Paul’s Penthouse: DePIN Disclosed with ANyONe Protocol

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Pauluz
@PauluzRFRMSep 17, 2025

The Spaces brings Paul and Dominic together with Eric (“Neurotic”) from Anyone Protocol for a deep dive into building a decentralized, privacy-first alternative to today’s centralized VPN industry. After brief market chatter about possible Fed rate cuts and a Bitcoin spike, Eric outlines Anyone’s thesis: VPNs concentrate data and trust in single companies, whereas Anyone uses onion routing across a decentralized relay network (8,000 active nodes, ~1,500 hardware) to fragment traffic and protect identity. The project fair-launched as ATOR in early 2023 (no VC/presale) and rebranded to Anyone, keeping emissions lean (0.5% distributed to date; ~1–1.5% annual inflation). Performance is stable since early 2024 and 3–4x Tor at the 25th percentile in internal tests. A plug-and-play home router device ($300–$400, 6–12 months ROI) doubles as a node and home VPN, aiding anti‑Sybil and geographic dispersion. The SDK enables configurable circuits and exit selection; rewards are accounted on-chain. Staking (testnet soon) delegates trust to “relay families” for economic security and reliability. Apps: Anyone Browser on iOS is live; Android is in testing; macOS/Windows/Linux VPNs are next. Go-to-market spans privacy-conscious consumers, enterprises, and AI agents via a “powered by Anyone” toolkit, with free access initially and premium features planned.

Deep Dive: Anyone Protocol (DePIN privacy network) — Summary of Twitter Spaces discussion

Participants and Roles

  • Paul (Host, Paul’s Penthouse): Moderation, framing questions, market banter
  • Dominic (Co-host): Technical/business probing, go-to-market and hardware angles
  • “Neurotic” (Anyone Protocol team, guest speaker): Product, network, tokenomics, roadmap, and strategy
  • Unidentified music/DJ co-host (brief interjections; opened with “Pump It Up”)

Opening Context and Market Banter

  • The session opened with light banter and music, then a macro aside about hoped-for Fed rate cuts (50–75 bps) potentially sending risk assets “bazinga,” including speculative comments about Bitcoin possibly reaching 130k. This was not central to the discussion but set the tone for the day.
  • Brief audio/connectivity hiccups early on; stabilized once Neurotic switched connections.

What Anyone Protocol Is Building

Core Thesis: VPNs are broken; privacy needs a new trust model

  • Problem framing (Neurotic):
    • The commercial VPN industry has grown >5x over a decade amid rising surveillance from corporations/governments (dynamic pricing, enforcement, persecution risks).
    • Conventional VPNs remain centralized chokepoints: providers often log/store traffic; those logs can be hacked, leaked, or acquired via legal/financial pressure.
  • Anyone’s solution:
    • A decentralized, onion-routed, multi-hop relay network that fragments traffic across independent operators so no single server has the full picture (who you are + what you do).
    • Crypto incentives reward relay operators, enabling open participation and neutral trust. This is a class of privacy guarantee that a single company cannot credibly replicate.

Architecture: Onion routing plus a Web3-native control plane

  • Protocol model:
    • Uses onion routing (as popularized by Tor). Data is encrypted in multiple layers (envelope-in-envelope): each hop removes only its layer and cannot see source plus destination together.
    • Anyone has not modified the low-level, battle-tested encryption primitives; instead, it innovates in network administration, incentives, and developer usability.
  • Developer SDK and configurability:
    • Beyond a Tor-like browser-only posture, Anyone exposes an SDK so apps can:
      • Define custom circuits (e.g., 2-hop vs 3-hop)
      • Choose exit country or specific nodes
      • Integrate privacy without changing user experience
    • Goal: make “privacy the default” in apps via drop-in anonymity features.

