Today, we are launching Harbor, a Layer 1 network with native asset vaults capable of custodying diverse assets, such as Bitcoin and its UTXO variants (Litecoin, Zcash), Ethereum and its respective L2s, Solana, and more. Harbor’s first application is a cross-chain order book, providing fast and efficient spot trading to service the burgeoning market of cross-chain swaps. The network employs a dual-actor marketplace to ensure fair pricing and execution for cross-chain swaps. Existing solutions are susceptible to the flaws of solver-based designs, where an “all-or-nothing” approach incentivizes solvers to price quotes ever-higher in the hopes of earning business, but are free to execute wherever they please within a wallet’s price tolerance (usually 3%). Harbor solves this problem by having two separate entities that are naturally opposed to one another: the central limit order book (CLOB) and a smart order router. The CLOB represents the interest of market makers: performant, programmatic trading APIs allow extremely tight pricing, usually within a single tick of the market’s best bid or ask, at meaningful size. The smart order router represents the interests of swappers: placing limit orders at exactly the quoted amount, allowing market makers to compete to fill at that price, or regressing the order down the book until it fills or refunds due to price tolerance. This design ensures that no single market maker is responsible for the execution quality of a swap. The swap is worked through the order book, ensuring the best possible pricing, utilizing liquidity provided by multiple makers, while preventing quotes higher than fillable orders. We believe Harbor’s design— a hybrid DEX securing custody through threshold signature vaults and a decentralized validator set, paired with a high performance matching engine for speed and execution, along with the ability to support other purpose built “subnets” utilizing its vaults— positions Harbor as the best L1 design capable of delivering neutral, efficient, decentralized, native asset rails. Follow us for more details about our upcoming plans, intro blog post, whitepaper and more.