TLDR

• DoubleZero Network is developing an alternative to the public internet specifically for blockchains
• Founded by former Solana Foundation strategy lead Austin Federa and entrepreneurs Andrew McConnell and Mateo Ward
• Recently raised $28 million at a $400 million valuation from Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital
• Currently launched testnet beta across seven global cities with plans for mainnet in the second half of 2025
• Jump Crypto, Distributed Global, RockawayX, Teraswitch and Latitude.sh are operating as initial fiber contributors

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DoubleZero Network, a project aiming to create a parallel internet for blockchains, has announced plans for a public mainnet launch in the second half of 2025. The announcement follows the completion of a $28 million funding round and the launch of a testnet beta.

According to a March 5 statement from the DoubleZero Foundation, the network aims to serve as an alternative to the public internet. It allows network operators to contribute underutilized bandwidth to a network built for blockchains and other distributed systems.

The project was co-founded by Austin Federa, who served as the Solana Foundation Strategy Lead until December. Federa left his position after four years to establish DoubleZero alongside crypto entrepreneurs Andrew McConnell and Mateo Ward.

Federa explained the vision in a March 5 post on X. He described the project as an attempt to bring private networking technology to blockchains and distributed systems. The network will be owned by its operators and open to anyone with fiber to participate.

“Faster is better, but faster alone is not enough. Faster must include the ability for everyone on the (physical fiber) network to have the same access to data as everyone else. This is fairness — this is multicast — this is the future,” Federa stated.

The DoubleZero Foundation is building the network with long-term goals in mind. Federa believes it will become the legacy technology powering distributed systems for the next half-century.

Private Fiber: The Future of Blockchain Speed

“We’ve reached a point where the bottleneck for blockchain is actually on the network and data transport layer, not the compute,” he explained. “The current ambition for crypto is still too small. We see a near future that’s fully underpinned by distributed systems.”

Industry sources familiar with the matter revealed that the $28 million funding round valued DoubleZero at $400 million. The round was co-led by venture capital firms Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital. The funds will be used to hire more staff for the upcoming mainnet rollout.

Sources also indicated that DoubleZero is now seeking “strategic partners” for additional investment at a higher valuation of $600 million. The strategic round has not yet closed, with venture capital firms competing for allocation.

In conjunction with the funding announcement, the foundation launched a testnet beta for Solana validators and Remote Procedure Calls. The testnet is currently operating across seven cities: Singapore, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

The current phase of testing aims to improve the system’s efficiency and scalability. Additional cities are expected to join the network when the mainnet launches later this year.

At present, several companies are operating as fiber contributors to the network. These include Jump Crypto, Distributed Global, RockawayX, and infrastructure providers Teraswitch and Latitude.sh.

The technology has already been quietly tested at major events. At Solana’s Breakpoint conference in September, Jump Crypto’s Firedancer team demonstrated a superfast Solana client. What wasn’t revealed at the time was that the participating validators were running on DoubleZero infrastructure.

DoubleZero’s approach bears similarities to Wall Street’s speed wars. In those competitions, trading firms invested heavily in specialty fiber optic lines to reduce order times by milliseconds.

Infrastructure company Helius compared DoubleZero’s data pipes to a private car service, with the open internet resembling an Uber. Both options will reach the destination, but the private option offers greater speed and predictability.

Federa has positioned the project as blockchain-agnostic despite his Solana background. “I think the Solana community has very resoundingly said, ‘We would like to exceed what’s possible on the public internet,’” he said during a recent X Spaces conversation. However, he emphasized that DoubleZero is “completely compatible” with any blockchain.

Thanks for having me on the @midcurvemedia podcast, although I’m told i broke the rules and did not do it mid curve and @eden_ says the people want mid curve so here we go

The internet is fundamentally broken: but it’s not your fault.

The Internet was built to be peer-to-peer… https://t.co/mJB8QNnrkf

— Austin Federa | IBRL | 🇺🇸 (@Austin_Federa) March 6, 2025

The team behind DoubleZero includes Federa as the Foundation’s President. McConnell and Ward head the project’s core contributor company, Malbec Labs. Jump Crypto also serves as a core contributor and has provided early bandwidth to the network.

Rather than purchasing or building costly infrastructure directly, DoubleZero plans to rely on independent communications businesses. These partners will monetize their underutilized resources to support the network’s operations.

The testnet is currently open to Solana validators and RPCs. Plans include expanding to other chains in the future as the network matures and moves toward its mainnet launch.