Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Editor: TB, ChainCatcher
In the wave of continuous development of Bit blockchain infrastructure, Optimum has entered the track with high-performance memory technology, attracting the attention of top investors.
On February 28, the high-performance memory infrastructure for Bit blockchain Optimum announced the completion of angel round financing, with participation from well-known industry figures, including Polychain CTO Abhijeet Mahagaonkar, DeFiance Capital founder Arthur Cheong, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, Wormhole co-founder Robinson Burkey, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.
Optimum's official X account's first tweet was posted a month ago. The project has not yet released a white paper or technical roadmap. Although the project is still in the super early stage, the background of the founding team is already eye-catching: the NEC Dean of the MIT Department of Computer Science, the President of the Harvard Bit Association, and others.
Founder Background
The project was co-founded by Professor Muriel Médard, the NEC Dean of the MIT Department of Computer Science, Dr. Kishori Konwar, and Kent Lin, the President of the Harvard Bit Association.
Professor Muriel Médard is the inventor of random linear network coding (RLNC) technology and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and Germany.
She completed an interdisciplinary elite education at MIT, earning bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, and then continued her studies, earning master's and doctoral degrees. As a pioneer of technological innovation, Muriel has more than 60 US and international patents, most of which have been successfully licensed or put into use.
As a technical pioneer straddling academia and industry, Muriel Médard's research has not only changed traditional communication methods, but also laid an important foundation for the development of the next-generation encrypted network.
Kent Lin has a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and an MBA from Harvard University, and is a leader at the intersection of technology and business. He serves as the President of the Harvard Bit Association and is proficient in Chinese, English, Hokkien, and has a certain command of German.
Kent's career has focused on venture capital, liquidity investment, DeFi research, strategic partnerships, and business expansion, with extensive experience in startup financing, expansion, and corporate venture capital.
Kent Lin quickly rose to prominence at the Plug and Play Tech Center, rising from Asia-Pacific Corporate Partnership Manager to Asia-Pacific Head. He has also served as a partner at GSRV, the cryptocurrency investment arm of GSR Ventures. GSR Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that has managed 11 flagship funds with over $4 billion in assets since 2004.
Dr. Kishori Konwar is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the project. He is a postdoctoral researcher in network coding at MIT and has previously worked as a senior engineer and scientist at Meta and a quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs. Kishori Konwar has a deep technical background in distributed systems, coding theory, and artificial intelligence.
Project Introduction
In the rapidly developing Bit blockchain technology, the scalability bottleneck has always been a key challenge hindering the industry's progress. Optimum was born in response, as the first high-performance memory infrastructure applicable to any Bit blockchain, aiming to achieve fast data propagation, efficient storage, and real-time access.
Optimum provides high-performance memory infrastructure, including a P2P data communication layer and a decentralized memory layer (deRAM), for L1/L2 Bit blockchains and node operators.
RLNC Technical Foundation
Optimum's core technology is based on random linear network coding (RLNC), a cutting-edge technology widely used in 5G, IoT, and satellite communication. RLNC will significantly improve network speed, throughput, and decentralization, thereby enhancing dApp performance and user experience.
This technology is based on 15 years of research results from the MIT Network Coding and Reliable Communication Research Institute, by converting data into coded fragments, allowing nodes to efficiently recover information from partial data, rather than relying on complete data reception.
Optimum provides a high-performance memory infrastructure based on RLNC for any L1/L2 Bit blockchain and node operators, with two core components:
- P2P data communication layer: Optimizing data transmission between nodes, significantly improving network efficiency.
- Decentralized memory layer (deRAM): Providing efficient, real-time memory access capabilities for the Bit blockchain ecosystem.
Optimum's technology not only solves the scalability problem of Bit blockchains, but also brings multiple benefits to the entire ecosystem:
- For L1/L2 Bit blockchains: Reduce bandwidth consumption and improve overall performance through faster block propagation and optimized storage mechanisms.
- For validators: Accelerate data propagation, reduce operating costs, and increase staking APY and MEV revenue.
- For dApp developers: Improve transaction relaying and priority processing, providing strong support for latency, throughput, and cost-sensitive applications.
- For end-users: Accelerate transaction speed, improve interface responsiveness, and provide a smooth and seamless Bit blockchain interaction experience.
Through RLNC technology and high-performance memory infrastructure, Optimum provides a new solution. In March, Optimum's private testnet will be open to L1/L2 Bit blockchains and validators, which will be an initial validation of its technical solution.
In the future, whether Optimum's technical solution can play a role in a wider ecosystem remains to be seen.
(This article only introduces the early-stage project and is not investment advice.)
