What Is Marlin (POND)?

Marlin is a protocol for DeFi and Web3 that provides a high-performance and configurable network architecture. Marlin describes itself as a network marketplace where several relay networks compete to carry blocks for the identical blockchain. A relay network is a sort of network used to transport data between two devices that are too far apart to communicate data directly to each other.

Marlin is an open-source project that aims to scale peer-to-peer systems by improving node communication. Peer-to-peer refers to the direct trade of an asset between individuals without the participation of a centralized authority. The company intends to make Web3 experiences fast, trustworthy, and safe by reinventing the networking architecture behind blockchains.

The whitepaper mentions that blockchains are based on the public internet, described as an asynchronous, best-effort communication system with no assurances of reliable communication. Due to their centralized structure, decentralized systems are unable to use the strategies like the use of private lines, CDNs (content delivery network), and SD-WANs (software-defined wide-area networks). Thus, they accept the performance sacrifice imposed by the public internet as inevitable. Furthermore, block and transaction propagation in today's decentralized networks are incompatible because nodes become aware of the information and compete for the same rewards.

The company claims that Marlin is a safe solution for decentralized systems to use high-performance relay networks without sacrificing decentralization. In addition, Marlin offers higher throughput for blockchain platforms, fewer costs, faster finality, and better-performing decentralized cloud services. Moreover, users of the Marlin network (wallets, merchants, etc.) receive the most recent transactions and blocks from the blockchain platforms they are interested in. 

The token economy of Marlin includes POND and MPOND tokens. The native token of Marlin is "POND." POND is an ERC20 standard token. POND is utilized to delegate to Marlin nodes and reward them adequately operating the relay network. The networks incentives for relayer work via the subsidy pool are distributed in POND. If the relayer to whom POND is allocated does not follow the procedure, the relayer will be subject to cutting penalties. Marlin's governance and staking token are MPOND. MPOND can be used to make proposals and vote on them.

History of Marlin (POND)

Amol Agrawal, Josh Payne, Prateesh Goyal, Pratyaksh Sharma, Roshan Raghupathy, and Siddhartha Dutta are the team members that founded Marlin. Marlin was launched in 2018. The total supply of POND is ten billion coins.