Introduction

Blockchain technology is rapidly evolving, but its reliance on traditional internet infrastructure introduces performance bottlenecks. Due to its decentralized nature, blockchains, especially the Layer 1 networks, rely on validators for transaction verification and consensus mechanisms. However, these validators must communicate through public network hops, involving Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), and Centralized Data Centers (CDCs). This communication structure introduces significant bandwidth constraints and unpredictable latency between validator nodes, forming the primary limitation for blockchain performance.

Layer 2 networks, specifically built for scalability, provide partial relief by processing transactions off-chain, but ultimately depend on Layer 1 infrastructure for final settlement. The fundamental communication challenges persist across both layers regardless of computational capacity.

DoubleZero tackles this infrastructure gap by developing a network architecture that bypasses these communication barriers, thus paving the way for high-performance blockchains to be more efficient and scalable.

What is DoubleZero?

Source: DoubleZero

DoubleZero is a decentralized internet protocol built to accelerate blockchain consensus by establishing optimized pathways that enable validators to exchange data with minimal delay and maximum throughput. It introduces a novel approach to blockchain networking, redefining how validators interact and exchange data.

Unlike traditional blockchain architectures that rely on the existing public internet, DoubleZero establishes a permissionless, high-performance network infrastructure that leverages underutilized fiber connections, forming a synchronized mesh network that minimizes inefficiencies inherent in traditional routing systems, ensuring seamless and resilient data transmission.

The DoubleZero framework fundamentally reimagines how blockchain validators communicate by creating a new type of network architecture. Described as the world’s first “N1” infrastructure, it serves as a neutral, foundational base layer upon which other network technologies can be built. It also accelerates blockchain consensus while maintaining decentralization. The protocol’s unique architecture supports high-speed blockchain validation, enhances security through FPGA-based filtration technology, and optimizes bandwidth to prevent congestion.

DoubleZero is permissionless by design. Independent contributors can provide underutilized private fiber connections to form a synchronized mesh network. This setup enhances the network’s bandwidth and reduces latency, creating a resilient network layer separate from traditional internet routing systems.

DoubleZero Team

Austin Federa

Austin Federa is the co-founder of DoubleZero and a former Director of Strategy and Communications at the Solana Foundation. After several years at Solana, Austin stepped away from his position to focus on building DoubleZero. His experience in ecosystem development has helped to shape DoubleZero’s vision.

Andrew McConnell

Andrew McConnell is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of DoubleZero, where he oversees the technical infrastructure. He also co-founded Malbec Labs and serves as its current CTO.

David McIntyre

David McIntyre is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at DoubleZero. He previously led Financial Planning and analysis (FP&A) at the Solana Foundation and worked in Sales Strategy and Operations at Brex and Square.

Nihar Shah

Nihar Shah is the former head of data science at Mysten Labs. He joined DoubleZero as chief economist. His experience includes roles at Jump Crypto and Meta’s Libra/Diem project.

Main Features of DoubleZero

High-Performance Network Architecture

DoubleZero delivers exceptional performance through a multi-layered architecture that efficiently manages data flow, reduces latency, and prevents congestion across distributed systems. It connects validators and network participants through DoubleZero Exchange points (DZXs), enabling efficient connectivity between data centers within metropolitan areas.

The inner ring exchange points facilitate global interconnectivity regardless of contributor numbers, creating a cohesive network that exceeds the capabilities of traditional internet infrastructure.

Hardware-Accelerated Filtration Technology

DoubleZero deploys specialized Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) hardware at network edges to perform transaction filtration, signature verification, and spam elimination before data reaches validators.

FPGA appliances can process multiple Gbps of inbound data, removing redundant transactions and malicious traffic. This filtration process dramatically reduces the computational burden on validators, allowing them to focus on consensus and block production tasks.

Optimized Bandwidth and Data Propagation

DoubleZero enhances blockchain operations through optimized data transmission paths. Dedicated high-bandwidth, low-latency fiber links connect different points globally, allowing faster block propagation and reducing orphaned block risks.

The network leverages substantial spare capacity in the global fiber market, including unutilized “dark fiber” and over-provisioned enterprise capacity. Network contributors provide these connections with committed service-level agreements, ensuring all participants maintain real-time access to the latest blockchain state with minimal synchronization issues.

Permissionless Global Fiber Network

DoubleZero operates on a truly permissionless model where anyone can contribute fiber links and connectivity resources to expand the network’s reach. The system transforms underutilized fiber capacity—which, according to DoubleZero, is estimated at 65% in the United States alone—into a valuable global infrastructure layer. Network contributors provide either owned or leased fiber links with specific service level agreements defining bandwidth, latency, and Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) specifications.

