called MNApps (since they’re supported by the Masternodes on the Beldex network).

They are hosted on a regular server but masked by BelNet. And so it is virtually impossible to locate the server. Both the service provider and the users who access the domain via BelNet are anonymized. This enables businesses and organizations to protect their websites from hacks, attacks, censorship and bans from registrars.

Web apps or MNApps on BelNet have the added advantage of being ad-free. It emphasizes the value of the hosted content and maximizes user engagement.

Some advantages of using MNApps,

Ad-free service
No user data is tracked
No logs are saved
Private and censorship-free apps
Masternodes act as the routers
Secured by the Beldex network

Stay tuned for more information on BelNet & follow our socials for instant updates.

Join our community to know more about our recent developments.

Building a Standard for Private Communications

BChat, Privacy / By Beldex

Centralized messaging platforms use a model that requires you to trust them. There are many shortcomings to a centralized communications platform. Here in detail, we can see how the BChat private messenger built on the Beldex chain makes a better choice for your privacy.

Communications today – heavily centralized and devoid of privacy:

At present, we are facing lots of privacy issues on the internet and it becomes challenging to protect our privacy online. We cannot anticipate or prevent problems like data theft, leakage of personal information to corporations. Some are even watching us from the Internet’s shadows to know what we are doing. Most of us don’t know the real face of centralized messengers. We believe that we are interacting on a safe platform and our messages are end-to-end encrypted. But this cannot be further from the truth. The reality of centralized messaging applications is that your personal information is at their mercy. If you’re using a centralized messaging application, chances are that you’ve lost your privacy without even being aware of it.

Users have to submit personal data: Users don’t have any personal choices as to whether to submit their personal information for creating accounts in the centralized messengers. Why should they provide their personal information to create an account? It should be their choice.
Data storage: The messages, metadata, cookies, IP addresses, etc., will be collected and stored on the centralized messenging platform’s servers. So the platform/organization can sell our data to others because they own it. They know who we are communicating with and what we are talking about.
Security Nightmare: Due to your information being stored in a centralized place, it will be easy for hackers, techies, and government authorities to track and collect your data without your knowledge.

This is what the centralized messengers will do. Is this what you want? Of course not. Privacy is not a thing to share with everyone, it’s our basic right that we need to protect from others.

Is secure messaging possible in centralized messengers?

The short answer is, no. It’s like a one way mirror. From one end, centralized messengers gives the appearance of security but you’re visible to the world that’s watching you from the other end. Same like, from external usage it may look secure and safe to use but the inner truth is different. By using it, we are losing our privacy each second. We know, many of us spending most of our valuable time on centralized messaging platforms. It is not only used for entertaining purposes, even in the digitized era business, education, etc., also takes place through the centralized platform.

An example is here for you. Everyone will follow some strategy to do their business, what happens if others steal your data and use it for their business or sell it to others? Then your business will get down and their business will grow. How it happens? The centralized messenger will sell your data to others, so they can utilize it whenever they need them.

This is what will happen on the centralized messenger’s platform. Looks safe but not really. Whatever you do here will be stored in one place and can be used at any cost. Even encrypted messages can be decrypted by hackers, techies, or authority figures on the centralized servers. Then there is no point in saying, end-to-end encryption messenger. To overcome the faults, we need a messenger that protects our privacy.

What is the use of collecting our data?

From an outside perspective, people may think why privacy is we needed for communication, what others will do with their information, and even they feel comfortable in using messengers too. But users need to understand what exactly they are dealing with. As long as we are using centralized messengers we are paying them our privacy as free of cost. Yes, they collect personal information while creating an account, metadata, IP addresses, and cookies are stored, and not truly end-to-end encrypted.

Here comes the question: what is the use of storing our details? The answer is simple. They will collect our details and sell them to corporate companies or even techies or hackers who will hack our information for their personal uses like to know our bank details, credit card details, etc., so they can avail a loan in your name and won’t pay it back. It is also a kind of theft happening in this digitalized era through the centralized messenger’s help.

How can we communicate privately?

