I would not just default to exfat because it is “newer,” it does have compatibility issues on non-windows systems. The implementations differ wildly.
Veracrypt. Make a file on your disk.
Don’t want a storage file?
Make 2 partitions, put veracrypt portable exe on the first normal storage partition. (fat32 is likely ideal here) Second partition formatted with veracrypt.
Time for a new one 😡
You can restrict the size of the ramdisk so you do not end up killing processes. A large amount of ram is not mandatory.
tmpfs is the filesystem you are looking for. You can mount it like any other filesystem in /etc/fstab.
tmpfs /path/to/transcode/dir tmpfs defaults 0 0
I transcode to ramdisk.
No, please no. I can’t be tortured like that again…
You win.
If you wanted to go overboard, don’t even make the server accessible publicly. Distribute keys to a Wireguard network that is accessible publicly. Mandate your players obtain keys from you to play.