IVPN launches short-term, anonymous VPN access with BTC payments
As long as you have some sats, IVPN Light could be your next privacy power user tool.
Recently, IVPN announced a new tool in their arsenal: IVPN Light. The offering allows users to easily make temporary WireGuard connections via IVPN's servers for up to 30 days, all without making an account.
So how does IVPN plan on tracking usage without user accounts? By utilizing Bitcoin's lightning network.
In order to get your hands on IVPN Light, you'll need to pay in sats. IVPN will keep a record of the lightning payments on their own self-hosted BTCPayServer, and they won't collect any personal data.
And how many sats exactly does it cost? Here's the current breakdown at the time of publication:
- 3 Hours: 500 sats (~0.136 USD)
- 1 Day: 2000 sats (~0.544 USD)
- 7 Days: 5000 sats (~1.361 USD)
- 30 Days: 15000 sats (~4.083 USD)
Users who pay for this service only have access to 5 server locations or 1 entry-exit node MultiHop combination of their choice per payment. Users must also use the official WireGuard app or CLI since official IVPN apps don't support IVPN Light at this time.
You also can't renew or top-up your IVPN Light service. Once your time is out, you'll need to purchase access all over again.
For a completely anonymous VPN service, IVPN Light offers a competitive package at a competitive price. That is as long as you are willing to jump through the crypto hoops and configure the WireGuard clients yourself.
Unfortunately, the price of BTC can fluctuate quite a bit, so we will see if the service maintains this affordable pricing in the future. Until then, I am happy to see IVPN take more steps to offer privacy power user tools for those who want or need them.