BloXroute (BLXR)

 Basics

• Started in:
• Mainnet release:
• Based in:
• From a spokesperson on Reddit (2-6-2020):

"bloXroute is building networking infrastructure to enable blockchains to scale - we are not our own blockchain. We like to say we operate at Layer 0, underneath blockchains, at the networking layer. Anyone can use our networking infrastructure, the  Blockchain Distribution Network (BDN), through open-source Gateways that are run and owned by the user."

• From their FAQ (1-6-2020):

"bloXroute solves the network scalability bottleneck by addressing the substantial time required for all nodes to synchronize when handling large volumes of TPS. Most importantly, bloXroute by design does this in a neutral way."

Token

Token allocation

• From a spokesperson on Reddit (2-6-2020):

"Regarding the BLXR, it is a security token (not to be confused with a utility token) and is equivalent to buying equity in our company. As such, we will release information in the future in line with what startups typically release with equity raises."

Utility

• From their blog (11-11-2019): "The BLXR token is a Security Token. It allows owners to receive dividends of bloXroute’s net revenues. BloXroute aims to create value for the blockchain ecosystem by unlocking transaction scale and in return captures a small amount that gets shared with the holders of the BLXR Security Token. This token has no use in bloXroute’s solution, but rather gives holders access to bloXroute’s revenues through a dividend."

Token Details

• From an interview with the CEO (19-9-2018)

"We don’t worry about competition because of our business model. We provide bloXroute for free to anyone, and we include a non-mandatory, opt-in option to pay us a tiny fraction of the mining fee (say US$0.0005 per transaction). In return, we remove the scalability bottleneck. It’s going to be hard for a competitor to offer something better than free.

Only 50 percent of the tiny payments I mentioned above will go to the company for operations and growth. The other 50 percent goes to a giant reserve of cryptocurrencies that that backs the BLXR, our security token. By allowing the ecosystem to invest in bloXroute through the BLXR token, we are able to give back a large portion of our revenues to the community."

Tech

• Whitepaper can be found [insert here].
• Code can be viewed here. But (4-9-2019) is not open sourcing 100%:

"bloXroute is designed to be completely open-sourced, however, some parts of the system must reach maturity prior to being opened-sourced.  The code that nodes will run on their machines will be open-source from day one. The code bloXroute will run on our own infrastructure will require time to be developed to a stage where we can safely share the code with the community.

Our internal codebase will always be slightly ahead of the open source codebase, but this is not to maintain an economic advantage. It is important to our security model that the backup networks are easy to set-up and use which takes additional effort. We also have the benefit that bloXroute as a company is forced to continuously innovate due to constantly open sourcing our codebase. Therefore, we are structurally incentivized to add new features quickly to make our network better, faster, and sharper."

• Built on: Ethereum
• Programming language used:

Transaction Details

• Capacity (TPS):
• Latency:

Roadmap

• Can be found [Insert link here].

Audits

• Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].

Competition

• From their FAQ (1-6-2020):

"How is bloXroute different from previous relay networks like Falcon and Fibre?

Previous relay networks are useful, but they suffer from two major flaws:

First, the relay networks have the power to censor wallets, blocks, miners and nodes, and to provide preferable or discriminatory service to different nodes.

Second, the relay networks operate under volunteer service and can be shutdown at any moment. For example, the Fast Relay Network (FRN) was a volunteer service that was operated by Matt Corallo for the benefit of the miner community for many years, until its support was abruptly stopped, and later replaced by FIBRE."

• From an interview with the CEO (19-9-2018)

"We don’t worry about competition because of our business model. We provide bloXroute for free to anyone, and we include a non-mandatory, opt-in option to pay us a tiny fraction of the mining fee (say US$0.0005 per transaction). In return, we remove the scalability bottleneck. It’s going to be hard for a competitor to offer something better than free."

Team, Funding, Partnerships, etc.

Team

• Full team can be found here (1-6-2020).
• Uri Klarman, CEO: "There are four co-founders, including myself. Professor Emin Gun Sirer is a leading crypto expert who had pivotal roles in characterizing the Nakamoto consensus, the DAO detection, and the aftermath. Professor Aleksandar Kuzmanovic is a net neutrality expert. Our CTO Soumya Basu is most well known for creating the Falcon Network, which has been operational in the Bitcoin network since 2016. I myself am in the final stage of my PhD in computer networks from Northwestern University."
• "Founded (19-9-2018) by a team of researchers and systems designers from Northwestern and Cornell universities, including the crypto expert Emin Gun Sirer"
• Emin Gun Sirer is not on their team page anymore as of 1-6-2020.
• Naval Ravikant; advisor
• Brooke Walter; leads marketing efforts 

Funding

• From their FAQ (1-6-2020):

"We are privately funded by Metastable, Flybridge, 1confirmation, FBG Capital, zk Capital, Kilowatt Capital, and a group of cryptocurrency veterans. We hope to distribute the ownership of bloXroute via the BLXR token to the general public in the future, in order to completely align the economic incentives of the entire crypto-space."

Partners 

• Is mentioned as a partner on Ontology's website (2-11-2020).