His work connected three early Bitcoin layers: steadier pooled-mining rewards, miner-to-pool communication and user self-custody. Attribution must remain shared: BIP39 has four authors, Trezor was built with Pavol Rusnák and Alena Vránová, and Stratum V2 came from another team.
Palatinus uses the name Slush. Primary records document him as founder of Bitcoin.cz Mining Pool, author of an early Stratum implementation, co-creator of Trezor and one of BIP39’s four authors, so the evidence is broader than a company biography. [Braiins — Pool, Braiins and Slush history] [BitcoinTalk — Stratum mining protocol announcement] [BIP39 — mnemonic code specification]
In December 2010 he launched Bitcoin.cz Mining Pool in Prague, described by Braiins as the first Bitcoin mining pool. It later became Slush Pool and in 2022 Braiins Pool; the names do not change either the project’s origin or its current operator. [Braiins — Pool, Braiins and Slush history] [Braiins Pool — current operator and statistics]
The pool aggregated miners’ hashpower and divided rewards by submitted shares, giving participants smaller but more regular payouts than solo mining. It did not create more expected bitcoin without more work, and it introduced trust in an operator and its payout rules. [Braiins Pool — current operator and statistics]
In March 2012 an attacker breached the pool’s Linode servers and drained 3,000 BTC from its wallet. The incident showed that smoother mining income is not secure custody; Braiins also identifies it as a push toward professional operations and better cold storage. [Braiins — Pool, Braiins and Slush history] [Braiins — hashing history]
In September 2012 Palatinus publicly announced the Stratum mining protocol to replace HTTP getwork. Push messages and larger work units suited incoming ASICs; Stratum V1 spread across pools, but lacked encrypted transport and normally left transaction selection to the pool. [BitcoinTalk — Stratum mining protocol announcement] [Stratum mining proxy — source repository] [Braiins — Stratum V1 and V2 history]
After meeting Pavol “Stick” Rusnák at Prague’s brmlab, they developed a small device isolating private keys from a general computer. With Alena Vránová they founded SatoshiLabs; preorders opened in 2013 and Trezor Model One officially launched on 29 July 2014. [Trezor — ten years of the first hardware wallet] [SatoshiLabs — our story] [brmlab — Prague hackerspace]
BIP39 was assigned on 10 September 2013 and names four authors: Marek Palatinus, Pavol Rusnák, Aaron Voisine and Sean Bowe. It maps computer-generated entropy plus a checksum to 12–24 words and then a seed; it explicitly discourages human-invented brainwallet phrases. [BIP39 — mnemonic code specification]
In 2013 Braiins founders Jan Čapek and Pavel Moravec acquired a majority stake and all pool operations so Palatinus could focus on Trezor. Braiins later bought the remaining stake; in January 2021 Palatinus said he was no longer affiliated with the pool. [Braiins — Pool, Braiins and Slush history] [Braiins — hashing history]
Stratum V2 was developed in 2019 by Braiins founders Pavel Moravec and Jan Čapek with Matt Corallo and others. It builds on V1 with a safer, more efficient protocol and a path to miner transaction choice; attributing V2 to Palatinus would be incorrect. [Braiins — Stratum V1 and V2 history]
In May 2026 SatoshiLabs described Palatinus as co-founder of Tropic Square and SatoshiLabs Group, not as operator of Braiins Pool. His precise legacy is architectural—pool rewards, a mining protocol and recoverable self-custody—always alongside other people and teams. [SatoshiLabs — 2026 Tropic Square leadership announcement]
For the clearest picture, read this entry together with Bitcoin, Mining, Mining Pool, Braiins Pool, Braiins, Stratum V1. The reverse links also lead from SatoshiLabs, Braiins Pool, Stratum V1.