FAQ

What is ShadowRelay?

ShadowRelay is a small VPN service built around a simple idea: Monero in, traffic out. No usernames, no emails, no passwords.

• Monero (XMR) only.
• No email, no username, no password.
• A single 4‑word token is your “account”.
• WireGuard‑only tunnels with shared exit IPs.

Who is this for?

People who want to maximze privacy gains, maximize what a VPN can offer. However a few steps are mandatory to achieve it.

• You know what a VPN does and does not do.
• You are comfortable using Monero and keeping a token safe.
• You prefer shared exits and a small attack surface over dashboards and gimmicks.

What problem does ShadowRelay actually solve?

In practical terms, ShadowRelay is designed to:

• Hide your traffic from your ISP and local network.
• Make your public IP look like that of many other users (shared exits).
• Break the link between VPN usage and traditional payment rails (cards, PayPal, etc.).
• Keep the infrastructure small: WireGuard only, Monero only, no personal details collected.

This is about reducing simple, obvious correlations, not about beating global adversaries.

What are shared exits, and why do you use them?

A “shared exit” means many users use the same public IP address on each VPN server. We do not give you a dedicated exit IP.

• Your traffic leaves through an IP that is also used by other ShadowRelay users.
• When many people share the same exit IP, simple IP-based profiling becomes harder: one IP no longer equals “one person”.
• This is the opposite of “dedicated IP” marketing. We deliberately avoid tying an exit IP to a single customer.

Shared exits are not magic. Sites can still fingerprint your browser, track logins, or link behavior over time. But they do make it harder to treat an IP address as a stable identifier for one individual, which is what many commercial VPNs quietly reintroduce when they resell “personal” or “dedicated” IPs.

What does ShadowRelay not protect you from?

A VPN is just one piece of your operational security. It does not fix:

• Browser fingerprinting and tracking cookies.
• Sites and services you log into with your real accounts.
• What you voluntarily share about yourself in chats, emails, or social media.
• A global adversary with broad visibility and resources.

If your browser and apps are leaking device fingerprints and personal data everywhere, no VPN can turn that into strong anonymity. It only hides where the connection comes from, not who you act like.

How do accounts and tokens work?

• You generate an account and get a random 4‑word token.
• We never store the token in plaintext; only a hash is stored.
• There is no email, no username, no password reset.
• If you lose the token, the account and any active subscriptions are effectively gone.

Think of the token like a minimal seed phrase. Write it down. Do not share it. We cannot recover or reset it for you.

What do you log?

We keep only the minimum operational state needed to run the service and handle abuse.

• We do not store your token in plaintext, email, real name, or entry IP.
• We do not keep an “activity history” of what you do through the tunnel.
• Service logs are minimal and rotated; they exist to keep the system healthy, not to profile you.

We deliberately avoid publishing a full internal log schema. The important part: there is no personal info to sell or hand over, and no per‑site “history” tied to you.

Plans and pricing

Pricing is fixed in Monero, not pegged to any fiat value. There are no auto‑renewals.

• 1 month: 0.005 XMR.
• 3 months: 0.01 XMR (pay for 2, get 3).
• 6 months: 0.02 XMR.

You pay from your own wallet directly to a unique address for your invoice. No cards, no PayPal, no external payment processor.

If you send XMR from an exchange (which we highly discourage you to do because it defeats the whole purpose of using monero) please send atleast the given amount, if its below the required amount your account will not recieve the subscription.

How do payments work?

• Each invoice uses a dedicated Monero subaddress.
• We run our own Monero payment backend; there is no third-party processor.
• We require 3 block confirmations before a payment is credited.
• If you underpay, you can top up to the same address until the invoice expires.

Monero is slow compared to web UI refresh rates. It is normal for payment status to lag by a few minutes while confirmations accumulate.

How many devices can I use?

Each account can have up to three active WireGuard configs (peers).

• Great for typical usage: one desktop, one laptop, one mobile.
• All peers share the same privacy model and exit IP pool.
• You can revoke old peers and create new ones at any time from the panel.

Peers are identified by labels (names) you see in the panel. We recommend saving each config as <label>.conf locally so you can keep track of which device is which.

Which locations do you offer?

At the moment:

• EU exit servers.
• US exit servers.

All exits are WireGuard‑only and use shared IPs. As the service grows, more regions can be added, but the model stays the same.

Do you support other protocols or payment methods?

• No OpenVPN, no IKEv2. WireGuard only.
• No cards, no PayPal, no “crypto via a third-party checkout”. Monero only.

Fewer moving parts means fewer places to leak data or misconfigure things.

What should I do on my side?

ShadowRelay can only do its part. You still need to handle yours:

• Harden your browser: think about fingerprinting, cookies, and extensions.
• Be careful what you log into and what you share under your real identity.
• Assume that anything you post or send may be linked back to you by content alone.

A small, careful VPN setup is useful. It is not a magic eraser. Most privacy leaks come from what people voluntarily tell the world and how their devices behave, not from their IP alone.

What is the canary?

• Our canary is a signed statement confirming we have not recieved any secret government requests, gag orders, or warrants that we cannot disclose. We update it monthly.
• If this statement disappears of stops being updated, assume we can no loger make that claim. This lets us communicate indirectly when legal restrictions prevent us from speaking dircetly.

link to canary