# What is Autonomi? **Autonomi combines the spare capacity of everyday devices to form a new, autonomous, permanent data storage layer of the Internet**. Real-time communication, mutable shared state, and collaboration are handled by x0x — a complementary post-quantum gossip network that shares the same transport and cryptography. It allows you to securely store data, build businesses, run services, and create new futures without the intervention of any middlemen or gatekeepers. It's designed to give people complete sovereignty over their personal data, yet still allow rich and scalable software platforms and user experiences to be built on top. ## Key features…


The Internet's Crowd Storage Layer	the-internets-crowd-storage-layer	Slide 16_9 - 6.png
Everything's Encrypted	everythings-encrypted	Slide 16_9 - 11.png
Lifetime Storage; One-Time Fee	lifetime-storage-one-time-fee	Slide 16_9 - 7.png
Built From Everyday Devices	built-from-everyday-devices	Slide 16_9 - 10.png
Private By Design	private-by-design	Slide 16_9 - 12.png
No Blockchain	blockchainless-data	Slide 16_9 - 9.png
Post-Quantum Secure	post-quantum-secure	Slide 16_9 - 13.png
Secure & Efficient	secure-and-efficient	Slide 16_9 - 14.png

## What it means… Decentralized, distributed, self-encrypted, and protected by post-quantum networking; it means security, privacy, and lifetime storage of the world's most precious data—including yours. The Network will give people autonomy over their digital lives, allowing them to participate in the connected economy, regardless of their location, status, or access to capital. It's designed for mass collaboration between humans, between machines, and between humans and machines—critically, without the distorting effects of endemic data insecurity, siloing of knowledge, inefficient markets, and limited accessibility. In order to do this, and accomplish it in a way suitable for human-scale use, Autonomi has been built from the first principle of secure and private data, and in such a way that the performance of the network scales with size. Not only is data de-duplicated and redundantly replicated, but it is self-encrypted on an end user's computer before upload, while the connections that move it across the network use NIST-standardised post-quantum cryptography (ML-KEM-768 for key exchange, ML-DSA-65 for signatures). That means the network never sees readable content, and the transport layer does not rely on classical cryptography.