Economic Incentives for Network Participation

Participants in the DoubleZero ecosystem receive rewards based on their contributions to network stability and efficiency. The incentive structure implements crypto-economic principles to ensure cooperation rather than defection. Links that meet their service level agreements earn rewards, while underperforming connections face penalties and potential exclusion. This economic model aligns with network needs, encouraging operators to maintain high-quality services over time.

How Does DoubleZero Work?

DoubleZero introduces a novel blockchain design that redefines conventional network structures. Traditional blockchain networks require each validator to independently handle all aspects of data processing—from ingesting raw transactions to finalizing blocks.

DoubleZero decouples filtration and verification from transaction inclusion, block production, and execution. This separation creates a parallel, protected transaction flow that dramatically improves network performance.

System Architecture

The architecture of DoubleZero is structured into two distinct concentric rings. They work together to create a scalable, permissionless, and resilient network for blockchain transactions and other distributed applications.

DoubleZero Conceptual Network Diagram (Source: DoubleZero)

Ingress/Egress Layer: Filtering & Verification

The Ingress/Egress layer acts as DoubleZero’s gateway, filtering inbound transactions before they reach consensus nodes. Specialized hardware, such as Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), mitigates denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, verifies cryptographic signatures, and eliminates redundant transactions. With these tasks managed externally, validators can concentrate on block production and transaction execution without the added burden of spam prevention.

Network contributors deploy these devices at strategic points across DoubleZero Exchange Points (DZXs), which function similarly to Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) but are optimized for blockchain traffic. These exchange points enable efficient connectivity between multiple data centers within metropolitan areas.

The Ingress layer enables independent contributors to provide bandwidth and computational resources, incentivized through smart contract-enforced Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Also, it is the outer layer that connects DoubleZero to the public internet, handling filtration, security, and traffic optimization before data reaches validators.

Inner Data Flow Ring: Optimized Consensus & Block Propagation

The Inner Data Flow Ring is the inner layer where consensus and block production occur over a high-performance, dedicated bandwidth network, and forms the core of DoubleZero’s N1 Infrastructure, operating across the lower three layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model — Physical (Layer 1), Data Link (Layer 2), and Network (Layer 3).

Source: DoubleZero

At the Physical Layer, DoubleZero utilizes over-provisioned subsea cables and terrestrial fiber links contributed by data centers, enterprises, and telecom providers.

The Data Link and Network Layers employ a multicast-supported architecture to simultaneously distribute transactions to multiple validators.

Smart routing algorithms reduce congestion, minimize packet loss, and eliminate the inefficiencies of traditional peer-to-peer gossip networks. Validators receive clean, pre-verified data, accelerating consensus and improving overall network performance.

Network management is governed by blockchain-based smart contracts that store Service Level Agreements (SLAs), routing configurations, and contributor details.

Blockchain Use Cases for Doublezero

Layer 1 Blockchain Performance Optimization

Layer 1 blockchains face significant performance challenges under current networking conditions. Validators must handle excessive transaction volumes, including spam and duplicates, while consensus mechanisms operate over unreliable internet paths with high jitter. This results in slow finality and poor user experience.

DoubleZero addresses these limitations through two key mechanisms:

First, specialized FPGA hardware filters inbound traffic at network edges, removing duplicates, verifying signatures, and mitigating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks before transactions reach validators. This separation of filtration from block production significantly reduces computational burden on validators.

Second, the filtered transactions, blocks, and consensus votes travel over dedicated low-latency links rather than the public internet. This dramatically improves block propagation and consensus timing, allowing validator clients to approach their theoretical performance maximums.

Improving RPC Performance

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) nodes function as key intermediaries between users and blockchain networks. They forward transactions to validators or mempools while providing blockchain state data to applications like wallets, DeFi platforms, and block explorers. These nodes struggle with major challenges that DoubleZero solves.

As direct recipients of user traffic, RPC nodes become overwhelmed during high-demand events like NFT launches or token airdrops. Their front-line position makes them prime targets for DDoS attacks. DoubleZero’s filtration technology protects this vulnerable point in the network infrastructure.

Transaction delivery success determines an RPC provider’s value, particularly for competitive operations like arbitrage. DoubleZero’s low-latency dedicated connections ensure transactions reach validators faster and more reliably than across the public internet.

Optimized Network Infrastructure for Scalable Layer 2 Blockchains

DoubleZero provides critical infrastructure support for Layer 2 blockchains, addressing two key challenges.

First, as Layer 2 networks aim to move from single to multiple sequencers, they need precise coordination to prevent redundant computations and wasted resources. DoubleZero’s low-latency connectivity enables this sequencer synchronization with minimal overhead.

