Todd Takes Helm at MARA Foundation's Slipstream Private Mempool Service

Peter Todd, a veteran Bitcoin Core contributor and advocate for permissive relay policies, has joined the MARA Foundation as lead maintainer of Slipstream, its private Bitcoin transaction-submission service. This move allows users to bypass Bitcoin's public peer-to-peer relay network and send transactions directly to MARA's mining pool.

Slipstream has gained attention for handling transactions that fall outside standard Bitcoin relay policies, including large Ordinals inscriptions and certain transaction formats used in BitVM-related experiments. Todd is known for his work on Libre Relay, BIP 125, and OpenTimestamps, and he sees Slipstream as a proving ground for experimental development and protocol innovation.

The service has been used to move funds from wallets affected by the Coldcard vulnerability, with over 10,000 BTC transferred using Slipstream. Todd's appointment comes as MARA positions Slipstream as infrastructure for Bitcoin research and development, including projects on quantum-resistant transactions and Binohash.