AS4224

AS4224 is the network of The Calyx Institute, a New York-based 501(c)(3) research and education nonprofit, registered under ARIN. Calyx was founded in 2010 by Nicholas Merrill — the founder of the 1990s ISP Calyx Internet Access and the first person to challenge the USA PATRIOT Act's National Security Letter statute — and the ASN itself dates to 1995, reflecting that legacy ISP heritage. This is lawful privacy infrastructure: Calyx is a member of the torservers.net network and runs Tor exit infrastructure, the CalyxVPN service, and the CalyxOS Android project. It is a very small BGP network — about 4 IPv4 prefixes, 1 IPv6, and a couple of peers (Cogent and Hurricane Electric). The framing that matters most for triage is the anonymity-endpoint caveat: AS4224 IPs are largely Tor exit and relay nodes, so traffic exiting a Calyx IP originates from anonymous Tor users rather than from Calyx itself, and per-IP attribution and geolocation are therefore unreliable. The well-known Tor-exit range 185.220.103.0/24 sits here. Calyx IPs may appear on Tor-exit DNSBLs and abuse lists precisely because they are exit nodes — that reflects anonymized third-party traffic, not Calyx conduct — so the page should be framed strictly neutrally. No sanctions or adverse law-enforcement findings exist; founder Merrill left Calyx in 2025 to found Phreeli, a privacy-focused cellular provider.

Operator

The Calyx Institute (ARIN OrgId THECA-92; tech contact Nicholas Merrill) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP

Country / RIR

US (Brooklyn, NY), ARIN [Confirmed]

Allocated

ASN RegDate 1995-01-09 (org RegDate 2010-09-10) [Confirmed] — ARIN

Org status

active; founder Merrill left in 2025 to found Phreeli [Confirmed]

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED, SOURCED — lawful privacy infra)

well-documented lawful privacy infrastructure. Appears in Tor relay datasets (Tor Project metrics, yui.cat) as a long-running exit-node host (~468.84 MB/s, 2 middle + 27 exit relays per yui.cat); a 2019 study of the longest-running Tor exit nodes included Calyx servers [Wikipedia, citing study]. IPs may appear on Tor-exit DNSBLs/abuse lists because they are exit nodes — reflects anonymized third-party traffic, not Calyx conduct. Announced a $1,000,000 #startsmall grant (Jack Dorsey) in Dec 2022. No sanctions or adverse LE findings — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calyx_Institute, calyxinstitute.org/news/2022

Network & routing

Network type

non-profit-privacy (lawful privacy/Tor infrastructure) [Confirmed]

Size

~4 IPv4 prefixes, 1 IPv6 — bgp.he.net (2026-06)

Routing/peering

~2–3 peers (Cogent AS174, Hurricane Electric AS6939), 1 IXe; RPKI partial (1 valid, IPv4) — bgp.he.net

Notable usage

NY 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded 2010 by Nicholas Merrill (first NSL challenger); torservers.net member; runs Tor exits, CalyxVPN, and CalyxOS; ASN dates to 1995 (legacy Calyx Internet Access) — calyxinstitute.org

Related ASNs

unknown

Analyst note

Lawful privacy infrastructure; AS4224 IPs are largely Tor exit/relay nodes. Traffic exiting a Calyx IP originates from anonymous Tor users, NOT Calyx — per-IP attribution and geolocation are unreliable. Notable Tor-exit range 185.220.103.0/24.