What is Tor?

The Tor network (short for The Onion Router) is a privacy system designed to anonymize internet traffic by routing it through multiple volunteer-run servers called nodes or relays. Each relay only knows the previous and next hop, but not the full route, thanks to a technique called onion encryption. When you send data through Tor, it is wrapped in multiple layers of encryption — like the layers of an onion. Each relay peels off one layer before passing the traffic along, until it finally exits through a public exit node to the wider internet.

A typical Tor connection uses three hops (entry, middle, and exit relays), although technically it can be extended up to five hops in certain configurations. This multi-hop design makes it difficult to trace the traffic back to its origin, but it also increases latency.

Accessing Tor usually requires the Tor Browser, a modified version of Firefox that automatically connects to the Tor network. Alternatively, advanced users can configure applications or operating systems to send traffic through Tor using tools like Orbot (on mobile) or the Tor daemon on Linux.

The Downsides of Tor

While Tor provides strong anonymity, it comes with significant limitations that make it less practical as a general-purpose privacy tool.

1. Limited to Browser Use
   Tor is primarily designed for browsing via the Tor Browser. Although it can be configured to handle other traffic, it does not function as a full VPN, meaning most applications outside the browser remain unprotected by default.

2. No Control Over Exit Location
   Tor anonymizes your traffic, but you cannot choose the geographic location of your exit node. This makes it unsuitable for tasks like accessing region-locked content or ensuring predictable performance.

3. Public Registry of Relays
   Every Tor relay is publicly listed in a central directory to allow clients to build circuits. While this supports transparency, it also means that governments and adversaries can easily identify, monitor, or block Tor traffic at the network level.

4. Poor Performance
   Each connection typically passes through three hops, with up to five possible in special cases. The multiple layers of encryption and volunteer-run relays add significant latency and reduce throughput. As a result, Tor is often much slower than conventional internet or VPN connections.

5. Entry Node Exposure
   Although the multi-hop system hides your destination, the first node (the entry relay) still sees your real IP address. If an adversary can monitor both the entry and the exit simultaneously, the anonymity Tor provides can be undermined.

6. Time-Correlation Attacks
   One of the most serious threats to Tor is the time-correlation attack. If an adversary can observe traffic patterns at both ends — the entry relay and the exit relay — they can correlate timing and volume to de-anonymize users. Even though the data itself is encrypted, statistical analysis can reveal which incoming flow matches which outgoing flow. This type of attack has been demonstrated in research and poses a real risk against powerful adversaries with large-scale monitoring capabilities.

How VeilNet Addresses These Downsides

VeilNet was designed not only to preserve anonymity like Tor, but also to deliver speed, flexibility, and resilience against modern and future threats.

1. Beyond Browser-Only Use
   Unlike Tor, which is mainly limited to the Tor Browser, VeilNet functions as a full secure network layer, not just a proxy. Once connected, all applications on your device — from messaging apps to video calls — are protected by VeilNet’s encryption without extra configuration.

2. User-Controlled Exit Location
   Tor anonymizes but gives you no control over where your traffic exits. VeilNet solves this with its concept of Planes — regional overlays that users can join to control the geolocation of their exit. Want your traffic to appear from Europe, Asia, or the US? Simply select the corresponding Plane. This combines the anonymity of decentralisation with the practicality of choosing your exit region.

3. No Publicly Listed Nodes
   Tor relays are publicly listed in a central registry, making them easy to fingerprint and block. In VeilNet, connections are logically peer-to-peer but physically bonded to ISP gateways, so no node is ever publicly visible. To outside observers, VeilNet traffic blends perfectly into normal internet activity such as gaming or video conferencing, making it virtually impossible to identify or censor.

4. High Performance Instead of Bottlenecks
   Tor’s multiple encryption layers and limited volunteer relays cause slow speeds. VeilNet solves this by using Kyber KEM, Dilithium DSA, and AES-256 GCM, combined with on-demand ephemeral channels and multipath routing. This means traffic can be split across many nodes at once, achieving performance limited only by your own internet connection, not by the network.

5. No Single Entry-Node Weakness or Hop Limitations
   In Tor, the first node always sees your IP, creating a structural weakness. In VeilNet, links are logically peer-to-peer but physically hidden within ISP-level gateways, so there is no exposed “first node” to observe your identity. In addition, VeilNet does not have a fixed hop structure like Tor’s three-hop model — the number of hops is random and unlimited, making it much harder for adversaries to predict or trace traffic paths.

6. Resilient Against Time-Correlation Attacks
   Time correlation is a major risk in Tor, but VeilNet’s design makes such analysis extremely difficult. Because each destination has its own independent encrypted channel, traffic is fragmented across hundreds or thousands of nodes. Ephemeral bundling (1–1000 packets of varying length per encryption block) further obscures timing patterns. Combined with decentralised routing, this ensures there’s no consistent entry–exit pair for adversaries to monitor, defeating large-scale correlation attacks.