dnscrypt-proxy provides local service which can be used directly as your local resolver or as a DNS forwarder, encrypting and authenticating requests using the DNSCrypt protocol and passing them to an upstream server.
The DNSCrypt protocol uses high-speed high-security elliptic-curve cryptography and is very similar to DNSCurve, but focuses on securing communications between a client and its first-level resolver.
While not providing end-to-end security, it protects the local network, which is often the weakest point of the chain, against man-in-the-middle attacks. It also provides some confidentiality to DNS queries.