I Rented a Server Without Telling Anyone My Name

mbile · Jul 23, 2026 · 2m

The first time I tried to move a project off Big Tech, I failed at the checkout page.Not because of money. I had the money. I failed because a form asked me for a government ID, a phone number tied to my real identity, and a card that reports back to three companies I've never met. To rent a virtual computer. To run some code and a website that were nobody's business but mine.That's the moment most people shrug and click "accept." I didn't, and going down that rabbit hole taught me more about how the modern internet actually works than a decade of using it did.The internet you rent…