How and Where to Buy Marlin (POND) – Detailed Guide
- What is POND?
- Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
- Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
- Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
- Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
- Step 5: Trade POND
- Last Step: Store POND securely in hardware wallets
- Other useful tools for trading POND
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Latest News for POND
- POND Price Prediction and Price Movement
What is POND?
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.
Who Are the Founders of Marlin?
Marlin is the brainchild of developers Siddhartha, Prateesh and Roshan, all of whom have extensive experience in peer-to-peer networking.
Responsible for the development of Zilliqa, the first high-throughput blockchain to employ sharding in production, Siddhartha has had expexrience working at Microsoft and Adobe and is the author of the 2 US patents. Prateesh is a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a focus on Computer Networks and Roshan, an avid open-source enthusiast, was a contributor to the Boost C++ libraries.
The project employs former researchers at Ethereum Foundation, International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) world medallists and developers with experience at Facebook, Cisco and Bosch. It counts the former CEO of Bittorrent and professors at MIT and Princeton amongst its advisors including authors of seminal P2P papers such as Chord DHT. Marlin is backed by the likes of Binance Labs, Electric Capital and Michael Arrington.
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 Many Marlin Tokens Are There in Circulation?
There exist two tokens in the Marlin economy, MPOND and POND. MPOND has a total supply cap of 10,000 while POND is capped at 10,000,000,000. Conversion between the two tokens is facilitated via a bridge which returns 1,000,000 POND when sent 1 MPOND and vice-versa. Initially, 4,623 MPOND and 3,184,000,000 POND are created with POND primarily distributed amongst validators and the community. These numbers may vary over time due to conversions via the bridge. Every Marlin Metanode is required to stake MPOND and receives POND in the form of staking rewards.
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.
How Can I Earn Marlin (POND)?
As a layer-0 project and true to its community ideals, MPOND is distributed amongst stakers of different layer-1 platform tokens via a mechanism called FlowMint. POND can thus be earned by converting such MPOND to POND via the bridge in addition to staking MPOND towards Marlin Metanodes which receive POND in staking rewards.
POND was first tradable on 22nd Dec, 2020. It has a total supply of 8,087,375,977. As of right now POND has a market capitalization of USD $259,850,660.35. The current price of POND is $0.0260 and is ranked 197 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 21.06 percent at the time of writing.
POND has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying Bitcoin from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy POND.
Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, Bitcoin (BTC). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.
Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:
- UpHold
Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:
- Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
- Currently more than 7M users worldwide
- You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
- Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
- No hidden fees and any other account fees
- There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
- You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
- USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.
You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.
Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.
Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.
Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose Bitcoin, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.
Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
Select altcoin exchanges:
- Gate.io
- Binance
But we are not done yet, since POND is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that POND can be traded, here we will use Gate.io as our exchange. Gate.io is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Gate.io is an American cryptocurrency exchange that launched 2017. As the exchange is American, US-investors can of course trade here and we recommend US traders to sign up on this exchange. The exchange is available both in English and Chinese (the latter being very helpful for Chinese investors). Gate.io’s main selling factor is their wide selection of trading pairs. You can find most of the new altcoins here. Gate.io also demonstrates an impressive trading volume. It is almost every day one of the top 20 exchanges with the highest trading volume. The trading volume amounts to approx. USD 100 million on a daily basis. The top 10 trading pairs on Gate.io in terms of trading volume usually have USDT (Tether) as one part of the pair. So, to summarize the foregoing, Gate.io’s vast number of trading pairs and its extraordinary liquidity are both very impressive aspects of this exchange.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Gate.io and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Gate.io!
Now go back to Gate.io and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Gate.io once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase POND!
Step 5: Trade POND
Go back to Gate.io, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "POND", you should see POND/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of POND/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy POND", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy POND". Voila! You have finally bought POND!
But we are not done yet, since POND is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that POND can be traded, here we will use Binance as our exchange. Binance is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Binance is a popular cryptocurrency exchange which was started in China but then moved their headquarters to the crypto-friendly Island of Malta in the EU. Binance is popular for its crypto to crypto exchange services. Binance exploded onto the scene in the mania of 2017 and has since gone on to become the top crypto exchange in the world. Unfortunately, Binance does not allow US investors so we recommend you to sign up on other exchanges we recommend on this page.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Binance and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Binance!
Now go back to Binance and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Binance once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase POND!
Step 5: Trade POND
Go back to Binance, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "POND", you should see POND/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of POND/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy POND", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy POND". Voila! You have finally bought POND!
Last Step: Store POND securely in hardware wallets
Ledger Nano S
- Easy to set up and friendly interface
- Can be used on desktops and laptops
- Lightweight and Portable
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
Ledger Nano X
- More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
- Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
- Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
- Larger screen
- More storage space than Ledger Nano S
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your POND for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.
Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I buy POND with cash?
There is no direct way to buy POND with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase BTC, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your BTC to respective AltCoin exchanges.
LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.
Are there any quick ways to buy POND in Europe?
Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.
Are there any alternative platforms to buy POND or Bitcoin with credit cards?
Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.