Marathon’s Layer-2 Chain, Anduro, Plugs In ‘Portal to Bitcoin’ for Atomic Swaps

Anduro, a multi-chain layer-2 network incubated by bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), has incorporated the decentralized exchange (DEX) network Portal to Bitcoin – formerly known simply as Portal – with the goal of enhancing utility on the world’s oldest blockchain network.

Publicly-traded Marathon began incubating Anduro in February as a “platform built on the Bitcoin network that allows for the creation of multiple sidechains.”

The integration with a San Francisco-based fintech provider DEX network coincides with a renaming of the project to Portal to Bitcoin, according to an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk on Wednesday.

The company formerly known as Portal raised a $34 million seed round in March, and uses the Bitcoin layer-2 network Lightning to allow users to convert assets like ETH into BTC by the use of atomic swaps – peer-to-peer transactions where cryptocurrencies can be exchanged on different blockchains.

Such practice is commonplace between Ethereum-based assets and on other blockchains, but is a far more recent development on Bitcoin.

As well as introducing greater utility to Bitcoin, Anduro may present an opportunity for further revenue streams for miners; hence Marathon’s involvement.

Anduro’s sidechains use a process called merge-mining, whereby participating miners could earn Bitcoin-denominated revenue from transactions that occur on these chains while continuing to mine bitcoin on the base-layer.