TL;DR - allow users to use their own server for Secure Core
Hi. This is going to be a stuffy post, but I really ask you to pay attention to it, it’s important for a lot of users.
As you know, in some countries there is a problem with access to VPN servers like ProtonVPN. In particular, in Russia access to all popular services is blocked, and sooner or later all of them will be blocked. The blocking is done in a clumsy way - by blacklisting the IP addresses of VPN servers, which makes protocols like Stealth useless. I’m not sure, but Iran may be blocking in a similar way.
I suggest the following solution: set up a “double hop” to ProtonVPN via a custom VPS. In other words, so that the users who have their VPS can set it up so that their outbound connection is to their private server, which would be connected to ProtonVPN. This is similar to the “double jump” or Secure Core feature that has already been implemented. This would help bypass blocking in countries like Russia.
Ideally, make the configuration automatic - so that the user inside the client gives access to their server and further configuration is done automatically. This sounds like an ideal unattainable solution, which is probably expensive to produce.
As one compromise, letting the user put the appropriate software on their own server is one option, but that still requires Proton’s help.
I remember that Proton has a lot of users from Russia. If I recall correctly, until recently half of the free ProtonVPN servers were dedicated to Russian connections. Now ProtonVPN practically doesn’t work.
I haven’t found a similar alternative in other VPN services and I think it will become a killer-feature for Proton.