Second, the adoption of modular blockchain architectures separates execution, settlement, consensus, and data availability into specialized layers. These designs depend entirely on efficient communication between components. DoubleZero’s optimized network infrastructure ensures these separate layers can interact at speeds that maintain the overall system’s performance benefits.

Content Delivery Networks Infrastructure Optimization

DoubleZero offers Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) a flexible infrastructure to optimize content delivery. New CDNs can leverage the network to quickly bootstrap their services, focusing on demand forecasting and content provisioning while offloading traffic filtering and routing. Existing CDNs can use DoubleZero to expand coverage in specific regions or increase bandwidth along critical network corridors, providing more reliable and efficient content distribution.

Low-Latency Gaming

Latency is critical in online gaming. DoubleZero provides dedicated, low-latency links that can enhance both peer-to-peer and centralized server gaming models. The network’s wide geographical reach and decentralized infrastructure reduce connection instability, jitter, and bandwidth constraints. This improves player experience across different game types and geographical locations, mitigating the limitations of traditional public internet connections.

Differences Between DoubleZero and Traditional Internet Infrastructure

Benefits of DoubleZero

Enhanced Security

DoubleZero’s FPGA-based filtering mitigates Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, removes duplicate transactions, and verifies signatures at line speed, creating a more secure environment for blockchain operations and reducing vulnerability to network-level attacks.

Optimized Performance

The dedicated infrastructure offloads filtration and verification tasks from validators, enabling faster block production and consensus while significantly reducing latency and jitter through purpose-built bandwidth links. This performance optimization directly translates to higher transaction throughput for blockchain networks.

Decentralized Infrastructure

The permissionless contribution model allows any participant to provide bandwidth and network resources, creating a truly decentralized communication layer that aligns with the foundational principles of the distributed systems it serves.

Incentivized Growth Model

Contributors receive rewards based on their service quality and utilization, establishing a self-sustaining economic framework that drives network expansion while ensuring continuous service improvement through competition.

Network Efficiency

The meshed architecture dynamically routes traffic through optimal paths, maintaining performance during network demand spikes and outages while maximizing the utility of each contributed link across the global network.

Challenges of DoubleZero

Technical Complexity

Setting up DoubleZero connections into existing blockchain ecosystems requires specialized knowledge and hardware integration. Many potential users lack the technical expertise needed for implementation without significant support.

Hardware Requirements

High-performance FPGA hardware represents a substantial upfront investment. Smaller operators may struggle to afford the equipment needed to participate fully in the network.

Regulatory Hurdles

Cross-border fiber operations face varying telecommunications regulations. Network contributors must navigate complex legal frameworks that differ across jurisdictions.

Learning Curve for New Users

DoubleZero’s novel networking approach introduces unfamiliar concepts and operations for blockchain participants. New users require time to understand the protocol’s architecture, contribution mechanisms, and incentive structures before maximizing their benefits from the system.

DoubleZero’s Partnerships

Solana

Solana is a high-performance blockchain network that can process thousands of transactions per second at minimal fees. Its speed and scalability depend on how efficiently data flows between blockchain validators. DoubleZero works to complement Solana’s ecosystem by creating a more efficient, low-latency network infrastructure for high-performance decentralized systems. Key figures from Solana’s development team, such as Austin Federa and David McIntyre, have joined DoubleZero to further its mission of scalable, high-performance blockchain infrastructure.

Firedancer

Firedancer is an independent validator client developed by Jump Crypto to improve the efficiency and security of blockchain networks. It is written in C instead of Rust (just like Solana), which minimizes vulnerability risks and eliminates single points of failure. DoubleZero integrates Firedancer’s high-performance architecture to support high-speed transaction validation and the reliability of validator communication.

Malbec Labs

Malbec Labs specializes in network engineering, hardware acceleration, and software development for open-source protocols. The company plays a crucial role in designing and optimizing DoubleZero’s architecture, ensuring that the network can efficiently handle high-volume data transmission.

Valuation

Source: Doublezero

On March 6, 20225, DoubleZero Foundation secured $28 million in a funding round, achieving a valuation of $400 million. This investment was co-led by venture capital firms Dragonfly and Multicoin Capital. Additional participants included Foundation Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, DBA, Borderless Capital, Superscrypt, Frictionless, and others. The funds are intended to enhance DoubleZero’s infrastructure, optimizing blockchain performance and data transmission efficiency.

DoubleZero Tokenomics

DoubleZero proposes a tokenomics model that regulates staking, rewards, and inflation to sustain its network of independent contributors.

Rewards and Contribution Model

DoubleZero’s rewards model compensates network contributors based on their marginal/fair contribution to network efficiency. Using the Shapley value principles of cooperative game theory, the protocol calculates the value function of each network link across different operational scenarios. Connections with high throughput and low latency earn more than their lower-performing counterparts. Similarly, connections on heavily trafficked routes receive higher rewards than those on less popular paths.

