Marlin

What Is Marlin (POND)?

Marlin is an open protocol that provides a high-performance programmable network infrastructure for DeFi and Web 3.0. The nodes in the Marlin network, called Metanodes, operate the MarlinVM which provides a virtual router interface for developers to deploy customized overlays and perform edge computations.

Notable overlays that can be built using MarlinVM include: * Low-latency block multicast to scale blockchains * Low-latency mempool sync for arbitrageurs * Mesh networks * Anonymity networks like mixnets * Device optimization and caching responses of API to Infura, Alchemy etc

Its native utility token POND is used for: * Running validator nodes on the network via staking * Making and voting on governance proposals to determine how network resources are allocated * Determining a set of network performance auditors and compensating users from an insurance fund in case of a SLA breach

Marlin aims to deliver on the promise of a decentralized web where applications secured via the blockchain are indistinguishable in terms of performance to users accustomed to Web 2.0.

Marlin is on a mission to make web 3 experiences fast, trustless and secure. Committed to open standards, Marlin redefines scalability, resiliency, and decentralization at layer 0 by reimagining the networking architecture underneath blockchains.

Our mission is to advance the state of peer-to-peer communication systems, to power the blockchain platforms, protocols, and applications of the future. We believe efficient network protocols are key to achieving planet-scale decentralized networks. We believe privacy and anonymity are core primitives that need to be built into the network layer. By building such technology, we can improve the privacy and performance of all blockchains.

We have assembled a team of world-class experts on networks and distributed systems, but Marlin is not a conventional company. We believe that the true promise of decentralized systems is realized when all the stakeholders have incentives aligned towards the progress of the entire ecosystem. Marlin is a community of developers and experts with the mission of making blockchain technology robust and efficient for everyone.

What Makes Marlin Unique?

Marlin is one of the few layer-0 projects focussed on network layer optimizations. Similar to Filecoin which is incentivized IPFS, Marlin claims to be the equivalent of an incentived libp2p. This makes Marlin ubiquitous in the decentralized web as any peer-to-peer application relies on networking between distributed nodes to function.

Marlin is thus blockchain-agnostic. It offers gateways built for several layer-1 as well as layer-2 platforms. Unlike several other scaling solutions which suffer from the scalability trilemma where either one of performance, decentralization or security is sacrificed, improvements in the network layer are not subject to such constraints which primarily govern consensus layers.

How Is the Marlin Network Secured?

Built atop Ethereum, the correctness of execution of the Marlin smart contracts is protected by the network of Ethereum nodes.

In addition- * The Marlin network consisting of Metanodes risk having their staked MPOND and delegated POND being slashed if the network faces DDoS and spam attacks due to their failure to verify content that they introduce into the network. * Not unlike Proof-of-Work, the network uses tunable redundancy via erasure coding to ensure users receive performance and availability guarantees with the SLAs they demand and are proportionately charged for it. * A network of third-party auditors with probes across the globe, pre-approved by the Pond DAO, provide constant performance and coverage monitoring for applications that demand higher reliability. An insurance fund backed by the DAO is used to compensate users who incur a loss due to the network’s inability to meet its SLA guarantees.