Come in and listen to my journey attempting to test Awala in the real world. After facing significant funding challenges and setbacks with my initial plans, I made the difficult decision to extend Awala's scope to incorporate a VPN, initially targeting China. The episode explores how this strategic shift, whilst definitely not ideal, could ultimately help fund crucial improvements to Awala's network whilst providing immediate value to users in censored regions. I also share insights about leveraging AI to accelerate development and the challenges of building technology for unpredictable Internet blackouts.

• Awala: https://awala.app/en/
• “Reach for the Stars: How Starlink Conquered Latin America”: https://blog.telegeography.com/reach-for-the-stars-how-starlink-conquered-latin-america
• “#KeepItOn STOP Data 2016-2023 [Public]”: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DvPAuHNLp5BXGb0nnZDGNoiIwEeu2ogdXEIDvT4Hyfk/edit
• "The DDoS Report": https://ddos.report/
• "Despacito: Rate limiting protocol to mitigate DDoS attacks": https://despacito.bot/
• "Awala: The computer network on which humankind can rely" on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41646782

Discuss this episode on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Awala/comments/1hghz1j/inside_awala_podcast_s00e04_trying_to_test_awala/