Staking

DoubleZero employs a dual staking model built around two key participants: network contributors and validators.

Network contributors stake a minimum number of tokens to activate their private fiber link. These tokens guarantee the security and efficiency of these links; otherwise, if they defect, the contributor faces slashing penalties. Once a certain threshold is reached, staking additional tokens will not yield direct rewards.

Validators, however, stake tokens—either their own or delegated tokens from the community—to manage system operations like traffic routing, onboard/offboard links, and reward calculation. A validator also risks slashing penalties for misconduct, such as routing errors, censoring links, or miscalculating rewards.

Inflation and Token Supply Management

A market-based inflation model funds the network’s public operations, managed by validators and stakers. The protocol intelligently calibrates inflation rates based on market signals from staking participation. When participation drops, inflation increases to attract more stakers. When participation rises, inflation decreases to preserve the token value. To stabilize the token supply, a controlled token-burning mechanism will counterbalance, ensuring that inflation does not lead to unchecked supply growth and dilution.

Potential Airdrop and Community Engagement

While the DoubleZero team hasn’t made any official announcements about an airdrop or token launch (as of the time of writing, April 2025), the Web3 community has speculated on potential moves. However, historical trends suggest that early participation in network activities could increase eligibility for future rewards.

The project has encouraged community engagement through its Discord channel, where active contributors—those who assist new members, create content, and participate in discussions—may gain exclusive roles. Many blockchain projects have used similar criteria for past airdrop distributions, making early involvement a strategic move for potential beneficiaries.

Highlights

Testnet Beta Launch

In March 2025, DoubleZero launched its testnet beta across seven major cities: Singapore, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. This phase engaged participants such as Solana validators and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) providers to evaluate the network’s performance, scalability, and security. ​Notably, four Solana validators—two Agave and two Frankendancer—are currently connected to the DoubleZero network as part of its test phase.

Mainnet Launch Schedule

Building upon the insights gained from the Testnet phase, DoubleZero plans to roll out its public Mainnet in the third quarter of 2025 (Q3 2025). The Mainnet will expand the network’s reach, integrating more cities and participants to establish a robust internet infrastructure for decentralized applications.

CoinList Hosts DoubleZero Token Sale In the US

In April 2025, cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinList announced the sale of the DoubleZero token (2Z), marking its return to the U.S. market after a five-year hiatus. This token sale is notably the first to be accessible to U.S. accredited investors since 2019. The DoubleZero token (2Z) is exclusively available to eligible validators operating within the Solana, Sui, Aptos, Avalanche, and Celestia blockchains. CoinList has outlined the following conditions for participation:

• Interest Period: Validators are invited to express their interest between April 2 and April 10, 2025, by submitting their public keys and optionally specifying a per-unit valuation or maximum budget.

• Price Discovery: The collective submissions will determine a uniform clearing price for all participants.

• Allocation: Validators with higher stakes will receive priority. Additionally, those contributing to price discovery by submitting valuations could be allocated more tokens.

• Verification Requirements: Participants must complete Know Your Customer (KYC) or Know Your Business (KYB) processes. U.S. participants are also required to verify their accredited investor status.

This DoubleZero token sale offers valuable opportunities for blockchain validators and highlights the growing demand and interest in DoubleZero’s network. Please visit CoinList’s official token page on DoubleZero to learn more about this token and how to participate.

Is DoubleZero a Good Investment?

The DoubleZero protocol shows promising technological capabilities to solve critical infrastructure challenges in distributed systems. Still in its early development phase, the project will require strategic ecosystem growth and thorough technical assessment. Investors should carefully evaluate the project’s potential and market positioning before investing in Doublezero. Consulting financial professionals can provide valuable insights into investment factors and potential risks.

Conclusion

DoubleZero represents a paradigm shift in network communication for distributed systems. It reimagines infrastructure not as a static resource, but as a dynamic, collaborative ecosystem where network performance is collectively enhanced through permissionless participation. As more contributors integrate their resources, DoubleZero could redefine how decentralized networks operate, setting new benchmarks for speed, resilience, and efficiency in a trustless environment.

Also, as blockchain networks continue to scale, the need for robust, high-performance communication layers becomes increasingly evident. DoubleZero addresses these challenges head-on by providing a decentralized, permissionless network that aligns with the core principles of blockchain technology. Whether for Layer 1 optimizations, Layer 2 scalability, or even applications beyond blockchain, such as content delivery networks and low-latency gaming, DoubleZero is setting new standards for decentralized infrastructure.