DoubleZero plans to launch its blockchain-powered alternative to the internet on the public mainnet in the second half of 2025.
Crypto entrepreneurs Andrew McConnell and Mateo Ward partnered with Austin Federa, the Solana Foundation’s former strategy lead, to create DoubleZero.
After securing a $28 million funding round and completing its testnet beta, DoubleZero is now preparing for its mainnet launch later this year.
On March 5, the DoubleZero Foundation announced that the DoubleZero Network will offer an alternative to the public internet. The network will allow operators to supply unused bandwidth to a specialized system optimized for blockchain technology.
In a March 5 X post, DoubleZero’s co-founder Austin Federa stated that the project will introduce private networking technology to blockchain and distributed systems through an operator-owned network. The initiative welcomes participation from anyone with fiber access.
In December, Federa ended his four-year tenure as Solana Foundation’s Strategy Lead to collaborate with McConnell and Ward on launching DoubleZero.
Federa emphasized that the DoubleZero Foundation aims to build a network capable of supporting distributed systems for the next half-century.
“We’ve reached a point where the bottleneck for blockchain is actually on the network and data transport layer, not the compute,” he said.
“The current ambition for crypto is still too small. We see a near future that’s fully underpinned by distributed systems, and our vision is to provide a new fiber infrastructure network that can securely power that at mass scale.”
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To prepare for the mainnet rollout, the protocol raised $28 million in a token round co-led by venture capital firms Dragonfly Capital and Multicoin Capital. The funding will support the expansion of the team.
As part of its fundraising efforts, the foundation launched a testnet beta for Solana validators and Remote Procedure Calls across seven cities.
The current testnet spans Singapore, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. Once the mainnet goes live later this year, the foundation plans to add more locations.
The foundation has made efficiency and network scaling the key objectives of the testnet phase.
Jump Crypto, Distributed Global, RockawayX, and infrastructure providers Teraswitch and Latitude.sh currently contribute fiber to the network.