The only way to communicate with privacy is possible on the decentralized private messengers. It is similar to centralized messengers for communication but here privacy is the prior choice. You can have all features as in centralized messengers. Here in decentralized messenger, one can communicate with privacy without relieving any personal information about them. They can feel the privacy on their conversation. The secure private messengers are truly end-to-end encrypted and only the receiver can get the decrypted message. The nodes will help to pass information through the blockchain. In the blockchain, no one can collect or alter any kind of details. So the information passes securely. Communication privacy can be achieved only with the help of decentralized private messengers.

What would a secure messenger do?

A secure messenger will give privacy as the precedence. Users can communicate with others with privacy and security. Centralized messengers like Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, etc., will say that they are secure but they are not the one. Decentralized messengers will do what they say. They are secured and private as default applications. Here you do not need any personal information to create an account. Need to know about the decentralized messenger. Here it is, Beldex BChat private messenger.

BChat decentralized messenger is end-to-end encrypted. Only the sender and receiver can decode the message. No third parties can be involved in your privacy.
Here the masternode will work as a storage server. No one can find the data of the user and every information passed through the Beldex blockchain is scattered into many pieces and stored on different masternodes.
open-source code. So users can check BChat code transparency at any time. It is visible to all.
No personal information like phone numbers or email IDs is required to create an account. An alpha-numeric code is used as a user identity.
Metadata like timestamp, size of the message, and location will be shared with others.
No IP address is shared or tracked. So no one knows where we are.
All modes of communication are possible such as text messages, voice

Due to high security and privacy, BChat is going to be the best decentralized messenger.

Combat surveillance in BChat decentralized messenger:

In a centralized communication platform, privacy was breached in many ways. They use phone contacts, cookies, IP addresses, GPS tracking, javascript, and metadata to know each detail about the user. Why should a messenger need to collect those details? Have you ever thought about it? We users, permit all things and start chatting. Without giving permission, we can’t access those messengers too.

By giving those permissions, they can collect all our private information like where we are going, to whom we are in touch, what we are talking about, what is our next move in life, our credit card, and bank details, etc., They will collect that information and share to others and we can see ads relating to our needs.

But in BChat, every data is secured and won’t breach your privacy at any cost. No cookies are enabled, no metadata will be shared, IP addresses are blocked, etc., your privacy will always be yours.

Building a standard for web3 private communication:

BChat private messenger is a decentralized messenger which can be used by all. Those who are seeking privacy and need to be private can go for it. Business people, Government officials, Journalists, Organization people, etc., can use Beldex BChat decentralized messenger. The phase of the internet is going to change from web2 to web3. In web3, ewverything will be anonymous and decentralized; no personal data is required or shared to others. it is going to be on the future of privacy in the internet world. BChat is going to take its step on the web3 decentralized platform to keep your privacy as privacy.

BChat is the best privacy messenger. Want to be safe and secure without any breaches, use BChat.

Join our community to know more about our recent developments.

What are zk-SNARKS?

Beldex-Blog, Privacy / By Beldex

Beldex is currently using the cryptonote privacy protocol with PoS consensus algorithm to validate transactions. Now, we are planning to upgrade to the next level to increase the transaction speed. This implementation not only increases the transaction speed but also gives more privacy to the transaction. Here we can see what Beldex is going to do.

ZK-Rollups:

ZK-Rollups is a concept used in blockchain to make a transaction fast and a privacy layer to it. It is usually built on layer 2 on the blockchain to increase scalability of the network. Generally, ZK-rollups make use of zk-SNARKs to verify transactions and relay this to the layer 1 blockchain by combining hundreds of transactions as a single transaction. Thus, the transaction time and network fees will be reduced. PoS along with ZK-rollups will increase the privacy and security level in transactions. They can make transactions in a flash of a second with a very low fee. Let us see about zk-SNARKs in detail.

zk-SNARKs- simplified:

zk-SNARKs is abbreviated as Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge. In simple terms it can be explained as Succinct uses to verify the proof concept in a short and easy way with the help of Non-Interactive method devoid of communication between the prover and the validator. One can prove using this Argument without any Knowledge of the underlying context.

Let us discuss with an example to understand in detail about it. There are many doors in the room. Each door will lead to different places at any given time. Now John wants to prove to Harry that one door will lead to New York. John knows the door that leads to NY at this instance, so he can open the door to NY and prove it to Harry without telling him where the doors adjacent to it leads to. Now both the parties will know that New York is at the other end of the door John opened.

