Financial situation of Diamonds VPN, December 2025
As the founder of Diamonds VPN (formerly Connecton VPN, Lugo Network, and Lugodev VPN), it is my responsibility to inform you of the current situation: the project is no longer financially sustainable and cannot continue operating in its current form.
What happened
Approximately 1 year and 7 months ago, the investor who covered salaries and operational costs left the company. The Business Developer left as well, following internal disagreements.
- We had around 10 employees, with significant payroll responsibilities.
- Sales were improving but not yet fully sustainable.
- The user base was around 100k people.
When funding disappeared, I faced a hard decision: shut everything down immediately, fire the team, refund users, and keep what remained; or continue operating to protect the team, our users, and the community that supported the product.
I chose to continue, even at the expense of my personal wellbeing.
Operating alone
Soon after, it became impossible to sustain payroll. I had to let half of the team go, then the rest.
From that moment on, I found myself completely alone.
For more than a year, I have been doing everything by myself: support, development, communications, sales, servers, incidents. Everything. If you contacted support in the past year, you were speaking directly to me. Every post you saw in social media, it was posted by me. The whole operation, just me.
Since the beginning, when the project was acquired by a board of executives from the TON ecosystem nearly four years ago, the company did not generate enough revenue. Most of the income had to be reinvested into servers, salaries, and operational costs. Because of this, the company was never able to reach sustainable profitability. I initially served as CTO, leading all the architecture and product development, and after the investors and partners left, I also assumed the role of CEO to keep the project running and begin its restructuring. I carried out a full rebranding, tripled sales within one month, and grew the user base from 100k to 300k users, but it still wasn’t enough.
Both as CTO and later as CEO, I did not receive a salary for years. I worked unpaid the entire time we had investors and a team, hoping that sales and recognition would eventually come. After they left, I was only able to pay myself a small amount on a couple of occasions during the last year, when sales briefly spiked. The highest salary I ever paid myself was 700 EUR.
Censorship, isolation, and lack of support
Massive censorship waves (especially in Russia) disrupted operations and led to a dramatic drop in sales. I had to address these issues alone.
Issues with data centers and providers affected the technical operation.
I attended events, met investors, foundations, and potential partners. Many promises were made; none materialized.
Despite being the first VPN on Telegram and the TON blockchain, Diamonds VPN received zero grants or financial support, even while other far less meaningful projects (like meme coins) received funding.
Our collaborations with Tonkeeper, Wallet Pay, and other ecosystem projects were suspended without explanation. Attempts to apply for grants went unanswered. Efforts to issue a token to decentralize the VPN were met with internal threats from TON leadership.
Financial reality
This year, Diamonds VPN generated around $14k in revenue. Most of it was spent on servers, and servers are expensive. At the end, there was no profit this year, and we don't have any financial reserves.
In the past 30 days, the revenue was under $400, not even a quarter of the monthly server costs.
I introduced a Lifetime Plan hoping to sell 1000 units at $200 each to raise $200k. This would have allowed me to:
- Rebuild the team
- Secure servers for years
- Focus on innovation
- Release the mobile apps
- Improve stability and new features
This situation is the result of isolation, lack of support, external challenges, and my own inability to convince investors to believe in the mission.
Why this matters
I still deeply believe in privacy.
Today more than ever, as governments push invasive policies like Digital IDs, Chat Control, and other measures that erode what little privacy remains.
Creating tools that empower individuals requires time, focus, and funding.
But the reality is simple: One person cannot carry this alone.
The decision ahead
1. Reduce operations to the minimum
- Remove most server locations
- Pause support
- Disable expensive features
- Stretch the project for as long as possible
2. Shut down completely
Accepting that the bankruptcy cannot be reversed.
I am not wealthy. I cannot fund the project. There is no money to issue refunds. There are no resources to hire a sales team or rebuild a team.
I know this statement may be met with frustration or criticism, but I prefer honesty over corporate language.
On a personal level, this situation has taken a serious toll on my health. It is not humanly possible to continue like this without support.
Next steps
In the coming days, I will begin reducing operations to the minimum, shutting down support channels, and trying to extend the platform's life for as long as resources allow.
If there is no significant increase in sales next month, or if operational costs exceed what I can sustain, I will be forced to shut down Diamonds VPN.
Refunds are not possible due to the current financial state.
A call for help
If you are an investor, a fund, or someone who believes that privacy deserves to be supported, I am open to:
- Donations: https://vpn.diamonds/donate
- Rescue offers
- Partnerships
- Investment proposals
This is likely the only path that would allow Diamonds VPN to survive.
If you wish to get in touch, please do so via email: contact@vpn.diamonds. I will have someone filter messages to reduce exposure to potential hate, harassment, or any other abuse, while remaining open to serious offers, investments, and partnerships.
On Private Chat
I am also exploring the development of Private Chat, especially now that the EU has approved Chat Control. We need communication technologies that are not owned by companies, that cannot be forced to implement backdoors, and that give control back to individuals: similar to SimpleX or Session, but with additional innovation.
This project, too, requires funding to move forward.
A Vision for the Future
I have been reflecting on whether the right path is to continue running a centralized VPN service, or to move toward creating a decentralized, open-source VPN that belongs to no one: a protocol rather than a company. Exactly the same thing I'd like to do with Private Chat.
This was my original vision when I was blocked from launching the token that would have funded such a project. Despite the setbacks, I still believe this approach could empower individuals and provide greater privacy without relying on a centralized entity.
I hope this message clarifies the situation. Thank you for your understanding and for being part of this journey.
Sincerely,
Carlos Lugones
The only person operating Diamonds VPN for almost two years