Community Review: Alleged Relay Operator Rule Violations | 1.01

Proposal Overview

Anyone Protocol relies on relay operators to maintain a decentralized, reliable, and fair network. All operators are expected to adhere to the same standards to preserve the integrity of the protocol and its incentive mechanisms.

The following concerns raised by community members regarding unusual relay activity, this proposal initiates a formal governance review of the operator associated with the wallets identified below.

This proposal does not presume that the operator has violated protocol rules. Its purpose is to present the investigation findings, provide an opportunity for supporting or contradicting evidence to be considered, and allow the community to determine an appropriate outcome through governance.

Operator Identification

The relays under review are associated with the following wallets:

Wallet 1:
0xa39adc1052d46dbde0131a1ab0d50e5458dccfd0
Wallet 2:
0x4be56415d34893b39a6bbaa574dd6c626d77e14c

The operator has confirmed control of both wallets.

Background and Investigation Findings

Following reports from multiple community members, the Anyone team investigated a group of exit relays displaying unusually high consensus weights compared with others operating on similar infrastructure.

Several relays recorded consensus weights between 100,000 and 160,000, with individual values subsequently reaching approximately 200,000.

Technical analysis identified significant discrepancies between independently measured throughput and the observed bandwidth reported by these relays.

Our analysis also identified a recurring pattern of short, high-volume traffic bursts that appear to inflate the relays' observed bandwidth values. These elevated values are subsequently reflected in their consensus weights, with the pattern repeating over time.

The behavior appeared achievable through standard relay software without requiring modified binaries.

These findings suggest deliberate bandwidth inflation rather than genuinely higher sustained relay performance and raised concerns that the network's bandwidth-scoring mechanism was being exploited to obtain disproportionately high relay scores and potentially disproportionate reward allocations.

In response, the Anyone team introduced a 50,000 consensus weight cap for relay scoring as an initial protective measure, limiting the immediate impact of inflated weights while further bandwidth measurement improvements are developed.

Compliance With Relay Operator Standards

Beyond the bandwidth scoring concerns, the investigation identified a potential violation of Anyone's published Relay Operator Standards.

Under the Relay Family and Size guidelines, the documentation explicitly states: "Relay families must share a singular EVM wallet (this will be enforced by the rewards protocol)."

The guidelines also require relays operated by the same individual or organization to declare their family relationships through the MyFamily configuration.

Our investigation found that relay family declarations associated with one of the identified wallets included relays registered under the other wallet. The operator has since explicitly confirmed ownership of both wallets.

This raises a separate compliance concern, as relays belonging to the same declared family are required to share a single EVM wallet under the published standards.

The relevant family declarations and wallet registrations should be considered as supporting evidence when assessing this potential breach.

Operator Response

The operator was contacted and given an opportunity to explain the identified activity.

In their response, the operator confirmed ownership of both wallets and attributed the unusual traffic patterns to stress testing for an AI application being developed on the Anyone Network.

According to the operator, these tests were intended to evaluate the capacity of their own relays under anticipated application traffic.

These concerns should be considered alongside the operator's explanation, as the investigation does not conclusively establish intent.

Proposed Action

This proposal asks governance participants to determine whether the operator associated with the identified wallets should be excluded from participation in the Anyone Network.

If approved, the Anyone operating team would be authorized to take the following actions:

• Pause relay rewards associated with the identified wallets following approval of the proposal.

• Proceed with removing the operator's associated relays from the Anyone Network, implementing the necessary technical and operational measures.

• Maintain the exclusion unless reinstatement is approved through a subsequent governance vote.

The operator will retain the opportunity to initiate a new governance proposal seeking reinstatement. Any reinstatement would require community approval through the applicable governance process.

The team will document the enforcement measures implemented, including the distinction between reward suspension, removal from the operator registry, and network-level exclusion.

Community Evidence and Discussion

Governance participants and community members are encouraged to submit additional supporting evidence alongside their vote, in the community Telegram group.

Submissions may include relay fingerprints, bandwidth measurements, network statistics, historical activity, technical analysis, or other verifiable information. Where possible, evidence should include source links and timestamps to allow independent verification.

The purpose of this process is to ensure that enforcement decisions are informed by transparent evidence rather than speculation or unsubstantiated allegations.

Quorum and Voting Conditions

This proposal follows the established Anyone Protocol governance framework, with a quorum requirement of: 1,000,000 Voting Power (VP)

For the proposal to be considered valid and approved, total voting participation must reach at least 1,000,000 VP, and the number of For votes must exceed the number of Against votes.

Proposal Summary

By voting For, participants approve:

• Pausing relay rewards associated with the identified operator wallets.

• Proceeding with the removal of the operator's associated relays from the Anyone Network.

• Maintaining the exclusion unless the operator successfully seeks reinstatement through a subsequent community governance vote.

By voting Against, participants reject:

• The proposed suspension of rewards and removal of the identified operator's relays under the circumstances presented in this proposal.

A vote Against does not reverse the general bandwidth-scoring improvements already introduced.

By voting Abstain, participants register their participation without expressing support for or opposition to the proposed action.