Traded publicly Marathon, a “platform built on the Bitcoin network that allows for the creation of multiple sidechains,” started fostering Anduro in February. According to an email notification shared on Wednesday, the project is being renamed Portal to Bitcoin in conjunction with its integration with the DEX network, a financial service based in San Francisco.
The startup, which was once known as Portal, earned $34 million in a seed round in March. It uses the Bitcoin layer-2 network Lightning to enable users to exchange cryptocurrencies on multiple blockchains between peers using a process called atomic swaps, which allows users to convert assets like Ethereum into Bitcoin.
On other blockchains and amongst Ethereum-based assets, this kind of behaviour is standard, but it is a relatively new development on Bitcoin. Marathon’s engagement in Anduro stems from the possibility that it may offer miners additional revenue streams in addition to enhancing the usefulness of Bitcoin.
Through a technique known as merge-mining, miners on Anduro’s sidechains can continue to mine bitcoin on the base layer while earning revenue in Bitcoin from transactions that take place on these chains.