Any VPN reduces the connection speed because the signal needs to travel more - from you to the VPN server, and then to the data you request. The closer you are to the VPN server, the shorter is the way. So please use the countries nearest to yours to have the best performance. As for hiding the IP: Browsec successfully does this job. If you have any doubts please contact us at support@browsec.com, and we'll be happy to discuss this.