RawLink
Building a VPN protocol from scratch
Get picks like this daily. Today's launch numbers, the top launches, AI and tech news, and a daily opportunity pick, straight to your inbox.
Read the full description
https://zola.ink/blog/posts/rawlink-building-a-vpn-protocol-...
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
HN · launched Oct 19, 2026 · 18 upvotes (top 32%)
- Horizontal
- Dev tools
- Developer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Similar launches
See all 20 similar launches →Could you build this?
No A VPN protocol is security-critical: it requires cryptographic protocol design, kernel or TUN networking, and audit-grade implementation, which vibe coding can produce only as an unvetted prototype.
What it would actually take: Design a handshake and key-exchange protocol using vetted primitives such as Noise or X25519, then implement a userspace TUN-based data plane with replay protection and rekeying. The hard parts are cryptographic correctness, traffic-analysis resistance, and cross-platform networking. A real version needs cryptographers and network security engineers plus independent third-party audits.
Discussion
No comments on this launch.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 20 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #5 of 21 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 318 days after the earliest competitor.
- I built an HTTP/2 server in C++ to learn the protocol and language · hn · 2026-01-04 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.36
- gnet-cli · github · 2026-10-11 · 36 upvotes · similarity 0.36
- selfhosted · github · 2026-09-10 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.35
- cdn-tunnel · github · 2026-09-16 · 9 upvotes · similarity 0.35
- ZedSecure · github · 2026-09-29 · 164 upvotes · similarity 0.35
- Browse Internet Infrastructure · hn · 2026-02-09 · 110 upvotes · similarity 0.34
- zot · hn · 2026-04-28 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.34
- Netrinos · hn · 2025-12-19 · 93 upvotes · similarity 0.34