High-speed WiFi Internet provider Andrea announced today that the company has raised $18 million in an extended Series A funding round led by Dragonfly Capital to develop a decentralized broadband protocol.

The round also attracted investments from CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, 6th Man Ventures and ParaFi. It brings the the company A total of $38 million was raised, including $15 million from a Series A financing round announced last year, which Dragonfly also led.

The company is developing a protocol called DAWN (Decentralized Autonomous Wireless Network) that allows users to sell excess Internet bandwidth to a network of providers. It based based on decentralized physical infrastructure networking, or DePIN, which uses a network of rooftop wireless base stations to provide mesh Internet access without a central provider.

DePIN uses both physical infrastructure and blockchain technology for token incentives, allowing users not have to buy their own equipment.

According to Andrena, traditional Internet providers are expensive because laying copper wires and fiber optic cables a expensive investment to build and maintain. While wireless technology reduces these costs, DAWN leverages these a step by giving everyone involved in the network the opportunity to contribute.

“DAWN wants to achieve with the Internet what solar panels have achieved with electricity.” said Neil Chatterjee, co-founder of DAWN and Andrena. “Just as consumers own and generate their own electricity and sell their excess back to the grid, there is now an opportunity to do the same with wireless internet for homes and businesses..”

The company currently provides Internet services in 10 U.S. states, including New York, New Jersey, Texas, Tennessee, Florida and Pennsylvania. with Hundreds of households on the network. The company announced that it intends to gradually transition its existing customer base to the new DAWN protocol to begin using blockchain token incentives.

Customers can purchase DAWN tokens using a mobile app and then exchange them for internet bandwidth from the network. The network has also launched a Chrome browser extension that allows anyone worldwide to join the network as a validator. allowed Users support the network by contributing to its security by providing computing power. Customers can earn tokens as rewards for staying connected to the DAWN network, referring friends, and participating as validators.

Andrena said the new funds would the completion of the DAWN protocol and continue to expand the the company subscriber base. The project itself is currently in a testnet phase on the Solana blockchain and there is no announced timeline for launch.

According to the company at the start DAWN’s The wireless network will cover more than three million homes and there are plans to increase this number. Although the first introduction be focused on the United States, the company intends to expand worldwide in the future.

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