The microbiome of the largest environment on Earth has been gradually revealing its secrets over four decades of study. Despite the dispersed nature of substrates and the transience of surfaces, marine microbes drive essential transformations in all global elemental cycles. Much has been learned about the microbes that carry out key biogeochemical processes, but there are still plenty of ambiguities about the factors important in regulating activity, including the role of microbial interactions. Identifying the molecular "currencies" exchanged within the microbial community will provide key information on microbiome function and its vulnerability to environmental change.