A bottleneck in the bustling blockchain highway? Austin Federa, the co-founder and CEO of DoubleZero, points a decisive finger at the public internet’s infrastructure. During his recent interview at Consensus 2025 in Toronto, Federa laid bare the critical speed and performance constraints that high-throughput blockchain networks face due to the limitations of the existing internet framework.
The Connectivity Conundrum
“The public internet was never designed for high-performance systems,” explained Federa, highlighting the mismatch between the internet’s original purpose and the demands of modern blockchain networks. According to him, the traditional architecture—where a large server communicates with a smaller one—simply can’t keep up with the dynamic needs of blockchain validators. These validators, scattered across the globe, constantly juggle between being massive data consumers and broadcasters, thus requiring substantial resources for both data ingress and egress.
Federa’s insights shed light on a growing concern within the crypto community: the infrastructure bottleneck. With the public internet acting as a choke point, it’s not the computational power or software that’s lagging behind but the very fabric of connectivity. This revelation has profound implications for the future of blockchain technology, as the industry races to find solutions. As explored in our recent coverage of Bitcoin DeFi’s potential to surpass Ethereum and Solana, the need for robust infrastructure is becoming increasingly critical.
Enter DoubleZero
It’s here that DoubleZero enters the scene, aiming to revolutionize the way blockchains communicate. By developing high-speed fiber optic communication rails, DoubleZero seeks to catapult blockchain networks into a new era of efficiency. The anticipated benefits? Faster blockchains, reduced spreads in decentralized finance (DeFi) trades, and lower transaction fees. But perhaps more tantalizing is the promise of unlocking new use cases that were previously stymied by communicative constraints.
DoubleZero’s journey began in December 2024, when Federa, having departed from the Solana Foundation, co-founded the protocol with a singular vision: to slash latency and boost bandwidth. Fast forward to April 2025, and DoubleZero had already conducted a successful validator token sale. This sale, targeted at accredited investors and existing validators from high-throughput networks like Solana, Celestia, Sui, Aptos, and Avalanche, marked a significant milestone in the project’s roadmap.
Looking Forward
With a $28 million capital raise under its belt, DoubleZero is now gearing up to launch its public mainnet in the latter half of 2025. This development couldn’t come at a more critical juncture. As blockchain networks ramp up their throughput, the call for dedicated, high-performance infrastructure grows louder. This follows a pattern of institutional adoption, which we detailed in our analysis of how restaking can enhance DeFi security for institutional traders.
Federa’s vision for DoubleZero isn’t just about speed; it’s about keeping pace with an industry that’s evolving at breakneck speed. “We need infrastructure that can handle the demand from increasingly sophisticated projects,” he noted, underscoring the necessity of building a communication framework capable of supporting the next wave of blockchain innovation.
Yet, questions linger. Can DoubleZero deliver on its ambitious promises? And will other projects follow suit, creating a new standard for blockchain connectivity? As the industry watches closely, one thing is certain: the race to overcome the internet bottleneck is on, and the stakes are higher than ever.
In a world where milliseconds can make or break a transaction, DoubleZero’s efforts may well shape the future of blockchain technology. Whether or not it succeeds, the conversation around internet infrastructure and blockchain performance is far from over. And as 2025 unfolds, this dialogue will likely only intensify, challenging the industry to rethink and rebuild its very foundations.
Source
This article is based on: The Public internet is a bottleneck for blockchain — DoubleZero CEO
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Steve Gregory is a lawyer in the United States who specializes in licensing for cryptocurrency companies and products. Steve began his career as an attorney in 2015 but made the switch to working in cryptocurrency full time shortly after joining the original team at Gemini Trust Company, an early cryptocurrency exchange based in New York City. Steve then joined CEX.io and was able to launch their regulated US-based cryptocurrency. Steve then went on to become the CEO at currency.com when he ran for four years and was able to lead currency.com to being fully acquired in 2025.
