DAWN, a decentralized protocol designed to supply user-owned and operated multi-gigabit broadband companies, introduced that it has raised $13 million in a Sequence 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 venture permits people and organizations to deploy wi-fi nodes that act as community hosts and supply Web entry. Hosts earn compensation based mostly 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 companies, an strategy often known as Decentralized Bodily Infrastructure (DePIN).
DAWN isn’t alone in figuring out its communications as a DePIN software. One other notable venture, Helium, permits customers to arrange sizzling spots to operate as small cellular 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 growth in Accra, Ghana, targets underserved neighborhoods the place fiber adoption has confirmed gradual and costly to deploy.
The venture additionally launched client {hardware}, together with Black Field gadgets that additionally operate as routers and distributed infrastructure nodes. The gadget helps a number of blockchain ecosystems, permitting households to instantly take part in broadband supply whereas incomes rewards.