If Harry gets a chance to open the door to New York again, it would lead to another place since the doors can lead to any given place. Here the existence of New York has been proved to Harry but he doesn’t know the context on how or where to find New York again.

Why Beldex is Researching zk-SNARKs:

Currently, Beldex uses the cryptonote privacy protocol for adding a privacy layer to transactions. Beldex is researching zk-SNARKs to increase the transaction speed and the transaction anonymity set. zk-SNARKs provide infinite anonymity sets which exponentially compliments speed and privacy. Simultaneously, the fees are reduced in the network because users need not wait in a queue to complete the transaction. The prover can show the hash to the verifier and tell that transaction has been sent. The verifier encodes it and finds the hash. The transaction amount, sender and receiver address will not be known to the verifier. Hence, it is proved without any real knowledge of the transaction. Beldex is researching zk-SNARKs to make your transactions truly private and scalable for BVM.

Beldex, the Future of Privacy.

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So how are phone numbers related to privacy concerns?

Beldex-Blog, Privacy, Security / By Beldex

Phone numbers are a confidential source of information. Using your phone number might be threatening to your life. We can note that a lot of people complain about their phone number privacy. They get unwanted calls, messages, etc., from different persons or sites. It’s all due to the phone number that we shared on applications. One can easily get our phone number through lots of technology sources and use it for various purposes.

It’s a significant issue, and phone numbers continue to be the major problem. Avoiding phone numbers is not an easy task because we need a phone number to sign-up for our messaging application account. So, we all need a messenger without phone numbers to sign-up to overcome all issues.

BChat, best privacy messenger app:

Beldex develops a BChat, which is a privacy messenger app, where you can sign-up the account as anonymous. Yes, users do not need their phone number to create an account. They can communicate with others through the alpha-numeric code instead of phone numbers. This is the best part of BChat, other messaging apps won’t do this but we do. That’s why BChat is known as the best messenger app for privacy.

Let’s see why BChat gives an anonymous way of sign-up to the account without a phone number.

Phone numbers and it’s a hidden secret:

Have you ever considered what happens when we share our phone numbers with others? No. We just provide our phone number in its current form. This is where the issue originates. To overcome this fact, we need a crypto messenger for privacy. Nowadays, we rely heavily on phone numbers as a primary source of information. It is related to our daily lives. Whatever we do, it will be recorded. From our account information to areas we commonly visit.

If someone wants to find out our information, they can easily hack our phone number and discover information about us without having to approach us. Sometimes, it may become a threat to our peaceful life. Even if we change our phone number, the comprehensive information about us will remain on it. Those who have access to our phone number will be able to obtain the backup of our source. Are you astounded? This is the greatest secret hidden behind the phone number, and we frequently change phone numbers and sign up for numerous messaging apps with our phone numbers without realizing the fact.

It’s unnecessary to share our phone numbers at all places in this digitalized world. We can find many issues related to phone numbers on applications. Tech-known people, hackers, or government officials can easily track our data for their purpose and use it. Our privacy lies in our hands, we can’t blame others for tasting our bitterness. We need crypto privacy messaging applications to cover this hidden secret.

Leaving your phone numbers behind:

The privacy issues on the phone numbers are great problems to many, still many are searching for a way to neglect it. Phone numbers become a major source of communication but why should we pay our privacy as a charge to them? It’s time to change to a crypto privacy messenger without phone number.

Instead, with BChat, it is a privacy messenger without phone number requirement to sign-up. It can make you feel comfortable and secure. Without your phone number, no one can track or trace you. Your communications will be sent to the intended recipient without interruption from third parties.

Your privacy is the priority motto of BChat. Don’t compromise your privacy for others. We know your privacy value and we worked to secure yours as ours with a crypto privacy messenger app.

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How Beldex Contributes to Privacy on the Internet

Announcements, Beldex-Blog, Privacy / By Beldex

Usage of the internet is becoming a major need in our daily activities. It has become a boon to our life. The development of the internet is reaching new heights in recent years. Almost all of the people started to use it and even a kid knows how to access them. A coin has both sides likewise the internet has a boon and curse to life.

It is not due to how we are using the internet, the fact is some features in-built on the applications. We can’t quit using it in our daily life too. If we are supposed to stop the usage of the internet, our daily routine will get interrupted.

