How HyperCycle Is Building the Internet for AI: A Deep Dive with Toufi Saliba | HackerNoon

In the fast-evolving world of artificial intelligence and blockchain, a critical question looms: who will build the infrastructure that allows AI to thrive independently, without centralized control? While many companies focus on human-centric applications, HyperCycle is quietly pioneering the Internet for AI agents—a decentralized, peer-to-peer network that lets AI systems communicate, transact, and evolve autonomously.

We spoke with Toufi Saliba, CEO of HyperCycle, to understand the technical vision, challenges, and breakthroughs behind this bold initiative. From enabling AI-to-AI collaboration to deploying the Advanced Node Factory Enclosure (ANFE) on the Base network, Saliba shares how HyperCycle aims to reshape the future of decentralized compute.

Interview: Toufi Saliba, CEO of HyperCycle

Ishan Pandey: Toufi, welcome to our “Behind the Startup” series. HyperCycle has been making waves in the AI and blockchain space. Could you start by sharing your journey and what led you to co-found HyperCycle?

Toufi Saliba: In 2002 I had my first exit in AI while I was kinda fresh out of school, then I had several failures and successes, all in all over 30% success rate as a deep technical founder is something I am super proud of. I have had a lot of admirations to computer scientists, developers and hackers and have worked nicely with so many of the brightest minds and gained certain expertise and authored several algorithms, protocols and method for communications between human and machines dates back with proofs to 2007. Fast forward, authored Toda/IP with Dann Toliver which enables true p2p and direct communication and value exchange without relying on intermediaries.

This was fondamental when I was asked shortly after the AGI sumit few years back in the computer history museum in Santa Clara, over 500 fabulous scientists showed up and resulted in strong desire to build AGI on Toda/IP and I was explicitely asked if I want to be involved and elected to lead the initiative by focusing on revenue and addressing a need fot every AI agent to communicate with others so it can either make more money every fraction of a second or get smarter. So ofc the rest us history and we all know how that led into major global trends into the space, notably with Google’s launch of A2A that expands our reach by over 40%, prior to that RCP from fabulous Anthropic and in parallel to all, super credible groups out of IEEE and lately from MIT with the Nanda protocol.

All of which helps tremendously in the soon to be known our civilizations biggest innovation, this enablement of the global brain we refer to as AGI is better be safe for many generations to come and this internet of AI addresses immediate needs while is geared towards the ultimate safe AI goal. Effectively, we have developed the network infrastructure that enables the Internet of AI (a secure p2p network for multi-agent systems), so homo-sapiens have progressed through their ability to communicate and collaborate, AI progression of intelligence requires the ability to communicate and collaborate.

Ishan Pandey: HyperCycle aims to create a decentralized network for AI-to-AI communication. What challenges in the current AI infrastructure are you addressing, and how does HyperCycle’s approach differ?

Toufi Saliba: AI used to operate in siloed environments prior to Hypercycle, by enabling AI to AI communication at unprecedented security by design which results into speed and scalability that are several orders of magnitude advancements to network communication and while remain interoperable, confidential and private. It is also agnostic approach, in fact every AI can participate without exception, open source, closed source, hybrid, you name it, it doesn’t matter. Furthermore, the unprecedented ability to enable true peer to peer, gave rise to zero dependency and autonomy, which subsequently was carefully designed into independent node factories that enable their owners to maximize their participation in the inevitable wealth creation.

We are empowering everyone to participate in this wealth creation that AI is and will continue to generate… this is all thanks to fabulous teams from around the world who worked diligently to build this highly secure, fully autonomous self replicating organism, we call it network factory which uses essential ingredients in the physical world that can not be defied, such as time, energy, and cryptographic proofs which are necessary and essential to produce its nodes. This not only advances the internet of AI, but it provides mechanisms for many to own those capabilities, in fact 1000s have been counted and over 600,000 node factories have been sold with the capability to produce 1024 nodes each. Hence over 600 million nodes are inevitable to exist in this world in a fully autonomous and decentralized setting. That is something that we take huge pride in and continue to work diligently to grow the community of owners and operators.

Ishan Pandey: The C.8 Flagship Program introduces the Advanced Node Factory Enclosure (ANFE) on the Base network. Can you elaborate on how ANFE enhances AI agent distribution and the significance of this move?

Toufi Saliba: The Advanced Node Factory Enclosure (ANFE) is initially being represented on the Base network. It enables a lot AI and software developers to benefit from this autonomy to distribute their software by dropping them into those enclosures. This also meand hughely beneficial to our existing node owners as they potentially and optionally get tons of stuff without having to pay for them because we continue to negotiate on their behalf. Currently supporting over 1,000 SMEs, 100,000 developers, and millions of users.

It offers cost-free access for developers, amplifies AI reach, and integrates with developments such as Google’s A2A protocol for interoperability. It was reported to us by some community members that it is above $2.5 billion in assets are going to be represented on Base. ANFE drives AI wealth creation, fosters inclusivity, and ensures scalable, resilient AI collaboration globally. The open secure enclosure of ANFE will see significant software components enclosed allowing the ANFE to facilitate advanced AI agents.

Ishan Pandey: With the 30-day snapshot and the 180-day rollout, how does HyperCycle plan to support early adopters, and what long-term benefits can they expect from participating in the C.8 program?

Toufi Saliba: On the 14th May we are running the script for the snapshot, every address that has set up a Node Factory prior to this snapshot will be used to have ANFE under that same address on Base. all at no additional cost and full participation in C.8. This will entail software enhancements to the ANFE and these enhancements are real world value with fundamental utility in the AI agent economy. The ANFE will then also produce these software licenses, unlocking 1024 of each software license that is adopting this model and you’d be surprised how many are loving this model we innovated and created from scratch over the years.

What HyperCycle is doing here is unprecedented, as not only does HyperCycle gain from this expansion to BASE and software licenses, but we are ensuring all of our early adopters (those who have Node factories) benefit with us, and we invite everyone to participate. After the 30 days you can still participate in C.8 but only as a partial participant, the cost for the ANFE with its enclosed software components will rise until by the end of C.8 (the 180 days) it will be referred to as c.8 fully loaded and therefore expected to have a full price.

Ishan Pandey: Security and decentralization are core to HyperCycle’s mission. How does the platform ensure secure peer-to-peer communication between AI agents without relying on traditional centralized systems?

Toufi Saliba: The main reason why we were picked for this project is because of unprecedented capabilities that we bring to the network communication stack and that’s Toda/IP although it took some extensive implementations to enable the AI to AI to collaborate securely even if they don’t know each other. This is expected to be the case over 99% of the times as millions of nodes will continue to grow to billions and trillions and not possible to expect them to be part of the same siloed trusted network. So having them to collabore will lead to emergence and non-stop evolutionary cycles.

Ishan Pandey: Toufi, thank you for sharing your insights. Looking ahead three to five years, what key technological or economic shifts do you anticipate in AI and web3, and how is HyperCycle positioning itself for those developments?

Toufi Saliba: We will continue being of service and doing that tiny little piece of the puzzle that is missing, or like many call it, it isn’t just a piece of the puzzle bure so the glue, so every one would continue to benefit from our existence as we continue to be the amplifiers for every AI on one enf to generate more revenue or get more intelligent. Both are needed and we shall continue to provide.

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