Think Before You Share: The Risks of Selling Bandwidth
As you all know I have been on the hunt for new platforms that allow you to earn from them. I have found some pretty mind blowing projects such as Tangled, BULB, and ZBD but recently I have gotten interested in bandwidth sharing passive income platforms. I was kind of excited because these platforms allow true passive income by just installing an app or software on your desktop or browser and sit back and relax while the money comes in. A good amount of these platforms promise robust securtiy and that your information is 100% safe. What happens if these companies are not secure? What happens if these companies are actually using your bandwidth and IP for nafarious reasons? How can you know if these platforms are safe? These are only a few of the questions I have been asking myself.
In this article I want to go over some of the things I have found when it comes to platforms like HoneyGain, Myst, PacketStream, and IP Royal Farms. I am going to share my own personal experience with one of the platforms and I am also going to be sharing some pretty interesting and alarming information I have found when it comes to these so called passive income platforms. These platforms say they are passive which do not get me wrong they are passive but what is the cost of this passive income. What is our IP address being used for and by who?
So as I always say sit back, grab a cup of tea and lets dive into the dark truth behind these so called passive income platforms aka proxyware.
My Personal Experience
I know there are people out there that are all about these platforms and I am sure there are ways to get around these issues that I am about to share but if you are a regular user that is just trying to earn some money by sharing your bandwidth then you might want to listen to what I have to say. If you do not know what you are looking for or how these platforms work then you might fall victim to the many things that can happen while sharing you bandwidth. Below are just a couple of examples of what some of these companies have been suspected of.
Now I have used Honeygain before and I will tell you from personal experience it was nothing but red flags over and over again. Every time I would check my dedicated node computer it would have massive amounts of virus flags. These were not viruses but letting me know that something tried to bring me to a suspicious website. I was not sure about why it was doing it but after doing more research, I started to realize that the small amount of earnings might not be worth the possible problems that can come from these platforms.
Sharing you bandwidth is extremely unsafe and you should do your due diligence when choosing a platform that is safe and trustworthy. I have been doing some research and really have not found one of these that are safe enough to give a shout out to other then Mysterium nodes. These nodes allow you to enable whitelisting when running their nodes. This means that your Myst node will only allow trusted and verified users/companies to use your node. This takes out the worry that your IP is being used for nefarious stuff online. You can never be sure but Mysterium has a pretty good record of keeping you and your IP safe from illegal or malicious activity.
Their peer-to-peer network means your data is routed through various nodes, making the user even more secure. Now I am sure Mysterium has its own flaws but what I am most interested in is my safety and my readers safety.
Going Deeper
When using platforms like Honeygain and others you are opening up your IP to pretty much whoever wants to use it. Now I am not the best at explaining these types of things so I suggest checking out an article I found called Hijacking Your Bandwidth: How Proxyware Apps Open You Up to Risk. This will give you a better idea of why I think platforms like Honeygain might not be worth the small amount you are earning. Below is something else I found online that I thought was worth sharing.
Now it is never good to take your news just from platforms like reddit but it is always good to get other peoples opinions. Through my searches I found a website called security.stackexchange.com and it is a question and answer website for security professionals. You can click the link to see the full discussion. I just took a portion out of what I thought was the most important.
Ways to Stay Safe
I know this is the last thing you probably want to hear but the best way to stay safe from these types of platforms is to not use them at all. The reward is just not worth the risk. A good amount of these people probably use these on the same computers they do their every day stuff on. This is a huge security risk and can cause you some serious problems in the future. Now if you still want to try your luck and keep using these platforms here are a couple things you can do to make sure you are as safe as you can be.
The first thing I suggest is using a dedicated computer just for platforms like this. This means that no other traffic or activity is coming from that device other then the nodes you are using. This will allow you to monitor the activity from that device much easier.
No matter what I always suggest using strong passwords and a type of 2 factor authentication. This will keep you safe from attacks and if someone does get your information they will not be able to get into your accounts without the second form of authentication.
Consider using a VPN and keep your software updated. Now Honeygain does not allow the use of VPN's. You can actually get banned from the platform for using them. VPN's assign each person a "data center" type IP, which is an IP that is connected with the data center you are using when connecting to the VPN service.
Monitor your network activity closely, and be aware of potential risks like malicious activity or excessive bandwidth usage by others on the shared network. Now if you are not familiar with how to do this then you can use something like Wireshark. Wireshark allows you to keep an eye on the traffic. Now to be honest I am not very fluid in using this software so you might want to do a little research.
Final Thoughts
No bandwidth platform is fully safe and sharing your data comes with some serious consequences if it is used wrong. Be careful and be vigilant. Passive income is amazing but your data is priceless and so is your security. Stay safe out there everyone and when earning Crypto there is nothing more important then being safe and taking the necessary steps when using these types of platforms.
Myst node
Until next time everyone! Check out my articles on "On The Node" for a more personal type blog about me. Posting a new one soon (next day or two, I have been slacking a little because I have been spending so much time creating a stream on Tangled)! *plug alert!* Also check out my live stream on Tangled called HattyHatsTV every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6 pm (EST) by clicking the links below!
HattyHatsTV - Earn MLX answering questions and hanging out.
On The Node - Earn MLX blogging
My favorite earning platforms.
Tangled — Earn MLX social media (WMLX)
BULB — Earn BULB blogging (SOL)
The Arena — Earn AVAX social Media (AVAX)
Grill — Earn Grill social media (DOT)
Kaichi — Earn SOL social media (SOL)
Slice — Earn BTC watching YouTube and surfing the web (Lightning Network)
ZBD — Earn BTC playing games and taking surveys (Lightning Network)
Use code G96DF6
Check out my website for more ways to earn Cryptocurrency and to see what projects I am following.
The title of this article was created using AI for better reach. Everything other then the title in this article is written and edited with ❤️ by me HattyHats.
www.earnwithhatty.com