This blog will explain to you the issues that we are facing on the internet by its usage and how Beldex contributes its role on internet privacy issues.

Issues that we face on the centralized internet service:

There are three major issues that we are facing on the internet. They are,

Spying on our daily activities.
Misuse of data.
Metadata tracking.

Spying:

This is the most important issue that we are facing on the internet. The sad fact is most of us don’t know that we are being tracked daily by others. They can be bots, cookies, and other trackers, authorities, or tech-savvy hackers. Usually, they will record your details. They don’t miss any of your details, even a keystroke. Later on, they make a list of your records and share them with the big corporations for advertising purposes.

On every social media application or any other centralized platform, you can see ads related to your search more frequently even when your need is over. They often snoop their nose on your privacy and track you like your shadow.

Misuse of data:

We will usually store our name, address, phone number, mail id, and even password for easy access. Mostly to use e-commerce sites we will store personal details of us on it. And sometimes we share our details, passwords, etc., with our relatives and friends through social media. These messages won’t be encrypted. It will be easy for all to access your data.

Some websites will ask you to accept the cookies to view more details on the site. By accepting the cookies, you are agreeing to collect your data without knowing the future issues. To run some websites, they need people’s data; by using our information they can access their sites in the name of us.

Fraudulent activities will take place by accessing our personal information.

Metadata tracking:

During sharing our information from one to another our metadata will be also shared along with it. Once your metadata like location, IP address, time, etc., was shared anyone can watch you. Most people will use your metadata to know what you are doing, where are you, what are you looking for, what are you planning to do, etc., by knowing this data one can share your information with others for ad posting, fraudulent activity, or for any purpose too.

How do Beldex contribute their DApps to internet privacy?

These are the major issues happening on the internet without our knowledge. Why should we lose our privacy? To control these issues, Beldex is launching BelNet and Beldex Browser. It is completely safe to use and works on the decentralized blockchain.

BelNet:

BelNet is a DVPN network. It helps to mask your IP address and location. The data will be end-to-end encrypted. Other than the destination, no one can decrypt or modify them. The data will pass through the nodes of the Beldex blockchain. It works as a Vpn P2P service.

Beldex browser:

Beldex browser is a private web browser. In this browser, no ads will follow you and users can feel secure while browsing. The cookies, javascript, metadata information, etc., will be blocked. No one can track your location, collect data, and share any ad-related content. Even the data will be stored in an encrypted form. So collecting information is impossible here. Beldex is the safest browser for privacy.

Beldex values your privacy the most. Feel free to browse whatever and wherever. Your privacy is our priority.

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Beldex the best privacy coin!

Beldex-Blog, Blockchain, Privacy, Security / By Beldex

Few years ago, cryptocurrency was being looked down upon by the corporate world. But now, cryptocurrency is steadily gaining popularity all over the world, and is being welcomed and espoused.

A Privacy coin in specific is an altcoin which is being used by people and is preferred in terms of its safe and secure nature and its ability to make a transaction private.

Privacy coins should be your first choice if you want to make your crypto transactions on the internet safe and secure.

Beldex is a privacy cryptocurrency which came into existence in the year 2018 and has ever since only shown consistent growth. It is anonymous and works on a peer to peer decentralized system.

Advantages of using the best privacy coin: BELDEX (BDX)

Beldex has been designed in a way which helps in keeping anonymity present throughout the transaction and holds your privacy as its top mission. It uses the cryptonote privacy protocol to do so.

Beldex, a privacy coin crypto uses methods such as ring signatures, ring CT, and stealth addresses which conceals and protects the privacy of the sender, receiver, and transaction amount being sent. It is decentralized, which makes transferring of funds untraceable and easy. The tracking of user’s data is practically impossible.

It helps your crypto transactions to not turn into a regular bank transaction by keeping its obscurity in place.

Why Beldex specifically?

Beldex has an array of services which comprises of BChat, BelNet, Beldex Browser, Beldex wallets, Beldex privacy protocol, Beldex wallet extension and Beldex bridge.They are all decentralised apps tailored to make the process of transaction comparatively hassle- free. It also makes up the Beldex private ecosystem which is an advantage to all its users. The transaction history will be maintained in a decentralized blockchain.

You can also earn rewards (in BDX) through staking masternodes.

