Marathon Digital, a major player in the crypto mining industry, is making a foray into Bitcoin scaling with its newly announced multichain layer-2 network, Anduro. In a blog post on February 28, the company unveiled its scaling platform, which aims to accelerate the development and adoption of Bitcoin. Anduro is designed to serve as an application layer that promotes innovation within the Bitcoin ecosystem by allowing the creation of multiple sidechains.
The programmable layer-2 network is focused on integrating decentralized governance and aims to become the most reliable and developer-centric Bitcoin layer-two platform, according to Marathon Digital. While the company has played a role in incubating Anduro, it emphasized that the network is intended to be community-led and driven.
Marathon Digital also announced that it is currently working on two initial sidechains for Anduro: Coordinate and Alys. Coordinate offers a cost-effective UTXO stack for the Ordinals community, while Alys is an Ethereum-compatible sidechain designed for institutional asset tokenization.
Anduro employs a unique system called merge-mining, which allows miners like Marathon to earn revenue from transactions on the Anduro sidechains while continuing to mine Bitcoin.
Governance on Anduro is facilitated by a diverse consortium of Bitcoin-oriented entities known as the Collective, as outlined in the Litepaper. However, this governance structure will eventually be phased out in favor of trustless alternatives once they are ready for production.
Fred Thiel, Chairman and CEO of Marathon, expressed the company’s commitment to supporting innovation in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including projects like Anduro. Thiel stated, “We believe in testing, iterating, and letting the market decide what ideas succeed. Anduro is one of those ideas that provides value to Bitcoin holders and application developers, all while reinforcing the long-run sustainability of Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work.”
Marathon’s next step is to attract influential and aligned partners who are willing to invest in the forefront of Bitcoin adoption, as stated in the Litepaper.
In recent weeks, there has been a surge of interest in Bitcoin layer-2 solutions and tokens for projects that scale Bitcoin or offer additional functionalities such as smart contracts. This trend has been fueled by the excitement surrounding the Ordinals and BRC-20 narratives in 2023, following Bitcoin’s surge to new multi-year highs.
Overall, Marathon Digital’s venture into Bitcoin scaling with Anduro marks a significant development in the industry, with the potential to drive innovation and adoption within the Bitcoin ecosystem.