About Awala

Awala® (formerly known as Relaynet) began as a research project at Oxford by Gus Narea, who later founded Relaycorp to support the development of the technology. The initial goal was to circumvent complete Internet blackouts with the Awala Network.

Our long-term goal is to complement the Internet by providing all human beings with uncensored and timely communication anywhere in the universe—from voices suppressed by dictatorships to astronauts on Mars—without impairing the fundamental rights of other human beings.

“Awala” means “sibling” in Wayuu, symbolising our goal to empower all humankind.

Funding

The Awala Network has been mostly funded by the Open Technology Fund (OTF) since 2019, with additional support from the International Republican Institute and Mozilla Builders.

The VPN is currently being developed with no outside funding.

Security audits

OTF has commissioned independent security assessments of Awala Network from world-class security consultancies:

• 2024 assessment of the core of the protocol suite by Radically Open Security. An assessment of the remaining components is currently underway as of late October 2024.
• 2019 assessment of the protocol suite specifications by Include Security. All issues were addressed in the specs before starting the implementation of Awala Network.

We also expect to have the VPN audited once it’s ready.

User experience assessments

OTF commissioned a User Experience assessment in 2021, and all the issues were fixed shortly afterwards.