{"id":"1792757774262-tech-show_open","slug":"levels-hide-your-servers-now","title":"Levels: Hide Your Servers Now","summary":"Cloudflare Tunnel is free, with paid add-ons like Argo Smart Routing optional; Tailscale has a free personal tier (3 users, 100 devices). Both monetize through enterprise plans.\n\nTailscale uses the open-source WireGuard protocol for encrypted connections between devices. This is an opinion/quote from Jensen Huang about data sovereignty; no factual claim to check.","publishedAt":"2026-10-23T12:16:14.262Z","channel":{"id":"tech","name":"Oncast Tech","language":"en"},"show":"Tech Morning","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"TRUE","notes":"TRUE: Cloudflare Tunnel is free, with paid add-ons like Argo Smart Routing optional; Tailscale has a free personal tier (3 users, 100 devices). Both monetize through enterprise plans.\nSource: [blog.cloudflare.com](https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/), [news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44809166) NAMES: (none) (https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113597275519803830)\n\nTRUE: Tailscale uses the open-source WireGuard protocol for encrypted connections between devices. This is an opinion/quote from Jensen Huang about data sovereignty; no factual claim to check.\nSource: [news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44809166) NAMES: WireGuard = open-source VPN protocol POST 2113604477261398148: NOCLAIM (none) NAMES (https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113597155063554313)","claims":[{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"Cloudflare Tunnel is free, with paid add-ons like Argo Smart Routing optional; Tailscale has a free personal tier (3 users, 100 devices). Both monetize through enterprise plans.","sourceName":"[blog.cloudflare.com](https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/), [news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44809166) NAMES: (none)","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113597275519803830","claim":"P.S. both Cloudflare Tunnel and Tailscale are 100% free so you don't really have any excuses They make money upselling to big companies and enterprise so they'll probably stay free https://t.co/udaWg1hGiD","author":"@levelsio (@levelsio)"},{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"Tailscale uses the open-source WireGuard protocol for encrypted connections between devices. This is an opinion/quote from Jensen Huang about data sovereignty; no factual claim to check.","sourceName":"[news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44809166) NAMES: WireGuard = open-source VPN protocol POST 2113604477261398148: NOCLAIM (none) NAMES","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113597155063554313","claim":"Tailscale is based on open source Wireguard, you can ask your clanker to set that up too and then you're not dependent on a company https://t.co/zoOJYW10Pz","author":"@levelsio (@levelsio)"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113597275519803830","name":"[blog.cloudflare.com](https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/), [news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44809166) NAMES: (none)","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"@levelsio (@levelsio)"},{"url":"https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113597155063554313","name":"[news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44809166) NAMES: WireGuard = open-source VPN protocol POST 2113604477261398148: NOCLAIM (none) NAMES","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"@levelsio (@levelsio)"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792757774262-tech-show_open-levels-hide-your-servers-now","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/tech","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792757774262-tech-show_open-levels-hide-your-servers-now","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1792757774262-tech-show_open-levels-hide-your-servers-now and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Matilda","text":"Tech Morning, Friday, 8:15. And overnight, the AI developer crowd got spooked about security."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Pieter Levels — the guy who builds apps at a frankly alarming speed — went on a bit of a tear."},{"host":"Chris","text":"When Levels posts about security, I listen. The man runs more servers than some small countries."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"He's telling everyone with a VPS: get it off the public internet. Now."},{"host":"Chris","text":"And he's right. If you have a server sitting there with an SSH key, you are one exploit away from a very bad morning."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"So the answer is... route everything through Cloudflare Tunnel and Tailscale?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"That's the thing people don't get about these tools. They're free because the enterprise plans subsidize the hobbyists."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"But you're putting your server behind a company's infrastructure. Isn't that a new dependency?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"It's a trade-off, but it's a smart one. A company with a security team versus you, alone, at 2 AM, watching logs."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Fair. But someone replied to Levels: why trust Tailscale, another company?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"And he pointed out Tailscale runs on WireGuard, which is open source. You could technically run it yourself."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"So the takeaway for anyone running a server: move it behind a tunnel, or learn WireGuard."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Or watch your server get turned into a spam factory. Your call."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Now, a startup funding note that smells a bit off."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Which one?"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"A New York startup raising sixty million in Series B. Tech NYC posted it, but the link is basically a black box."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I saw that. And another account claiming some company called TypeSafe AI just raised eight hundred seventy million."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"That's a Series A. Eight hundred seventy million. For a dev tools startup. That would be one of the biggest A rounds ever."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I'd want to see the paperwork. Eight hundred seventy million is not \"we believe in you\" money. That's \"we are the round.\""},{"host":"Matilda","text":"If true, it resets the whole market. If false, someone's inflating numbers to attract fractional CMOs."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Yeah, that post was literally aimed at marketers: \"reach startups right after they raise.\""},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Which is exactly why you shouldn't trust a list of companies that just raised from a guy whose business is getting in before you do."},{"host":"Chris","text":"You're saying the funding rounds are bait."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"I'm saying until a major outlet confirms them, they're Twitter numbers. And Twitter numbers have a long and dishonorable history."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The Greptile round, fifty million at a seven fifty valuation, that one also hasn't been confirmed."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"The code review market's hot, but that number needs a second source before I'd repeat it on air."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Y'know, it's funny. Everyone's chasing AI agents, but the real money right now is in making AI code not be terrible."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"That's a better pitch than \"the B in Series B stands for BIG,\" which is what Tech NYC went with."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The B stands for big. I don't make the rules."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Let's do one more, because this one made me stop."},{"host":"Chris","text":"What've you got?"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Over on Bluesky, Carl Quintanilla quoted Semafor: the lowest-rated SpaceX bond tranche is expected to carry an eight-point-three percent interest rate."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Eight point three? That's not a tech startup, that's a utility. And the kicker?"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"According to the post, Donald Trump personally bought five million dollars of SpaceX bonds in August."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Well, nothing says \"free market\" like the president buying your bonds while his administration's space policy's being written."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Wait, you think that's a conflict?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"It's not about conflict. It's about the signal. SpaceX is winning contracts, and the money circle is tiny."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"But he's a private citizen when he buys a bond. If a president holds an S&P index fund, is that also a conflict?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"No, no, wait— those aren't the same. An index fund doesn't have one company getting billions in federal awards."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"You want him to disclose it, which he did, or to not invest at all?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"I want a president to not hold a direct stake in a company whose biggest customer is the government he runs. That's not radical."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"The counterargument is that SpaceX has won those contracts because it's the only credible option. Starship isn't doing laps for the paying customers; it's expensive to be this good."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I'm not saying the contracts are wrong. I'm saying the headline \"president buys five million in SpaceX debt\" is a bad look, and it will get worse."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"It's already a bad look. The recusal argument only works if there's someone else to recuse to."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Fine. We disagree on the ethics. But eight point three percent tells you something about how lenders view SpaceX risk."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"It says: high growth, high burn, rockets explode sometimes, but the phone keeps ringing."},{"host":"Chris","text":"That's why it's a real asset. Just one with a president-sized asterisk."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"We'll keep an eye on that Semafor report. That's your Tech Morning hit for now. More after this."}]}