ATOR

A year ago, the Tor Project made a significant decision to remove all ATOR Relays from their network, which sparked a vision for a new decentralized future. Instead of surrendering, the team aimed to create a self-scaling, trustless network designed to enhance privacy for users worldwide. Their goal is to disrupt the VPN market by combining speed, reliability, and user-friendliness through bespoke hardware, ultimately making private browsing accessible to billions. This vision has now materialized with the launch of the Anyone Network, which boasts an impressive 5000 active relays, establishing itself as one of the largest and fastest mixnets globally. Reflecting on the past year, the team expresses gratitude to their community for their unwavering support during challenging times. Despite the difficulties, the project demonstrated resilience and strength, showcasing the power of decentralization and community alignment. The leadership and engineering teams remained intact throughout the transition, empowering former community members to take on more significant roles within the ecosystem. The project has evolved into an open-source initiative, expanding from a single Smartweave registration protocol to over 30 active repositories contributing to blockchain technology, privacy, hardware, and applications. Looking ahead, the team acknowledges the journey is far from over, with plans to further decentralize the network following the transition to their AO distribution protocol. They emphasize that community governance will play a crucial role in maintaining the network's safety and performance. The spirit of ATOR is now emblematic of overcoming setbacks in the Web3 space, and the team is committed to transparency through regular updates. As they tackle the larger challenge of global privacy adoption, they remain dedicated to building a Web3 ecosystem that has the potential to transform lives.

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePin) are making waves in the tech industry by facilitating decentralized projects in real-world infrastructure. ATOR Protocol has rebranded to Anyone, aiming to make internet privacy a standard for all users with its new Anon network. Meanwhile, Verida secured over $5 million in funding, valuing the decentralized personal information network at $50 million. Lastly, Synternet, a Layer-1 blockchain for AI, DeFi, DePIN, and IoT projects, has launched its mainnet on the Cosmos network, enabling a decentralized data economy.

ATOR, now rebranding to Anyone, has initiated a major transition in the privacy protocol space. This rebranding signifies a move from obscurity to a more mainstream approach to privacy. With the ATOR pool ranking among the top 15 Uniswap pools on Ethereum by value, the demand for ATOR DePIN hardware relays has skyrocketed, commanding high premiums on secondary markets. The rebrand to Anyone aims to create a privacy ecosystem accessible to all, offering an affordable entry point with physical relay units and enterprise-grade solutions for companies. The protocol's design encourages developer innovation, with projects like peaq network, io.net, and Tectum enriching the ecosystem. Supported by a strong advisory board and investors, Anyone is poised to enhance digital privacy for everyone. The project also introduces a token upgrade, with new $ANYONE tokens redeemable for the original $ATOR tokens, promising improved value accrual for contributors.

IoTeX, a leading modular DePIN blockchain platform, is set to host a Demo Day for the first cohort of its DePIN Surf accelerator program on April 30, 2024. Launched in January 2024 with support from FutureMoneyGroup and ForesightX, the DePIN Surf accelerator is dedicated to supporting DePIN founders. DePIN, a technological paradigm, covers any web-3 application with a physical element, including edge-AI and virtual power plants. The first cohort, which was officially launched at the R3al World event at ETHDenver, features seven startups preparing for their Token Generation Event (TGE) and global launch. During the two-month program, founders receive a $50k investment and comprehensive support from the IoTeX core team and a group of elite mentors. The program includes workshops on raising series-A funding, DePIN tokenomics, and community management fundamentals, as well as presentations at global web-3 events. DePIN has been gaining traction in web-3 circles as a key to connecting the crypto industry with the global population of non-crypto natives who rely on reliable physical infrastructure. The number of DePIN projects has grown exponentially from less than a hundred in late 2022 to over a thousand at the time of writing. However, DePIN projects face challenges such as designing and executing hardware manufacturing and distribution, which can take several years, in addition to building the tech stack that includes firmware, middleware, and software. DePIN Surf provides these projects with the support they need. The projects presenting at the Demo Day include: - Inferix: A decentralized GPU computing platform for visual computing and AI inference, with a major market share in Southeast Asia, India, and other developing markets. - Wayru: The world's first DePIN to partner with the UN to tackle the global connectivity crisis, using blockchain and the $WAYRU token to incentivize hotspot deployment and management. - PowerPod: A decentralized EV charging network providing reliable and accessible charging solutions for electric vehicles worldwide. - Network3: A dedicated AI layer-2 providing services to AI developers, helping them train and validate models quickly and efficiently. - StarPower: An AI and Web3-powered global energy network connecting devices in energy generation, storage, and consumption scenarios. - ATOR: A privacy protocol creating a safer, private layer for the internet through its DePIN routing network and signature hardware and software SDK. - DePHY: A decentralized off-chain data messaging network designed to empower DePIN projects to deploy faster and cheaper. IoTeX is a modular Web3 infrastructure platform connecting smart devices and real-world data to blockchains, enabling developers to integrate Web3 into everyday life through various innovations. With the launch of W3bstream, IoTeX has become a leading Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) technology provider, connecting billions of smart devices, machines, and sensors across the physical and digital world.