The "Impossible Network" Becomes Reality as The Autonomi Foundation Awards $100,000 to the First Developers

18 years in the making, the "Impossible Network” is showing its first signs of life, aiming to make real the promise of an Internet free from corporate control.

AYRSHIRE, SCOTLAND, September 22, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Last week was a big landmark for The Autonomi Network which gave out $100,000 in awards to developers who successfully deployed the first applications on what was once dubbed the "Impossible Network". Autonomi is an autonomous network where data is permanent and private by design. It has no need for servers so it operates without traditional infrastructure, giving users full and complete power over their data. Data that is currently used, tracked and kept by a few large corporate players.


The Impossible Futures program wasn’t just a landmark in the ongoing development and growth of The Autonomi Network (now being run across more than 3 million nodes), it shows, without doubt, that there can be viable alternatives to Big Tech infrastructure. The winning applications from the Impossible Futures program included server-less messaging, permanent publishing, and sovereign data storage. These apps are functioning without ‘the cloud’ and have no need for the ‘rent back your data’ access model.

"Several decades ago we were told autonomous networks were infeasible" said David Irvine, who founded MaidSafe in Scotland in 2006. "Yet here we are. After 18 years, we’re now watching developers build applications that simply couldn't exist on today's web. No data liability. No big infrastructure requirements, not even any servers".

The Autonomi Network transforms spare capacity from ordinary devices into a permanent, encrypted, globally accessible data layer. Users pay once to store data forever, maintaining complete ownership, while developers build applications without managing infrastructure and thanks to self-encryption, they don’t need to handle users' information at all.

"We've become so accustomed to the surveillance economy that we've forgotten what software was like before it," said Jim Collinson, Chief Strategy Officer at MaidSafe. "Remember when you bought software and it just... worked for you? No ads cluttering the interface, no algorithms designed to keep you scrolling. Software only succeeded when you succeeded. That relationship is coming back, but better."

The twelve finalist projects, spanned messaging without servers, publishing without platforms, and AI assistants without privacy violations. Winners were selected based on technical merit and community votes. $40,000 from the $100,000 prize pool was also distributed to early supporters who backed, what transpired to be, the winning products.

While the team are quick to point out that Series 1 of Impossible Futures was an experimental prototype, designed to enable them to learn, adapt and improve the offer for developers, they have already committed to Series 2, which is due to go live later this year. “Our only focus as a non-profit is to support the scale and adoption of The Autonomi Network", said a representative of The Autonomi Foundation. "Autonomi is providing the fundamental foundation for the Internet to become decentralized, there is nothing more critical for the digital space, especially now”.

"Think of the internet as a huge postal system," Collinson explained. "Right now, a handful of companies own all the roads, the post boxes, your mail, even your address. What has been built with Autonomi is a return to protocols; open, transparent rules we all understand. If you don't like the service, you choose a different one. You don't lose your address or contact with your friends."

MaidSafe, the team behind Autonomi, has been developing The Network since 2006, funded through community support rather than venture capital, the team holds 33 patents on distributed computing technologies. The Autonomi Network officially launched ($ANT) in February 2025 after nearly two decades of development.

Impossible Futures Season 2 is planned for later in 2025, with details to be announced.

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