Beshkaneh — a VPN service bought and managed inside a Bale messenger bot

At a glance

• A VPN built on one protocol or one server is only as reliable as that path, and a family or company buying access also needs a say in what it is used for.
• A VPN service bought and managed inside a Bale bot, with many protocols, connection types and edge servers, shared accounts and built-in filtering.
• Live on Bale as @beshkanehbot, with 434 configs.

Highlights

• Bought in a messenger bot

  Buying, receiving and managing configs all happen inside @beshkanehbot on Bale.

• Many protocols and edge servers

  A range of protocols, connection types and edge servers, so there is an alternative when one path fails.

• Family and company accounts

  An account holder buys configs and shares them with family members or colleagues.

• Filtering that protects focus

  Adult content and time-consuming social media such as Instagram are filtered for every member.

The challenge

A private connection is only useful while it stays connected. Any single protocol, connection type or server can become slow, unstable or unreachable, and a service built on one of them is only as reliable as that one path.

The person who pays is often not the only person who uses it. A parent buying for a household, or a company buying for its staff, has to give several people access and decide what that access is for, while the members themselves should get on with work and study rather than an endless feed.

Buying and managing a VPN should not need a separate app, a web dashboard and a payment page either. Users already spend their day inside a messenger, so the purchase and the configs belong there too.

Architecture

Beshkaneh has two halves: a bot that sells and provisions, and a network that carries the traffic.

• The bot is the storefront and the control panel. Buying configs, receiving them and managing them all happen inside @beshkanehbot on Bale, with no separate app or website to install.

• Many protocols, connection types and edge servers. The service offers a range of each rather than a single path, so a user has alternatives when one protocol or one server is slow or unreachable. That redundancy is what buys robustness, reliability, stability and speed.

• Accounts with members. An account holder buys configs and shares them with the members of a family or a company, so purchase and management stay in one place.

• Filtering in the service. Pornographic and adult content, and time-consuming social media such as Instagram, are filtered by the service itself, so the policy travels with every member's config instead of depending on each device's settings.

What I built

Beshkaneh is a VPN service for households and organisations, run end to end through a messenger bot.

• Bought inside the bot: configs are purchased and delivered in @beshkanehbot on Bale.

• Resilience by design: many protocols, connection types and edge servers, chosen for robustness, reliability, stability and speed.

• Shared with members: one account holder buys configs and gives them to family members or colleagues.

• Focus built in: adult content and time-consuming social media such as Instagram are filtered, so members stay on work and study.

• Privacy and access in one place: a private, filtered connection that the account holder manages for everyone from the bot.

Outcome

Beshkaneh is live on Bale as @beshkanehbot, with 434 configs across its protocols, connection types and edge servers.

My role

• Founded and owns Beshkaneh.
• Designed the service around many protocols, connection types and edge servers for reliability, stability and speed.
• Put purchasing and config delivery inside a bot on the Bale messenger.
• Shaped the product for families and companies, with shared accounts and built-in content filtering.

Engineering

• Redundancy over a single path

  Offering several protocols, connection types and edge servers means one blocked or degraded path does not cut a user off.

• The messenger as the interface

  Provisioning configs through a bot puts purchase and management where users already are, with no separate app to install.

• Policy in the service, not the device

  Filtering applied by the service holds for every shared config, whichever device a member uses.

Outcomes

• Live on Bale as @beshkanehbot.
• 434 configs across its protocols, connection types and edge servers.
• Family and company accounts with built-in filtering of adult content and time-consuming social media.