DAWN, a decentralized protocol designed to supply user-owned and operated multi-gigabit broadband providers, introduced that it has raised $13 million in a Collection B funding spherical led by Polychain Capital.
In accordance with an announcement shared with CoinDesk on Thursday, the funding shall be used to broaden the Solana-based protocol’s community attain throughout the US and develop worldwide deployments.
The New York-based mission permits people and organizations to deploy wi-fi nodes that act as community hosts and supply Web entry. Hosts earn compensation primarily based on protection high quality and demand. This mannequin goals to keep away from the centralized possession buildings that dominate conventional broadband and as a substitute distribute infrastructure possession to the community edge.
The funding highlights investor curiosity in bringing decentralization to real-world providers, an strategy generally known as Decentralized Bodily Infrastructure (DePIN).
DAWN will not be alone in figuring out its communications as a DePIN utility. One other notable mission, Helium, permits customers to arrange scorching spots to operate as small cell websites. The platform can be constructed on Solana and expanded into the Brazilian market this month in partnership with native WiFi supplier Mambo.
DAWN serves greater than 4 million households in the US, however its first worldwide enlargement in Accra, Ghana, targets underserved neighborhoods the place fiber adoption has confirmed sluggish and costly to deploy.
The mission additionally launched shopper {hardware}, together with Black Field gadgets that additionally operate as routers and distributed infrastructure nodes. The machine helps a number of blockchain ecosystems, permitting households to immediately take part in broadband supply whereas incomes rewards.
