As we begin the third month of the year, we are pleased to share a number of updates with you from February and to follow up to our 12.12 announcement! On 12.12, we introduced the key components that form the foundation of our Web4 vision. As we move forward, we remain focused on bringing that vision to life and simplifying our product offerings, making for a more cohesive and accessible experience for anyone entering the ThreeFold ecosystem.

🔗Zero OS V4 Development

Zero OS 4 Development Version is ready, and 3Nodes are actively being deployed. We are missing some tooling around it, right now you need to be comfortable with using command line tools. We will have a more seamless integration in TF Connect (our mobile app) soon.

Please note that the initial v4 nodes will be reserved exclusively for testing and development of v4 for an initial period of time (length to be determined). Rewards will be maintained throughout this testing period and are defined on our partners’ websites.

If you haven’t already, you can order a v4 3Node from either DuckFarmData (Americas) or HostService (Rest of World)!

🔗3Phone

We are happy to announce the first devices have arrived, and we will be working closely with early adopters to refine the experience. The 3Phones are based on the secure Volla platform, which has a lot of great features and is usable as-is. Through Mycelium, we are adding decentralized Network, Mail, Messaging, Documents, and Calendar to the platform; this is expected to become available to our early adopters Q2.

If you want to be part of the first to have a 3Phone, pre-order yours here, and help shape the future of decentralized communication!

🔗3Router

We’re designing the 3Router as a key piece of our decentralized network, seamlessly integrating our Mycelium technology to provide secure, peer-to-peer connectivity. This router will empower users to contribute to a more resilient, people-owned Internet.

To bring the 3Router to life, we’re first measuring community interest. As outlined in our documentation, we’ll begin production once we reach 10,000 pre-registrations. If you’re excited about decentralized networking and want to be part of this movement, you can pre-register here.

🔗Simplifying the ThreeFold Open Source Cloud

We are proud of how the ThreeFold Cloud has evolved over the years into a powerful and versatile solution for running decentralized cloud workloads. However, to drive broader adoption, we recognize the need for greater clarity and simplicity in how we present and deliver our offerings.

In our simplification, we will focus on three core services:

• Virtual Machines for running applications efficiently
• Web Gateways to provide seamless connectivity between the Internet and your Virtual Machines
• Mycelium as the network layer, enabling secure and scalable connectivity

By streamlining our product offering, we aim to make the cloud more accessible and easier to understand. This shift will be supported by a simplified dashboard and improved documentation, ensuring users can onboard and deploy with ease.

The rest of the features and capabilities will be moved to a separate solution tentatively called “Labs,” where users can continue to test and experiment.

🔗Mycelium – Now With Enhanced Decentralized Features

Mycelium is an end-to-end encrypted overlay network designed for secure, scalable, and resilient networking, and plays an essential role in the Web4 vision. While Mycelium has already been introduced, it will be greatly expanded this year. Lately, the team’s efforts have been focused on stability and upcoming work is planned around scalability.

What Mycelium Offers Today:

• Smart Routing: Ensures optimal speed and efficiency
• End-to-End Encryption: Keeps all communications private and secure
• Resilient Networking: Automatically reroutes in case of a link failure
• Decentralized Identity: Every node’s IPv6 address is linked to a private key
• Multi-Protocol Support: Works with QUIC, TCP, and more (NAT hole-punching coming soon)
• TUN-less Operation: Functions as a secure message bus without modifying system settings

Currently, Mycelium supports up to 100,000 users per network, and we continue to enhance its scalability. It’s already live on the ThreeFold Grid and available for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux.

What’s Next for Mycelium? In the future, Mycelium will enable:

• Secure, decentralized communication (chat, mail, …)
• Encrypted video calls and messaging
• AI Agents and AI-optimized data pipelines for advanced computing integration
• Decentralized CDN functionality for efficient global content delivery
• Integrated name services (DNS) to improve routing and load balancing

These enhancements will make Mycelium an essential tool in building a resilient, scalable, and efficient Web4 ecosystem.

Download Mycelium now! Check the Mycelium website & documentation. Feel free to give your feedback on the forum or the chat.

🔗Introducing AIBox – Your Personal AI Powerhouse

AI is transforming the world, but centralized AI infrastructure comes with high costs, privacy concerns, and lack of control. AIBox is a high-performance, self-hosted AI compute device that puts the power back in your hands.

Why AIBox? Unlike traditional AI hardware, AIBox allows you to regain your investment by renting out unused GPU capacity. This enables AI enthusiasts, developers, and researchers to fund their own AI projects in a sustainable way while maintaining full control of the hardware.

AIBox Capabilities:

• Run AI Models with Full Control:
  • Execute AI models directly on your dedicated GPU.
  • Choose which models can run on your AIBox.
  • Reserve 100% of your GPU for your own workloads when needed.
• Rent Out Virtual Machines (CloudSlices):
  • Slice your hardware into up to 8 Virtual Machines.
  • Allocate 0, 1, or 2 GPUs per VM with no oversubscription.
  • Manage access permissions for connected users.
• Lightweight, Secure, and Flexible VM Environments:
  • VMs include a minimal OS with Docker (Podman) support.
  • Each VM is securely connected via Mycelium.
  • Pre-built Docker images allow quick deployment.
  • Supports native Docker images and flights.
  • Web gateways enable external VM connections.

More details on AIBox will be shared in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, you can explore the website and documentation and provide your feedback.

Pre-register for your AIBox here.

Note: Our team has created the vision, but to fully realize this project, we will need its own dedicated team. We’re providing funding and looking for a Lead with growth hacking expertise, a Growth Hacker, and a Channel Specialist to drive it forward. If you are interested, please get in touch with the team through the forum, Telegram Chat, or by email (info@threefold.io).

The Web4 Vision Grows: The Web4 journey continues! In December we announced v4 3Node, 3Phone, and 3Router and today we have introduced two more elements to the picture. You can start to see how the vision is coming to life:

• 3Nodes and AIBoxes provide much-needed resources to power the grid
• Mycelium serves as the end-to-end network connecting us all
• 3Routers form an unbreakable network by running Mycelium
• 3Phones serve as our secure access points into the ecosystem

🔗Community Expansion: On the Ground @ ETH Denver

Last week, some of the team attended the ETH Denver conference last week, one of the biggest gatherings of the Web3 and DePIN communities. Florian took the stage twice on panels discussing the current state of DePIN and beyond this, the team was busy meeting other projects and investors and even installed a 3Node in the data center of a potential future collaborator. We’ll share a more detailed update soon.

🔗Looking Ahead

This week:

• Kristof and Florian continue their on the ground efforts at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the largest and most influential connectivity event in the world

This month:

• We will be posting follow-up videos and demos regarding these updates
• We have a couple of announcements regarding an exciting collaboration in the DePIN space
• The team continues to work on Web4 components to bring us closer to our vision of a decentralized, private, and secure, agent-centric Internet.

Thanks for your time to read this update and be sure to leave your feedback.