Optimum, a groundbreaking venture focused on revolutionizing data storage in the blockchain space, has successfully raised an $11 million seed round, attracting the creative minds of its founders from prestigious institutions such as Harvard and MIT. This transition from academia to the commercial crypto arena marks a significant shift as the team sets out to solve long-standing challenges within decentralized networks.
The funding round was spearheaded by 1kx, with notable participation from a diverse group of investors, including Robot Ventures, Finality Capital, Spartan, CMT Digital, SNZ, Triton Capital, Big Brain, CMS, Longhash, NGC, Animoca, GSR, Caladan, Reforge, and others. This backing reflects a robust confidence in Optimum’s potential to redefine blockchain architecture.
At the heart of Optimum’s vision is the development of what they refer to as the missing memory layer of blockchains. The initiative promises to enhance the speed, cost-effectiveness, and decentralization of data storage, access, and propagation—three critical elements that directly affect the performance of blockchain networks.
Key to this innovation is the application of Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC), a decentralized coding method for distributed systems pioneered by MIT professor Muriel Médard, who is also set to speak at Consensus Toronto 2025. Médard asserts that while significant advancements have been made in the computational aspects of Web3, the data propagation and memory components have yet to be adequately addressed.
“If you think of Web3 as a decentralized world computer, people have done an amazing job on the compute part; let’s say, the operating system,” Médard explained. “But anybody who’s put together a computer knows that you also need a bus, which is the data propagation, and you need a memory, which we call the random access memory, as opposed to more static memory like a disk or the cloud.”
The absence of a scalable memory layer contributes to systemic inefficiencies within blockchain systems. Médard highlights issues such as outdated gossip networks that redundantly propagate data, congested memepools leading to unpredictable delays, and the complexity and cost associated with bloated nodes. Optimum aims to tackle these challenges head-on by utilizing Médard’s RLNC coding scheme to enable more efficient data propagation, reduce redundant storage, and facilitate faster access.
Currently, Optimum is operational on a private testnet and is actively inviting layer one (L1) and layer two (L2) blockchains, validators, and node operators to engage with its innovative decentralized memory layer in a practical environment.