Network, Token, and Economics

Current network footprint and performance

  • Relays: ≈8,000 active nodes worldwide (early 2024 launch; no network downtime reported).
  • Mix:
    • ~75% run on operators’ own servers/VPS
    • 25% are Anyone’s consumer hardware devices (1,500 units)
  • Performance: From internal tests, 25th-percentile speeds are ~3–4x faster than Tor; overall substantially faster while retaining multi-hop privacy.

Token history and emissions

  • Token lineage:
    • Fair-launched as ATOR in early 2023 (depths of the bear market), then rebranded to Anyone as the team built its own network.
    • Not VC-backed; no presale. The token finances development via tokenomics/taxes and underpins incentive alignment.
  • Chain presence:
    • Primary token on Ethereum mainnet; liquidity present on Base and “peak” (as stated in the recording).
  • Emissions and inflation discipline:
    • To date, only ~0.5% of total supply distributed for relay rewards despite the network being live since early 2024.
    • Projected circulating-supply inflation for node rewards targeted at ~1–1.5% per year.
    • Rationale: nodes are cheap to run; no need for heavy emissions (contrast to some DePINs with high inflation for mining).

Node operation: cost, access, and anti-Sybil posture

  • Running a node:
    • Resource-light beyond stable bandwidth; one-line install for server/VPS operators.
    • Server/VPS nodes require locking 100 Anyone tokens (community can sponsor locks for new operators to lower the barrier).
  • Anti-Sybil and dispersion:
    • Incentives de-emphasize clusters on the same cloud/ASN/IP range.
    • Hardware nodes are authenticated and help ensure geographic/IP dispersion (harder for one actor to emulate many unique households).

Hardware: Consumer router-like device with dual utility

  • Device role:
    • Plugs into home router; runs as a relay to earn token rewards.
    • Provides a privacy gateway for the entire home via encrypted Wi-Fi (VPN-like router function).
  • Pricing & ROI:
    • Retail: $300–$400
    • Indicative ROI: ~6–12 months at current token price/emissions (variable with market conditions, bandwidth, and reward boosts).
    • Hardware earns a reward boost to reflect distinct network value (residential IP, dispersion).
  • Design choices and GTM:
    • Inspired by Helium’s consumer-friendly industrial design/distribution.
    • Exploring a slimmer, lower-cost variant for developing markets; discussions on subsidized distribution models are on the table.
    • Long-term consumer value: bundle privacy features (private hosting, private storage à la “home cloud”) plus passive income into a single appliance.

Consumer Apps and Developer Integrations

End-user apps (current and upcoming)

  • Live today:
    • iOS: Anyone Browser — anonymous browsing via the Anyone network, free to use.
  • In testing / coming soon:
    • Android client (internal testing ongoing)
    • Desktop VPN apps: macOS, Windows, Linux
  • Monetization model:
    • Base service remains free; premium features likely include censorship-resistance options, exit selection, custom circuits, and prioritized reliability.

Developer toolkit and AI angle

  • SDK enables privacy-by-default for apps with minimal code changes (exit selection, custom circuits, node designation).
  • AI “dark horse” positioning:
    • As AI agents/browsers proliferate and “look over your shoulder,” privacy demands grow. Anyone aims to obfuscate IP/location and enable end-to-end encryption to mitigate profiling/scraping risks by default.
    • Strategy is not anti-AI; it’s pro-privacy AI: build AI apps that don’t collect exploitable user data.
  • Comparators and ecosystem discussion:
    • Grass and similar residential-proxy models were mentioned; skepticism expressed about monetizing personal IP/data.
    • Team is exploring integrations with privacy-forward protocols and platforms; potential fit for social protocols (e.g., Jack Dorsey’s “AT protocol” was referenced as a relevant example).

