Optimum: MIT-built by Harvard elite team, high-performance blockchain memory solution based on RLNC | Super early project attention

Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher

Edited by: TB, ChainCatcher

In the wave of continuous development of blockchain infrastructure, Optimum has entered the track with high-performance memory technology, attracting the attention of top investors.

On February 28, Optimum, a high-performance memory infrastructure for blockchain, announced the completion of an angel round of financing, with many well-known industry figures participating in the investment, 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.

The first tweet from Optimum’s official X account was posted a month ago. The project has not yet published a white paper or technical roadmap. Although the project is still in its super early stages, the background of the project’s founding team is eye-catching enough: NEC, Dean of the Department of Computer Science of MIT, President of the Harvard Blockchain Association, etc. What kind of potential does this project with big shots hide?

Founder background

The project was co-founded by Professor Muriel Médard, NEC Dean of the Department of Computer Science in MIT, Dr. Kishori Konwar, and Kent Lin, President of the Harvard Blockchain Association.

Professor Muriel Médard is the inventor of the random linear network coding (RLNC) technology and is also an academician of the American and German Academy of Engineering and Sciences.

She completed an interdisciplinary elite education at MIT, received three bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, mathematics and humanities, and continued her studies with a master’s degree and a doctorate in science. As a pioneer in technological innovation, Muriel has more than 60 US and international patents, most of which have been successfully licensed or put into use.

As a technological pioneer across academic and industry, Muriel Médard's research not only changed traditional communication methods, but also laid an important cornerstone for the development of next-generation encrypted networks.

Kent Lin holds a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and has studied for the Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard University. He is a leader in the intersection of technology and business. He serves as the president of the Harvard Blockchain Association, proficient in Chinese, English, Minnan, and masters certain German.

Kent's career focuses on venture capital, liquidity investment, crypto research, strategic partnerships and business development, and has accumulated rich experience in startup financing, expansion and corporate venture capital.

Kent Lin has made his mark quickly at Plug and Play Tech Center, promoted from head of corporate partner in Asia Pacific to head of Asia Pacific. He also served as a partner at GSRV, a cryptocurrency investment unit owned by GSR Ventures. GSR Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm that has managed 11 flagship funds since 2004 with a funding of more than $4 billion.

Dr. Kishori Konwar is the co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of the project. He is a postdoctoral fellow in network coding at MIT. He has worked as a senior engineer and scientist at Meta and as a quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs. Kishori Konwar has a deep technical accumulation in the fields of distributed systems, coding theory and artificial intelligence.

Project Introduction

******** Today, with the rapid development of blockchain technology, scalability bottlenecks have always been a key challenge that restricts industry progress. Optimum came into being, as the first high-performance memory infrastructure for any blockchain, aims to enable fast data propagation, efficient storage and real-time access.

Optimum provides high-performance memory infrastructure for L1/L2 blockchain and node operators, including the P2P data communication layer and the decentralized memory layer (deRAM).

Technical cornerstone RLNC

Optimum's core technology is based on random linear network coding (RLNC), and is a cutting-edge technology widely used in the fields of 5G, the Internet of Things and satellite communications. RLNC will significantly improve network speed, throughput, and decentralization, thereby enhancing dApp performance and user experience.

This technology is based on the 15-year research results of the MIT Network Coding and Reliable Communications Research Institute. By converting data into encoded fragments, nodes can efficiently recover information from some data rather than relying on complete data reception.

Optimum provides a high-performance RLNC-based memory infrastructure for any L1/L2 blockchain and node operators, and its products include two core components:

• P2P data communication layer: optimizes data transmission between nodes and significantly improves network efficiency.
• Decentralized memory layer (deRAM): provides efficient and real-time memory access capabilities for the blockchain ecosystem.

Optimum's technology not only solves the scalability problem of blockchain, but also brings multiple benefits to the entire ecosystem:

• For L1/L2 blockchain: reduce bandwidth consumption and improve overall performance through faster block propagation and optimized storage mechanisms.
• For validators: Accelerate data dissemination, reduce operating costs, and increase staking APY and MEV revenue.
• For dApp developers: Improve transaction relay and priority processing to provide strong support for latency, throughput, and cost-sensitive applications.
• For end users: speed up transaction speed, improve interface responsiveness, and make the blockchain interactive experience smooth and seamless.

Optimum provides a new solution through RLNC technology and high-performance memory infrastructure. In March, Optimum's private test network will be open to L1/L2 blockchains and validators, which will be a preliminary verification of its technical solutions.

In the future, let us wait and see whether Optimum's technical solutions can play a role in a broader ecosystem.

(This article only introduces early projects and is not used as investment advice.)