CantinaVPN is a Win-Win Solution

Benefits to you

PRIVATE *

• Anonymous use (no login required, no personal information collected)

AFFORDABLE **

• Monthly $1.99 subscription fees are low, but necessary to protect your privacy

SIMPLE ***

• The ON/OFF button is all you need. You set the CantinaVPN service to on, or off, it’s that simple.

*  Note that Virtual Private Network (VPN) services (in general) do not protect your privacy from the companies that operate the websites and other application services you use. So take regular precautions when browsing and using Internet services. However, a VPN is useful when you want to access a website that would otherwise be blocked based on the location where your traffic originates. For example, some excellent educational websites such as MicroBlocks, Scratch, and Snap! are blocked if you attempt to access those sites from a device located in China. Another benefit of using a VPN is local network privacy. For example, when you access the internet from a public location such as a coffee shop Wi-Fi hotspot, a VPN will block other hotspot users from being able to sniff your traffic. In general, a VPN blocks outsiders from snooping on the types of sites or services you are accessing online. In addition to the VPN service, we recommend always ensuring that the websites you browse are accessed over https, not http, so that your traffic is encrypted end-to-end.

**  Fees are low on purpose. One of our core missions as a benefit corporation is to provide excellent value to consumers. The monthly subscription fee was estimated to be the minimum necessary to pay operators of the VPN network of nodes around the globe, to invest in ongoing product development, to pay for 3rd party technology and cloud services, and to administer the company per legal and government regulations (corporate taxes and fees, accounting services, etc). We should be able to maintain these low user fees if we reach a certain minimum number of subscribers.

***  We hide the complexity of routing your VPN traffic. Possible routes are tested momentarily (based on the exit countries you have chosen) and the route performing the best is the one used to set up your VPN connection.

Benefits to others

SOCIAL GOOD

• If we make an excess profit, we plan to direct much of it toward non-profit entities that we admire. Examples: organizations that seek to improve STEM education opportunities, and open-source software and hardware projects that we love. In summary, after necessary expenses are paid, our goal isn’t to make individuals rich, but rather to fund activities and actions that have a positive impact on society

DECENTRALIZED ECONOMIC VALUE

• Individuals and small businesses that independently operate the open source software running on the VPN exit nodes (located around the globe) receive “micropayments” (small fees) based on the amount of VPN traffic they securely route. The app selection of routing nodes is based on providing you, the user, with the fastest path and best performance. Since all VPN exit nodes run the same open source routing software, there is no bias involved in selecting the VPN path and therefore no unfairness in distributing the micropayments.