Staking: Security, social trust, and reliability

  • Status: Staking rolling out to testnet soon; mainnet to follow.
  • Mechanism overview:
    • Delegators stake to “relay families” (wallets operating multiple relays) rather than a small, static validator set.
    • Staking confers security value: increases the cost of adversaries attempting to control enough relays to deanonymize circuits.
    • Network may prioritize highly staked, reliable relays when building circuits (improved QoS/censorship resistance).
    • Yields: uniform base yield independent of which family you choose; selection is about trust/reliability, not chasing outlier APRs.
    • Social layer: relay operators can publish identities/handles (e.g., .anyone labels); delegator yield depends on relay uptime/performance—creating a two-way incentive for good ops hygiene.

Geography, Censorship, and Coverage

  • Exit-node geography matters:
    • Certain sites/geos block known VPN/exit ranges; the ability to choose exit countries or specific nodes offers practical value to users.
    • Hardware dispersion across households/IPs helps evade blanket VPN blacklisting.
  • Coverage strategy:
    • Not aggressively geo-targeting hardware sales yet; early phase focuses on global enthusiasts and organic ambassadors.
    • Growing emphasis on consumer privacy markets where willingness to pay/use is strong; device can be positioned as a home VPN box with bonus mining.

Go-To-Market: Consumer focus first, but B2B is compelling

  • Consumer strategy:
    • Compete with web2 VPNs by offering a free, faster, multi-hop alternative with stronger privacy guarantees and simple UX (apps in app stores).
    • Market beyond crypto Twitter; leverage ambassadors and mainstream channels.
  • Enterprise/B2B opportunities:
    • Enterprise VPN and embedded privacy for SaaS, browsers, AI agents, and data-sensitive applications.
    • “Privacy in apps” as a new category where “Powered by Anyone” becomes a recognizable trust signal.

Roadmap and How to Get Involved

  • Near-term deliverables (next few months):
    • Staking: testnet launch, then mainnet
    • Desktop VPN apps: macOS, Windows, Linux
    • Android client public release
    • Hardware push with broader consumer messaging
  • Getting started:
    • Users: download Anyone Browser for iOS (free); Android and desktop VPNs coming next.
    • Node operators: follow docs at anyone.io/docs (one-line server install); lock 100 tokens (community sponsorship available); or purchase the hardware device for plug-and-play.
    • Community: join Telegram/Discord for support, ops tips, and staking updates.

Notable Quotes and Positions

  • Neurotic on centralized VPNs: Core design can’t credibly deliver privacy; only decentralized, open participation can break data concentration.
  • On token discipline: Minimal emissions due to low node costs; targets 1–1.5% annual inflation on circulating supply for rewards.
  • On AI: Bigger AI increases the need for default privacy; build AI that doesn’t collect exploitable data, with Anyone as the obfuscation/encryption layer.
  • On consumer focus: Compete in web2 by offering a free, better VPN-like experience; crypto-native elements should be invisible to end users.

Key Stats Recap

  • 8,000 active relays worldwide (75% server/VPS, ~25% hardware; ~1,500 devices)
  • Network live since early 2024 with no reported downtime
  • Speeds: ~3–4x Tor at 25th percentile (internal tests)
  • Token: fair-launched (ATOR → Anyone), Ethereum mainnet; liquidity on Base and “peak” (as stated)
  • Emissions: ~0.5% of supply distributed to date; target ~1–1.5% annual inflation on circulating supply for node rewards
  • Hardware: $300–$400; indicative ROI 6–12 months; operates as home privacy gateway; reward boost for network value
  • Node lock: 100 Anyone tokens per server/VPS node (community can sponsor)

Closing Notes

  • Hosts underscored the breadth of consumer niches that rely on VPNs (geo-regulation, exchange access, censorship workarounds) and the importance of pushing beyond crypto-native audiences.
  • Anyone’s messaging aim: “You’re being tracked; here’s how to protect yourself and your family,” with apps that are simple, free to try, and materially better on privacy.
  • Overall impression: A lean, performance-focused DePIN privacy network with disciplined tokenomics, consumer-grade hardware, and a clear path to mainstream via apps and developer integrations—positioned to grow as AI and data sensitivity concerns intensify.