DoubleZero Foundation

DoubleZero Foundation is pioneering a decentralized framework designed to establish and oversee high-performance, permissionless networks. The company is effectively building a new physical infrastructure layer, dubbed the N1, to serve as a specialized internet for blockchains and other distributed systems. This initiative was co-founded in late 2024 by Austin Federa, the former Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation, alongside Andrew McConnell and Mateo Ward. Federa’s experience in blockchain ecosystems, combined with Ward's background in telecommunications at Global Crossing and McConnell's expertise in high-frequency trading infrastructure, identified a critical bottleneck: the public internet is ill-suited for the demands of high-performance blockchain networks.

The core of DoubleZero's business is to provide a more efficient and deterministic network by leveraging underutilized private fiber optic cables. Instead of laying new fiber, the company leases existing dark fiber or unused bandwidth, creating a global network without the typical massive capital expenditure. This network provides dedicated bandwidth and optimized routing, which is crucial for clients like blockchain validators, RPC providers, and potentially other high-performance computing applications such as online gaming and large language model training. The architecture is designed with a two-ring system: an outer ring that interfaces with the public internet and filters traffic using hardware like FPGAs, and an inner ring that connects validators over dedicated, low-latency lines for efficient consensus. By filtering spam and reducing duplicate transactions at the network level, DoubleZero enables blockchain systems to achieve significantly higher transaction throughput and lower latency.

The business model is rooted in a cryptoeconomic framework. Network operators and bandwidth contributors are incentivized with tokens. Clients, such as validators, will allocate a portion of their earnings to DoubleZero, which are then used to reward bandwidth contributors, creating a self-sustaining and participant-owned ecosystem. In March 2025, the DoubleZero Foundation announced it had raised $28 million in a token funding round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital, at a valuation of $400 million. The funds are allocated to expand the team and transition the network from its permissioned testnet, initially available to Solana validators in seven cities, to a public mainnet anticipated in the latter half of 2025.

Keywords: decentralized physical infrastructure, DePIN, high-performance networking, permissionless networks, blockchain infrastructure, fiber optic network, low-latency communication, bandwidth optimization, cryptoeconomic model, N1 network, network layer protocol, Austin Federa, Solana, RPC providers, validator services, data routing, hardware acceleration, FPGA, network filtering, token incentives