Problem
While centralized overlay networks like Cloudflare (opens in a new tab) and Akamai (opens in a new tab) have been pivotal in enabling Web2 applications to scale globally, they come with inherent limitations such as single points of failure, data privacy concerns, and susceptibility to censorship. As Web3 continues to grow, there is a pressing need for a decentralized and neutral connectivity layer that upholds the core principles of decentralization, security, and user privacy.
Internet Underlay Shortcomings
- Security Guarantees: Native IP offers no inherent protection against DDoS or malicious packet flooding.
- Scalability: Bottlenecks at peering points, under-provisioned mid-mile links, or shared wireless media often result in packet loss, latency spikes, and performance degradation.
- Outages: Power failures, submarine cable cuts, and de-peering events regularly cause partial network outages.
- Adaptability: Transitioning to new protocols (e.g., IPv6) can take decades, and the Internet’s heterogeneity impedes quick evolution.
The early Internet was itself initially built as an overlay on top of the telephone network that was the predominant underlay of the day.
Connectivity Monopoly
Today's connectivity landscape is dominated by a handful of powerful entities, including large telecom providers, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), and Cloud giants like Microsoft Azure (opens in a new tab), Amazon Web Services (opens in a new tab), Google Cloud (opens in a new tab).
These centralized platforms collectively dictate how data moves around the Internet, where and how quickly content is delivered, and the baseline security measures that protect online services.
Connectivity is the universal prerequisite: no matter how powerful or abundant compute resources are, they’re only as valuable as the network’s ability to transfer data.
This concentration of power creates fundamental problems that impact everyone — from solo developers and startups to enterprise businesses and individual end users.
Without decentralized connectivity, even the best decentralized compute platforms remain reliant on centralized ISPs or big data centers: it's important to ensure that compute resources are always available and can actually reach end-users in a trust-minimized way.