It's Time for the VPN Industry to Innovate (Obscura Interview) episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 17, 2026 · 1H 9M

It's Time for the VPN Industry to Innovate (Obscura Interview)

from Techlore Talks · host Techlore

You don't have to trust Obscura—you just have to trust that not both Obscura and Mullvad are compromised. Henry sat down with Carl, former Bitcoin Core developer and founder of Obscura VPN, to discuss how it's the first VPN that mathematically can't log your activity, what makes it censorship-resistant against networks like the Great Firewall, and what it really means to build privacy that's more than "a pinky promise."🔗 SOURCES & LINKS• Obscura: https://obscura.net• GitHub: https://github.com/Sovereign-Engineering/obscuravpn-client• Trust, 2-Party Relays, and QUIC: https://obscura.net/blog/bootstrapping-trust/• Mullvad: https://mullvad.net⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 INTRO00:01:50 CARL'S BACKGROUND00:10:47 APPLE'S PRIVATE RELAY00:17:11 TRUSTLESS MODELS00:19:05 MULTI-PARTY RELAY PARTNERSHIP00:21:39 TRADITIONAL MULTI-HOP00:23:39 CENSORSHIP RESISTANCE00:27:33 MULLVAD VS. OBSCURA TRAFFIC00:29:35 EXIT IP00:30:18 BLOCKS, CAPTCHA, & SPLIT TUNNELING00:31:16 CUSTOM DNS00:32:41 PARTNERING WITH MULLVAD00:36:05 OBSCURA VS. PRIVATE RELAY00:37:10 OBSCURA VS. MULLVAD00:38:33 OBSCURA VS. DECENTRALIZED VPNS00:40:57 OBSCURA VS. TOR00:41:58 REPRODUCIBLE BUILDS00:50:23 CLIENTS & DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE00:55:24 SPEED00:59:06 DEFAULTS VS. CUSTOMIZATION01:00:48 PRICING01:02:43 OPEN SOURCE01:03:34 THE OBSCURA TEAM01:05:39 THOUGHTS ON THE VPN INDUSTRY01:07:49 OUTRO🎥 VIDEOWatch on YouTube 🧡 SUPPORT TECHLOREKeep Techlore Talks independent & growing: ★ Support this podcast ★

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