Sentinel (DVPN)

Overview

Sentinel is a blockchain network for buying and selling internet bandwidth. Its best-known use is the decentralized virtual private network, or dVPN. A dVPN app lets a person send internet traffic through a node run by an independent operator rather than through a server fleet owned by one VPN company. Sentinel keeps a shared record of available nodes, access sessions, and payments. (docs.sentinel.co)

The network’s native coin is P2P, formerly called DVPN. The name change reflects a wider goal: using Sentinel’s bandwidth network for services beyond VPN apps. The coin still serves the same blockchain. Someone reading older material may therefore see “Sentinel (DVPN),” while newer wallets and exchanges display P2P. (medium.com)

History & Team

Sentinel grew out of work on peer-to-peer networking and bandwidth sharing in 2017 and 2018. Its early token operated on Ethereum under the symbol SENT. In March 2021, the project moved to its own blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK, and the native coin became known as DVPN. Sentinel announced the change from DVPN to P2P in May 2025 as it expanded its focus toward a broader bandwidth marketplace. That later change was a ticker update, not another token migration. (medium.com)

Several groups helped develop the network. Sentinel’s white paper describes the Secure Network Technology Foundation as an organization focused on ecosystem support and governance. It describes Exidio as a company that worked on the dVPN framework and helped other businesses build VPN apps on it. Dan Edlebeck, who led Exidio, was a prominent contributor to Sentinel’s early growth. The project also held an early token sale and later raised institutional funding to support its move to mainnet. (docs.sentinel.co)

Technology & How It Works

A shared network of nodes

Sentinel is a proof-of-stake blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK. Validators maintain its records and confirm transactions. Separately, dVPN node operators offer bandwidth. These are different jobs: a validator helps run the blockchain, while a dVPN node provides an internet connection that an app user can select. The network’s open-source tools allow independent developers to build apps that use the same pool of nodes. (docs.sentinel.co)

A typical connection starts when an app finds a suitable node. The user can choose based on factors such as location, price, or connection protocol. A signed transaction creates an on-chain session record, which the node checks before it provides VPN credentials. The app then establishes an encrypted tunnel directly to that node. Sentinel supports connection methods including WireGuard and V2Ray. The blockchain handles discovery and authorization; the user’s internet traffic travels through the selected node rather than through the blockchain itself. (sentinel.co)

Sentinel’s design lets people compare node providers instead of relying on a single company’s server list. It also gives app developers a ready-made network to build upon. Because the user connects to an independently operated node, the quality of each connection depends in part on that operator’s equipment, location, and uptime. (docs.sentinel.co)

Tokenomics & Utility

P2P links the blockchain to the bandwidth service. Users can spend it for dVPN access, and node operators receive it for providing service. Validators and token holders stake P2P to help secure the chain. Staked holders can also vote on proposals concerning upgrades, funding, and network settings. On-chain actions, including transfers and session creation, require transaction fees paid in P2P. (docs.sentinel.co)

Sentinel supports two ways to pay for bandwidth. With pay-as-you-go access, a user pays a node for data used or time connected. With a subscription, an app developer can collect a customer’s payment and fund nodes through the network. This means a person may use a Sentinel-powered VPN app without handling P2P at every step, even though the coin remains part of the service’s underlying payment system. (docs.sentinel.co)

The protocol directs 80% of bandwidth payments to node hosts and 20% to P2P stakers. Staking rewards also help compensate validators and delegators for securing the blockchain. Sentinel’s published economic model sets a maximum supply of 48 billion coins and describes a declining issuance schedule. Revenue from bandwidth use gives the incentive system a link to activity on the network. (docs.sentinel.co)

Ecosystem & Use Cases

VPN apps and bandwidth providers

Sentinel supplies infrastructure for a group of independently built VPN apps, rather than a single required app. Examples include Sentinel Shield, MeileVPN, Independent VPN, and DVPN by NORSE. Their designs and supported devices differ, but they can draw on Sentinel’s network of bandwidth providers. The project’s website reports more than a million users across apps built on Sentinel and over 1,500 bandwidth providers. These figures describe the wider app ecosystem, not the number of people holding P2P. (sentinel.co)

