About Awala

The long-term goal of Awala (formerly known as Relaynet) is to complement the Internet by providing all human beings with uncensored and timely communication anywhere in the universe – without impairing the fundamental rights of other human beings. The first order of business is to establish connectivity in regions where the Internet is unavailable due to natural or human causes.

“Awala” means “sibling” in Wayuu (a native South American language), and it symbolises our goal to empower – not digitally colonise – all humankind.

Current status

The project is being incubated by Relaycorp – a mission-driven, open source company founded by the author of Awala, Gus Narea – for the sole purpose of supporting the network.

Awala has been fully operational on Android, Linux, macOS and Windows since 2021, but there are no compatible apps for the general public. We’re actively working to lower the barrier to adopt Awala, which includes building the first version of Letro.

Independent assessments

The Open Technology Fund has commissioned the following independent assessments:

• Security audit of the protocol suite (2019). All issues were addressed before starting the implementation of the protocol suite.
• User Experience (2021). The issues raised are tracked on GitHub.

As of Q4 2023, we’re requesting a security audit of the reference implementations, and we’re hoping to make the results available by mid 2024.