Does Beldex have a private ecosystem?

Yes, it does. The beldex ecosystem consists of apps which will be useful in performing a privacy browsing, chatting, etc.,

Beldex private ecosystem includes –

BChat: A decentralised private messenger. Your conversations will stay only between the sender and the receiver.

BelNet: A peer to peer VPN service. You can search for anything, anywhere without the fear of getting your IP or location tracked.

Beldex Browser: A privacy based browser. It doesn’t track or share your activity on the internet and also helps remove advertisements.

Beldex Privacy Protocol: A cornerstone product of the ecosystem, it makes transactions remain private with other blockchains possible.

Beldex Decentralized Wallets: A decentralized multi platform wallet which can be used through web, android phone (ios launching soon) and windows.

Beldex Bridge: In order to use our crypto on another blockchain, Beldex bridge stands as a cross-chain bridge which helps to link other bridges in order to swap the coins.

Wallet Extension: The one true purpose of this is that it makes it easier for you to use the Beldex wallet on decentralized platforms.

To keep your transactions “truly private” do use Beldex (BDX) as it is one among the top privacy crypto coins with its very own top private ecosystem.

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What is a Beldex decentralized wallet?

Beldex-Blog, Ecosystem, Privacy, Security / By Beldex

Have you ever heard about cryptocurrency? Yes, of course, who is not aware of cryptocurrency at the present. Recently it is becoming more popular among the people. Cryptocurrency is nothing but a digital money which makes your transaction as secured through the decentralized blockchain. Cryptocoins are not only used for secured transaction purpose, but also people can use it in retail stores, corporations, open trading institutions, etc., to fetch their needs. Cryptocurrency is stored in a digitalized wallet. People need to create an account in the crypto wallet and store their cryptocurrency over there. It will generally take place in the centralized platform. There we need to enter our data like name and password. Our details like from where we are accessing, amount that we hold, to whom we are sending, etc., will be known to authorized person. So hacking is possible here.

How come others can interfere in our privacy? Who gave access to them? Privacy is a fundamental right to everyone. So to assure your privacy we have launched Beldex wallet. It is a decentralized wallet, where you need not to enter any of your personal information to access your wallet account. Users can create an account with one click. The whole process will takes place in Beldex blockchain. Every asset that you hold will be maintained with high security to respect people’s privacy.

How will a decentralized wallet work?

Beldex decentralized wallet works on the basis of decentralized blockchain. In decentralized blockchain, everything will take place in the anonymous manner. No one can seek any information from here. People can transfer, receive, and stake their BDX coins on their beldex wallet. People need to create an account in the wallet. After downloading the application on your device, users can sign up for their account. It doesn’t ask any personal details. A private key and address is generated. The address is used to transfer and receive the BDX coins from others. Other than this address, private key should not be shared with others. By sharing the private key, you are giving permission them to access your account.

The private key consists of seed words, spend key, and view key on it. Users need to note everything for the security purpose because once they lose this private key, they can’t recover the account and will lose all the BDX amount deposited over there. It is because no one knows your private key other than you and in blockchain we can’t get any details about user’s account. Users can recover the account or access their account from other devices by using this private key. They need not to create another account. Seed words are mainly used as the password to log in the account. In case, if the user forgets about the seed words, they can use the view key and spend key to access their account.

What are the types of wallet we have?

The Beldex decentralized wallet is a cross-platform wallet. We have three types of wallet according to the convenience of the people. They are,

Web wallet: There are two versions of Beldex web wallet available on the site. In version 1, users can create different integrated addresses for each transaction. It helps to protect users from hacking. In version 2, users can add their contacts in the wallet for easy access. Here we can transfer, receive, and hold our beldex coins.
Android wallet: It is designed for android users. In this fast-moving world, we need everything at the doorstep. So this android wallet will help a lot. Users need not visit the site for the transaction, from the android wallet application user can send and receive the BDX. It makes our work simpler and easier.
Electron desktop wallet: The electron desktop wallet can be downloaded on the desktop. It is not only used to transfer and receive the BDX but also we can stake BDX on masternodes. For staking BDX coins on the masternodes, users can receive the rewards.

Every wallet account is created with utmost privacy and security measures. You can go with our Beldex decentralized wallet to meet your privacy needs.

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