A recap of Marlin to date

“Change is the only constant” 

And changed we have, while keeping Marlin’s core principles very much intact. Since inception, it’s always been about Layer 0, the peer-to-peer (P2P) networking or distributed application architecture upon which all blockchains are built. This is crucial for securing decentralized communication networks and paving the way for Web 3.0, the future of the internet! 

So, what’s changed?

Quite a bit when it comes to Marlin. If you’ve been inquisitive enough, you would have already noticed some not so subtle statements and chats with our community on Telegram and Discord server, hinting about our impending launch, incentivised testnet, bandwidth farming, the FlowMint stakedrop and more. 

The cats out of the bag! 

Attention: Interested in participating in our incentivized testnet? Hop straight into our documentation to get started and make sure you’re on our discord server (note: this is for serious folk only)!

What we’ve been upto

We dropped Marlin for the uninitiated in February 2020 to get everyone up to speed with everything Marlin and what we’re trying to solve. Do give that a read if you haven’t already! Since then, a pandemic has affected the whole world (some more than others), completely changing the way we work. The team took to working remotely during these times while continuing to build! 

• Released Marlin Cache

We introduced Marlin Cache, a simple API to provide Web 2 like performance to dApps. Integration takes just 3 minutes with the Cache functioning as a drop in replacement for the Graph and Infura, reducing the 250ms-1.5 sec latencies incurred in blockchain API requests and improving user experiences! 

• Launched OpenWeaver

We released OpenWeaver, an open-source layer 0 framework for blockchain platforms. OpenWeaver allows operators to deploy relay networks in minutes; extends to any chain, is monetizable with micropayments, meta txns, provides a path towards full-node incentivization and above all is open to modification and deployment by anyone, anywhere. Check out our detailed article on OpenWeaver on our blog. For those looking to run a Marlin relay node, our Github has the necessary information to get you started, with the team at your disposal on our Discord channel for any queries. 

• The Build for India hackathon cum accelerator program

Teamed up with Binance, Ankr, Band Protocol, Matic Network and WazirX to launch the Build for Bharat Accelerator Program, an initiative by Polaris to help further innovation and drive adoption in the Indian blockchain ecosystem. We’re offering a sum of USD 20,000 to teams that use/augment Marlin for networking and/or build the ecosystem around it. 

• Showcased Marlin Cache at the ETHOnline Hackathon and Summit

We sponsored ETHGlobal’s biggest event of the year and showcased Marlin Cache, awarding $5000 in hack rewards to the best teams who built DeFI and NFT products over a 3-week hackathon! We also shared a workshop video covering why the Cache is needed, a live demo on how it works and the integration with the Graph and Infura which takes less than 3 minutes!

• New additions

Solving novel problems requires a unique team and we’ve made a couple of great additions on this front! 

Prateek, (previously researcher at the Ethereum Foundation) joined Marlin as a researcher and spends his time performing research and designing the various aspects of protocol like crypto economics, network topologies, payment mechanisms etc. that can improve the performance of blockchains at layer-0 while tolerating unpredictability and attacks in real world decentralized P2P networks.

More recently, Utsav, an ICPC world finalist joined Marlin and is working on the networking side of things - building a high-performance userspace networking stack, systems-level development, solving unique P2P networking problems and anything else he can get his hands on. 

We’re also actively hiring! Reach out to us directly to know more! 

• Technical updates

For those looking to check out our progress on the tech side of things, you can do so by looking at our monthly tech updates till June 2020 on our blog, post which we moved these updates to our forum, in order to separate our technical and general updates.

• Research & Design

We thought it might be interesting for the community to learn more about existing solutions to problems that slow down P2P communication or even worse, make them insecure. Our series on byzantine-resistant networking protocols features some high-quality papers that we feel are relevant. Our first post was on ODSBR, an on-demand secure Byzantine resilient routing protocol for wireless adhoc networks. Our second piece was on Secure Message Transmission (SMT), a protocol which aims to reliably propagate data on paths selected by a secure route discovery protocol in the presence of adversarial actors. We’ve created a research forum for those interested in taking the discussion forward (we also have a discord channel for research).

• Website revamp

A lot of thought has gone into our revamped website which caters to the technical and broader audience in preparation for things to come! We’d love to hear any constructive criticism which may help improve our communication! 

• Support and backing

We received incredible support as one of the 13 start-ups at Binance Labs’ Season 2 Incubation Program in 2019 leading to the closing of our $3 million seed round from Binance Labs, Arrington XRP Capital, Electric Capital and NGC Ventures.Setting apart the monetary benefits, support from some of the leading venture funds in the blockchain space provides Marlin with direct connections and networks across the industry, which is very much needed in our journey for adoption among blockchains. 

What’s next?

Well, our launch of course. It’s about time already (details will be shared soon). Excited? We definitely are! Stay tuned for more!

Follow our official social media channels to get the latest updates as and when they come out! 

Twitter | Telegram Announcements | Telegram Chat | Discord | Website