Hi everyone. I am new to this community and passionate about staking in Eth 2.0. I am currently living in China and using ExpressVPN for my daily uses. Without a VPN, I can access the Ethereum website but cannot open the Eth 2.0 webpage. So my first question is whether I need to use a VPN to do staking. Also, if I did use a VPN, would this get me into some trouble, like getting slashed?
Also, if I did use a VPN, would this get me into some trouble, like getting slashed?
Not in that regard but I would consult Chinas laws around VPNs. I’m pretty sure they are not allowed. And then further try to figure out what the consequences are if caught (guess matters less if you are not Chinese?)
A VPN might not give you the QoS needed for staking.
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If all eth2.0 webpages are accessible do I really need a vpn for staking? How can I know for sure? I’m asking this because vpns are painstakingly throttled down in the Middle East.
As a peer to peer network, once past the launchpad you may not require a VPN if you can contact to ethereum without a VPN normally.
My recommendation is that you spin up a node without a validator active (outside the VPN) and see if it can sync the chain.
I lived in China, and based on my experience, I’d say it would be risky. You might very well be able run an ETH node without a VPN, as others have said, but that’s not to say your connection might not be throttled in the future through some internet provider shenanigans. ExpressVPN certainly doesn’t run with 100% reliability either, so it is not a suitable fallback option. And then there are all the frustrations of trying to work with a China Telecom (or similar) router - for example, opening ports / port forwarding. I’m sure that someone technically-minded enough could handle all these isses, but I wouldn’t want to risk 32 ETH to possible downtime.
Rather than self-staking, have you considered running your node and beacon chain on an outside-of-China VPS? Or using one of the various staking services available (Alchemy, etc …)?
Thanks for the reply. That’s super helpful.
VPNs have been in use forever. The government isn’t a fan, but also tolerates them, most of the time. You can tell they’re aware of their use, because when they want to, such as the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, there used to be a total VPN blackout.
However in certain provinces, it’s a punishable offence.
Thanks for the remainder. I will look into it.
I use Mullvad VPN and I didn’t experienced any issues resulting in penalization.
Mullvad allows port forwarding which is good for network health and also may improve your connectivity to peers.
From my research Mullvad is popular choice for Redditors. I like it for simple, honest pricing which IMO provides enough funds for infrastructure resulting in good QoS.
Can you say more about this? If that is really the case, is there any solution? Or does the choice of VPN have anything to do with it?
Answered OP directly, but ethereum is a peer to peer network. So if you can connect to any node without a VPN you may also be able to run a node without a VPN.
How to know for sure? Spin up a node without a validator active and see if it can sync the chain.
That’s right. I think VPN is like a grey area in China. As long as we do not use it to do something illegal, the government should be okay with its existence.
Well a VPN is usually slower than a connection not using a VPN. Staking takes significant bandwidth. So you just need to ensure your VPN speed for download and upload is good enough.