Rustacean Station ExpressVPN with Pete Membrey
8 snips
Mar 24, 2025 In this engaging discussion, Pete Membrey, Chief Research Officer at Kape Technologies, shares his journey from finance to pioneering VPN solutions. He dives into the innovative design of Lightway, a new VPN protocol built using Rust, detailing its performance and security advantages. Pete emphasizes the value of open-source contributions and the Rust community, offering insights for aspiring programmers. He passionately advocates for Rust as the future of high-performance, secure software development, highlighting its growing importance in the tech landscape.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Lightway's C Origins
- Lightway, ExpressVPN's protocol, was initially written in C for performance reasons, especially for older devices and routers.
- Early Rust versions lacked the necessary performance and platform support, making C a more practical choice then.
Rust's Rise and Rewrite
- Rust's improved performance and platform support, along with its memory safety features, motivated ExpressVPN to rewrite Lightway in Rust.
- The ability to have a single codebase for both client and server logic was a key advantage.
Rust's Versatility
- Rust allows development from firmware to large web services, a versatility not found in other languages.
- Rust now often outperforms C, challenging C's traditional dominance in low-level, high-performance applications.