TL;DR
- DoubleZero aims to build a decentralized network that eliminates reliance on the public internet, allowing operators to contribute unused bandwidth.
- The startup raised $28 million in a round led by Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital, accelerating the development of its mainnet, scheduled for the second half of 2025.
- The network has already launched its beta testnet, featuring Solana validators and RPC nodes across seven key global cities, laying the groundwork for a distributed infrastructure.
DoubleZero, founded by Austin Federa, former strategist at the Solana Foundation, along with crypto entrepreneurs Andrew McConnell and Mateo Ward, is taking a bold step toward building a decentralized internet. Its goal is to provide an alternative to the public internet, enabling any operator with fiber access to contribute bandwidth and support a network optimized for blockchains, distributed systems, and next-generation applications requiring enhanced security and reliability.
The initiative seeks to solve a critical problem: the current infrastructure limits the scalability and efficiency of blockchain networks.
“The bottleneck in blockchain isn’t computation, it’s the data transport layer,”
said Federa. DoubleZero aims to change this reality by delivering a large-scale, secure, and distributed fiber infrastructure, ensuring greater resilience and flexibility.
Testnet in Progress and Backing from Major Players
To accelerate its development, DoubleZero successfully closed a $28 million funding round, attracting high-profile investors like Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital. These funds will support talent acquisition and the preparation of its mainnet, expected to launch in the second half of 2025.
At the same time, the foundation has deployed a beta testnet focused on Solana validators and Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) in key strategic cities, including Singapore, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. More locations are expected to be added as development progresses.
Key industry players such as Jump Crypto, Distributed Global, RockawayX, and infrastructure providers Teraswitch and Latitude.sh are already participating as fiber contributors, highlighting strong industry support for this decentralized approach.
DoubleZero’s potential is immense, offering a solution to the latency and centralization issues that plague the crypto ecosystem. If it succeeds in its vision, it could mark a milestone in the evolution of the internet, driving digital sovereignty and the global adoption of decentralized systems.
Moreover, the ability for independent operators to participate in the network using their own resources could democratize access to high-speed internet. This could open the door to new use cases, such as smart cities, private communication networks, and more efficient decentralized financial ecosystems. DoubleZero is not just challenging the status quo, it could be laying the foundation for the next generation of digital connectivity.
