Bridging a billion users to Polkadot with our latest partner, Pontem Network
Pinknode is racing full steam ahead towards becoming the much-needed intermediary architecture linking dApp developers to Polkadot’s budding Web 3.0 architecture. In our pursuit of expanding Polkadot’s infrastructure support, we are delighted to announce that we are forming a partnership with Pontem who is building a bridge to the Facebook-backed Diem Blockchain.
Bridging Facebook’s Diem
Backed by the Swiss NPO Wings Foundation, Pontem Network was founded in November 2020 and recently raised a $4.5M round. Pontem will be a permission-less version of Facebook’s Diem, enabling global entrepreneurs to experiment with new ideas and give Diem users access to all the use-cases provided by the decentralized metaverse.
Pontem successfully delivered all milestones for a coveted Web3 Foundation grant by building a Move MV Pallet. This enables any Polkadot Parachain to quickly and easily add compatibility for the upcoming Diem Blockchain and to develop products that could be later integrated with the Facebook ecosystem of applications.
Their development team possesses the expertise of the Dfinance team, which has the distinction of being the first-ever project to integrate the new and popular Move VM into existing blockchains. This gives them considerable growth potential as the Move VM is a new technology adored by crypto-developers for its potential 3.1 billion audience reach and water-tight security.
Pontem and Pinknode are joining forces to improve Polkadot’s intermediary infrastructure to benefit dApp developers. In Pontem’s case, it is aiming to become the definitive Polkadot-based bridge for the highly regulated and permissioned Diem. It is for this reason that Pinknode is proud to announce that it will be cementing a partnership with Pontem Network. Pinknode has been chosen as the primary infrastructure provider for Pontem, and will be responsible for providing Pontem with all its customised API endpoints. Pinknode is grateful for Pontem’s conviction that Pinknode’s API customisation and proprietary nodes are of exceptional quality.
“We are excited about collaborating with another project that is aligned to our goals, allowing us both to achieve our full potential. With Pinknode acting as our primary infrastructure provider, their reliable and secure API endpoints will be a key building block to completing our joint goal of improving Polkadot’s current infrastructure, while also allowing us to work towards our goal of becoming the experimentation network for Diem. We look forward to what this partnership will bring.”
Boris Povod, Founder, Pontem
Pontem’s vision is to establish itself as the leading experimentation network for the Diem Blockchain, thus essentially becoming not only a bridge for liquidity but also a “Kusama for Diem”. This dovetails perfectly with Pinknode’s ability to connect dApps to the current Kusama network using highly efficient, customised Pinknode-powered code. The existing Kusama blockchain has gained a reputation for being fertile grounds for cultivating early stage startups, experimentation with innovative creations and incubating fledgling dApps before deploying them on Polkadot. This is thanks to its low barriers to entry, more forgiving slashing penalties, speedier iterations and up-to-date technology. Pontem’s journey to achieve the Kusama business model for Diem is nothing short of ambitious-which is why Pinknode is honored to help it make this vision a reality.
“In light of our synergies as infrastructure projects on Polkadot, Pinknode applauds Pontem for its mission to build a bridge to Diem’s permissioned blockchain and potentially onboarding billions of users. Collaborating with Pontem will allow Pinknode to do what it does best-providing dApp developers the infrastructural support they need to expand the revolutionary potential of Polkadot’s cross-chain interoperability.”
Eric Poh, Co-Founder of Pinknode
To celebrate this partnership, inform the community, and garner attention for all the potential these two projects bring to the blockchain space, Pontem and Pinknode will be hosting an AMA on their respective Telegrams on July 23rd at UTC 1:00 PM. The AMA will last an hour and a half and will cover topics respective to each project.
Connect to the AMA on Pontem’s Telegram to ask questions and learn more about their project, and connect to the AMA on Pinknode’s Telegram to ask questions and learn more about their Polkadot node infrastructure.
About Pinknode
Pinknode is a Polkadot-only Infrastructure-as-a-Service project with the goal of accelerating adoption and empowering innovators to create the most promising Web 3.0 meta protocol. By providing API endpoints through a streamlined onboarding process and maintaining secure, reliable and scalable node infrastructure, Pinknode helps innovators jumpstart development quickly and accelerates product life cycles.
About Pontem
Pontem is building a bridge to connect the Diem Blockchain to the decentralized ecosystem of public permissionless blockchains like Ethereum via Polkadot. This will expose Facebook’s 2.7 billion users to any crypto use-case, from decentralized finance (DeFi) to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). With Pontem Network and development platform, users can build and test apps on Polkadot and other popular blockchains before migrating their products to the Diem Blockchain.
The Pontem Network is a Polkadot Substrate-based chain that functions as an incentivized testnet for Facebook’s Diem Blockchain. Using Polkadot, the project introduces creators to Diem’s potential and gives them the ability to validate ideas before submitting an application to the Diem Association for migration. By utilizing cross-chain bridges, Pontem also taps into the established liquidity, data and tooling of other networks.
Pontem’s vision is to establish itself as the leading experimentation network for the Diem Blockchain, thus essentially becoming not only a bridge for liquidity, but also a “Kusama for Diem.” This dovetails perfectly with Pinknode’s ability to connect dApps to the current Kusama network using highly efficient, customised Pinknode-powered code. The existing Kusama blockchain has gained a reputation for being fertile grounds for cultivating early stage startups, experimentation with innovative creations and incubating fledgling dApps before deploying them on Polkadot. This is thanks to its low barriers to entry, more forgiving slashing penalties, speedier iterations and up-to-date technology. Pontem’s journey to achieve the Kusama business model for Diem is nothing short of ambitious — which is why Pinknode is honored to help it make this vision a reality.
