Todd Takes Helm of Slipstream Amid Growing Use of Private Mempools

Peter Todd, a seasoned contributor to Bitcoin Core, has taken over as the head maintainer of MARA's Slipstream. This service redirects transactions to MARA Pool without going through the public peer-to-peer network.

Todd brings extensive experience in transaction relay and fee policy to this role. He worked on developing BIP 125, which introduced opt-in replace-by-fee, and created Libre Relay, a modified version of Bitcoin Core with relaxed relay rules.

Slipstream was initially designed for large or non-standard transactions, but it has also been used in emergency situations, such as the Coldcard recovery. Todd noted that private mempools can have real-world consequences, citing the example of keeping a transaction out of public view to prevent an attacker from stealing funds.

Slipstream allowed users to bypass the normal relay path and conduct transactions directly through MARA Pool, which adheres to Bitcoin's principles and fee requirements. The service has also been used for experimental transactions, including StarkWare's first quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction, which reached mainnet via Slipstream after failing to go through the standard mempool route.