A node operator can offer unused bandwidth from suitable hardware or a hosted server and set a price. App developers can select nodes for subscription plans, while individual users can choose nodes for direct sessions. Sentinel checks node health for inclusion in subscription plans, giving app builders a way to assemble a service from independent providers. (docs.sentinel.co)

Tools for developers

Sentinel offers software development kits, known as SDKs, for building apps around its network. Developers can create their own interface, choose how customers pay, and use Sentinel for node access and on-chain sessions. The project has also explored using distributed bandwidth for AI-related data collection and software agents. Its VPN network remains the clearest example of the system in use, while the broader bandwidth marketplace explains the shift to the P2P name. (sentinel.co)

Advantages & Challenges

Sentinel’s main advantage is a division of roles. Independent operators supply connections, validators maintain the blockchain, and app makers serve different kinds of users. This structure gives developers a way to create a VPN app without building a worldwide server fleet first. Open-source code and on-chain records also make network rules and payments easier to inspect. Cosmos-based interoperability helps P2P move within the wider Cosmos ecosystem. (docs.sentinel.co)

That flexibility also brings work for the people using and building on the network. App developers must choose reliable nodes and design a clear customer experience. Node hosts need to keep their equipment connected and set prices that fit the service they provide. Users may find that speed and available locations vary between nodes. Sentinel’s health checks and subscription plans address some of these practical needs, but service quality still depends on the providers taking part. (docs.sentinel.co)

The economic model has another task: bringing customer payments, node compensation, and staking incentives into balance. Sentinel’s documentation says some payments to nodes have been subsidized while app use and payment methods develop. Growth in users alone therefore does not tell the whole story of how the bandwidth marketplace operates. (docs.sentinel.co)

Where to Buy & Wallets

Sentinel’s P2P coin is available on KuCoin and MEXC, and it can be swapped on the decentralized exchange Osmosis. Sentinel also lists a cross-chain swap service. Exchange interfaces generally use the P2P symbol, so the former DVPN symbol may appear mainly in older guides or app screens. (docs.sentinel.co)

Keplr and Cosmostation are wallets documented for the Sentinel network. A wallet lets its owner hold P2P, send it, and use supported staking or governance features. When moving coins from an exchange or Osmosis, the destination needs to be the correct Sentinel network address; the exchange, swap service, and wallet each play a different part in that transfer. (docs.sentinel.co)

Regulatory & Compliance

Sentinel operates across borders, but the businesses and apps using its network still work within the laws of the places where they offer services. In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets framework sets requirements for covered crypto-asset issuers and service providers, including trading and wallet businesses. EU data-protection rules also matter when an organization handles personal data through an app or service. In the United States, financial rules can apply to businesses that exchange or transmit convertible virtual currency; how they apply depends on what the business does. (finance.ec.europa.eu)

Sentinel’s halal or Shariah status does not have a single established ruling. Its practical use—paying for bandwidth—is relevant to an Islamic finance assessment, as are the terms of buying, selling, and staking P2P. Scholars may also examine whether a particular transaction involves interest, prohibited activity, or unacceptable uncertainty. The International Islamic Fiqh Academy has called for further study of questions affecting Shariah rulings on cryptocurrencies, so Sentinel’s utility alone does not settle every form of its use. (iifa-aifi.org)

Future Outlook

Sentinel’s direction is to make its bandwidth network useful to more than VPN customers. Its open SDKs allow new apps to use existing nodes, while its work on AI data access and software-agent connections points to other uses for the same infrastructure. The important measure of that expansion will be whether developers can build services people use and whether those services sustain a dependable network of providers. (sentinel.co)

Summary

Sentinel connects people who need private internet access with independent operators who provide bandwidth. Its P2P coin—formerly DVPN—supports payments, staking, fees, and governance on a Cosmos-based blockchain. VPN apps show how the network works today; its broader goal is a shared marketplace that other bandwidth-based services can build upon. (docs.sentinel.co)