The Mantamari Private Transaction Testnet on Substrate
Since Manta and Calamari (MantaMari) Network first started as a project, we’ve been working hard on building privacy for the entire Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem. A common misconception is that MantaMari is deploying privacy tokens, much like ZCash or Monero. That’s not true.
Instead, we’re building a technology that allows a user to privatize any parachain asset including DOT and KSM. This means that $MANTA (Manta Network’s native token) and $KMA (Calamari Network’s native token) are not privacy coins — they are public by default, just like any other parachain asset. And just like any parachain asset, they can be privatized through Mantamari’s parachain.
Building a technology like this, which uses zero-knowledge proofs to offer privacy and the Substrate framework to enable interoperability across various parachains, isn’t simple. It requires specialized knowledge on both the cryptography end as well as the ability to learn, adapt, and continue executing within a new and blossoming ecosystem.
That’s why today, the core team is so excited to announce the availability of our public testnet, Dolphin.
Using Dolphin Testnet
In its current state, there are three main components to interacting with Dolphin Testnet, as described below. Specific information and details can be found in our documentation page.
1. The Dolphin Signer (Download for Mac OS)
The Dolphin Signer (currently available for Mac OS; available for Windows and Ubuntu soon) is a local signer that users use to privatize transactions through Manta Network.
This signer is designed to be local to protect your transaction data and secrets, while also generating the zero-knowledge proof in the most performant manner possible using local code. The Dolphin Signer runs entirely locally, meaning it will never communicate with any remote servers or devices; in other words, the zero-knowledge proof generation can be done without an Internet connection. Furthermore, the code for the signer is open source and fully audited.
The team is designing systems for ZKP-generation that will not require a local installation in the future, and will release that once it is available. For now, the local installation is the most secure option, and required for interaction with Dolphin Testnet.
2. The Faucet for Obtaining Tokens
Because Dolphin is a testnet, you can imagine it as its own enclosed ecosystem, simulating the actual Polkadot/Kusama ecosystems. In other words, the actual Polkadot/Kusama parachain tokens won’t work on Dolphin — for good reason; since Dolphin is a testnet, something may still go wrong, and if that happens, we certainly don’t want you to lose any real tokens. So our solution is simple: give you some testnet tokens!
Anyone can obtain testnet tokens. To get them, you have to first go into our Discord Channel. Once you enter the Discord channel, you just need to go and look under the General category, and you’ll find a chatroom called #dolphin-faucet (see screenshot below).
Inside the Dolphin faucet, you can use various commands to get your testnet tokens. Once you start typing the /gimme command, you’ll see different options pop up (see image below). Make sure to get $DOL first, because $DOL is the native token of the testnet, which must be used to pay gas fees on every transaction (on main net, $MANTA will be used on Manta, while $KMA will be used on Calamari).
In the address field of the command, enter your public receive address from the Dolphin Testnet (under the Public toggle, select “Receive” to view your address). The bot should activate and send you some testnet tokens.
3. The Testnet Application
Dolphin testnet allows you to transact to others users privately. To do this, you just need to go to the Dolphin testnet app. If you need instructions, you can either view our video tutorial or read our documentation to see how to privatize tokens, privately transact to different addresses, and reclaim public tokens from the private tokens you receive.
Dolphin Block Explorer
Yes, you are still able to use a block explorer like Subscan to view all of the blocks that have been generated by the network. At first glance, you may notice that you can token transfers on the block explorer; that’s because those are public token transfers.
Once the tokens are privatized, information about the token including sender, receiver, and amount are no longer visible through the block explorer, although the zero-knowledge proof itself is available.
About Manta Network
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Manta Network is the on-chain privacy solution for blockchain assets built from the first principle. In the short term, Manta will be a product that enables high-performance private DeFi transactions, such as FT/NFT transfer and AMM-styled swap. In the long term, Manta will be the platform for privacy-preserving blockchain applications.
Manta’s founding team comprises many US cryptocurrency veterans, professors, and scholars whose experience includes Harvard, MIT, and Algorand. The advisors of Manta include Hypersphere Ventures co-founder Jack Platts, Polychain partner Tekin Salimi, former Web3 Foundation co-founder Ashley Tyson, and Consensys’ Shuyao Kong. Manta has previously completed a million-dollar seed round of financing led by Polychain and participated by Three Arrows Capital, Multicoin, Alameda, and Hypersphere. Manta is also a grant fund recipient of Polkadot’s official Web3 Foundation. Manta also is an outstanding member of the Substrate Builder Program and the Blockchain Accelerator of the University of Berkeley.
