How does a regular VPN encrypt your traffic? And why there is a problem

VPNs encrypt user traffic by wrapping data inside a secure tunnel built on cryptographic protocols. The most common are IPsec and OpenVPN, both of which use a combination of strong algorithms: AES-128/256 for encryption, SHA-2 for integrity, and Diffie–Hellman or Elliptic Curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH) for secure key exchange. More recently, WireGuard has emerged as a streamlined alternative that avoids legacy complexity. Instead of mixing many algorithms, it adopts a lean, modern suite: ChaCha20 for encryption, Poly1305 for message authentication, BLAKE2s for hashing, and Curve25519 for key exchange. Regardless of the implementation, the principle is the same — every packet leaving your device is encrypted with the same secret key with a static VPN server, which decrypts and forwards it to the wider internet.

However, these protocols all rely on mathematical problems — such as factoring large integers or solving elliptic curve discrete logarithms — that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could break using Shor’s algorithm. This means that while VPNs are robust against classical attacks, they are not defendable against quantum threats. Adversaries could already be engaging in “harvest now, decrypt later” strategies, storing encrypted VPN traffic today with the expectation of decrypting it once quantum technology matures.

How does VeilNet address this issue?

VeilNet takes a fundamentally different approach to secure communication, designed to withstand both current and future threats. Instead of relying on vulnerable key exchange methods like RSA or ECDH, VeilNet adopts Kyber KEM for post-quantum key exchange and Dilithium DSA for post-quantum digital signatures, paired with AES-256 GCM for data encryption. This ensures that even quantum computers cannot break the cryptography that underpins the network.

Unlike conventional VPNs, VeilNet’s Anchor protocol contains no plaintext headers that can be fingerprinted or classified. To outside observers, VeilNet traffic is indistinguishable from regular activities such as online gaming, video conferencing, or other encrypted applications. On top of this, each destination on the wider internet has its own independent encrypted channel, created on demand and destroyed when no longer needed. An internal load balancer manages these ephemeral channels, ensuring that connections remain efficient and resilient.

To further increase resistance against brute-force attempts, each encryption bundle can contain anywhere from 1 to 1000 packets of varying lengths, making it significantly harder to attack even with massive computational resources. And because VeilNet runs on a decentralised network, every user is effectively leveraging hundreds or even thousands of “VPN servers” simultaneously, distributing traffic in a way that makes interception, classification, or censorship practically impossible.