Surfshark, one of the best VPNs around today, recently launched Dausos -- a proprietary, quantum-resistant connection protocol. These protocols are essentially the set of rules that determine how your information is encrypted while you’re online.

Though still in beta and currently only available on MacOS, Dausos promises a completely new approach to privacy by assigning dedicated tunnels to each individual VPN session instead of routing everyone through the same shared tunnel infrastructure used by traditional VPN protocols.

Surfshark also says Dausos can deliver speeds up to 30% faster than WireGuard, which is already considered one of the fastest VPN protocols available. So we decided to put Dausos to the test to see firsthand whether it actually lives up to the hype. We tried it for casual browsing and high-bandwidth activities like streaming -- and also compared its raw speeds side-by-side with Surfshark’s WireGuard protocol.

In this guide, I’ve also broken down Dausos’ various security improvements, cutting through the VPN marketing jargon to explain in simple terms what they mean for your digital privacy. You can also check out CNET’s deep dive on Surfshark’s Nexus network, which helps power Dausos, for more information.

Dausos is engineered to deliver fast speeds alongside robust security provisions

Surfshark says Dausos is the first VPN protocol built specifically for VPN users. It argues that legacy VPN protocols like OpenVPN and even newer ones like WireGuard weren’t exactly designed with a customer-first approach and were built for enterprise use before later being adapted for everyday VPN users. 

Dausos, however, has been built from the ground up with the sole purpose of prioritizing what matters most to everyday VPN users: security, speed and performance.

Faster VPN speeds through isolated tunneling

Surfshark’s new protocol aims for faster speeds by creating a dedicated, private, server-side tunnel for each individual session, unlike traditional protocols such as WireGuard and OpenVPN, which route all user traffic through a single VPN tunnel. 

A Surfshark representative told CNET via email that Dausos differs from the traditional single-network interface used by everyone on a particular VPN protocol. Dausos instead creates a new network interface for every individual session.

According to Surfshark, this isolation of every person's data ensures there's no cross-traffic exposure, which results in better speeds and a reduced risk of interference and unnecessary slowdowns caused by other people using the service.

Dausos can also adapt to your network conditions and device capabilities. This means it will automatically adjust, based on your internet speed and network configuration, to ensure the best possible performance.

Dausos works well for bandwidth-intensive activities like streaming

A new VPN protocol is a bigger deal than the usual VPN feature update. And since this is Surfshark’s first custom-made VPN protocol -- putting it in the same league as industry giants NordVPN (NordLynx) and ExpressVPN (Lightway) -- we had to put it through its paces to test those claims of 30% faster speeds.

You won’t find Dausos in the list of protocols on every platform at the time of writing. Instead, you’ll have to install Surfshark from the Mac App Store to get access to Dausos. It’s not ideal because the App Store version of Surfshark doesn’t let you use the VPN’s bundled antivirus, but the protocol is still in beta, so hopefully that will change in the future.

We were able to find and enable Dausos, and our first impressions while casually browsing and accessing our usual websites from different servers were quite positive. The experience felt smooth enough, although a little cumbersome. You’ll have to enter your device’s password each time you change servers, but thankfully, switching between servers only took a few seconds, including typing your password.

Next, since Surfshark is one of the best VPNs for streaming, we tried the Dausos protocol to see if it maintained the VPN’s already fantastic unblocking capabilities. With Dausos enabled, we were able to easily access foreign libraries on big-name streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. We even tried some regional sites like BBC iPlayer and Canada’s CBC Gem, and it worked perfectly. Thanks to Surfshark, we were able to watch Friday Night Lights for free using CBC Gem while outside Canada, and World Cup matches on BBC iPlayer outside of the UK.

Dausos is undeniably fast, but not dramatically faster than WireGuard, yet

Our real-world experiences with Dausos were similar to Surfshark’s usual WireGuard protocol. We recorded an average 37.4% download speed loss with WireGuard in a full slate of testing and 35.7% with Dausos in an abbreviated set of tests. Using Dausos, we saw an average 601.9Mbps download speed with a VPN enabled, versus 936Mbps without a VPN. 

Despite the almost 40% speed loss, the Dausos connection was more than fast enough for bandwidth-intensive activities, like streaming 4K videos, competitive online gaming or uploading large files to cloud storage services. WireGuard was in the same ballpark, with an average 587Mbps download speed over a VPN compared with 937.3Mbps without a VPN. 

So while I’m still unsure about Surfshark’s claims of Dausos being 30% faster, I’m happy to see it maintaining WireGuard-level speeds even while in beta. I’m very excited to test it once it launches on other platforms.

Next-generation VPN security improvements

In addition to isolating session data, Dausos has introduced a few significant security improvements:

• AEGIS-256X2 encryption. This is a new post-quantum encryption, or PQE, algorithm that future-proofs your data. Post-quantum encryption secures data against the dreaded Q-day, which is the day quantum computers become advanced enough to break modern encryption algorithms. Note that Surfshark also introduced post-quantum encryption into WireGuard (across MacOS, Linux and Android) in January this year.
• Dausos employs post-compromise security, or PCS. This means the new encryption keys generated every few minutes are not derived from the old keys. Translation: Even if an attacker gets access to a set of your encryption keys, they won’t be able to use them to derive new encryption keys and thus compromise your connection to the VPN server.
• Dausos also uses a post-randomization technique wherein every time you connect to a VPN server, you do so through a randomized port instead of a fixed server port, further adding another layer of privacy.
• Lastly, and most importantly, Surfshark invited the German cybersecurity firm Cure53 to audit Dausos. The audit took place between February and March 2026 and examined the new VPN protocol’s architecture and cryptography. Cure53 did not find any critical or high-severity issues and concluded that Dausos is a “stable and resilient platform.” But keep in mind that VPN audits, while crucial trust signals, do not paint the full picture, as they only confirm a VPN’s security during the testing phase, not before or after.

Who should use Surfshark’s Dausos?

At least in theory, Dausos is particularly appealing for privacy-focused individuals such as investigative journalists, physicians, political activists, asylum-seekers and others who deal with sensitive information and want stronger protections against VPN surveillance or data exposure. At the same time, because the protocol still delivers excellent speeds, it’s also perfectly suitable for bandwidth-heavy activities like streaming, gaming or torrenting.

Moreover, if Surfshark eventually delivers on its promise of substantially faster speeds, Dausos could become an especially compelling option for people with slower base internet connections, who already tend to experience an even bigger speed hit when using a VPN -- since VPNs naturally reduce internet speeds. In such cases, even modest performance improvements can make a noticeable difference in day-to-day browsing and streaming.

Is it actually worth switching to Dausos?

Dausos’ biggest strength isn’t necessarily its speed -- at least not yet -- but rather its significantly more robust privacy infrastructure. The protocol introduces several meaningful security improvements, including post-quantum encryption, isolated tunnels for each user session, post-compromise security and randomized ports for each VPN connection. 

Combined, these features make Dausos one of the more technically ambitious VPN protocols currently in development. The most exciting part, however, is that Dausos is still very much a work in progress. 

If Surfshark can successfully refine the protocol and achieve the speed gains it’s promising, it could genuinely redefine what users expect from modern VPN protocols moving forward.