Orchid honored with CNET 2020 Innovation Award

Posted on January 9, 2021 by Design in Design Innovation | 0 Comments

Orchid has been honored as one of CNET’s five 2020 Innovation Award winners, listing our decentralized VPN marketplace alongside four groundbreaking projects: the recently-approved, breakthrough mRNA covid-19 vaccines; the first wi-fi 6 routers; Apple’s M1 chip; and the PlayStation 5’s Dual Sense controller. Needless to say, we are deeply grateful to be included among the important advances of the year.

CNET writes that “Orchid is changing the balance of power to give the little people some more control” over their online privacy. Orchid “is poised to be not only the next evolution of virtual private networks but also a futuristic answer to global online privacy threats,” CNET continues in its full review. “This is what the future of VPN tech looks like. And you gotta see it.”

“CNET’s decision to highlight Orchid among its 2020 winners is further validation both of the growing importance of digital privacy and of the power of our decentralized solution,” said Orchid CEO Dr. Steven Waterhouse.

Orchid brings together the services of leading VPN providers, including LiquidVPN, PIA, Tenta, Boleh, and VPNSecure, in a decentralized ecosystem with a unique payment architecture called probabilistic nanopayments. Users can configure multiple “hops” between providers, making it more difficult for any third party to see someone’s web traffic since the journey is split across many different servers.

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Orchid uses a robust system of incentives to match supply with demand and ensure ample bandwidth is available. Accounts are funded with OXT, Orchid’s digital asset, which is then used to purchase VPN service on a pay-as-you-go basis. But while OXT is key to the functioning of the marketplace, individual users can start using Orchid in seconds using nothing more than an ordinary credit card. This innovation effectively masks the blockchain, giving users the benefits of decentralization while providing a seamless user experience.

Orchid’s mission is to restore the Internet as a place of freedom and curiosity, letting people explore without fear of being surveilled, harassed, or controlled. Since launching in December 2019, the platform has made major strides, becoming faster, easier to use, and more widely accessible. The app is now available for all major operating systems.

You can see the full list of CNET 2020 Innovation Award winners here, and read CNET’s review of Orchid’s decentralized VPN service.

Download the Orchid app to start exploring the Internet freely.