Optimum Secures $11M Seed Funding to Revolutionize Blockchain Data Infrastructure

Optimum, a pioneering company incubated at MIT, has successfully closed an $11 million seed funding round. This round was led by 1kx, with additional participation from Robot Ventures, cmt digital, spartan, Finality Capital, Triton Capital, snz, Big Brain, cms, Longhash, NGC, Animoca, GSR, Caladan, Reforge, and others. The funds will be used to develop a high-performance data infrastructure for the decentralized world computer, addressing critical bottlenecks in data storage and retrieval processes within blockchain networks.

At the heart of Optimum's innovation is Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC), a groundbreaking data coding technology developed by MIT Professor Muriel Médard. RLNC has been refined over two decades and has garnered significant recognition, including the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award in 2022. This technology is set to revolutionize how data is stored, accessed, and propagated in decentralized networks, making it faster, cheaper, and more decentralized.

Optimum's team, comprising alumni from MIT, Harvard, and Meta, is leveraging RLNC to build a high-performance memory layer for decentralized networks. This layer aims to optimize data retrieval, reduce congestion, and enhance the speed and efficiency of blockchain operations, positioning it as the backbone of the decentralized internet.

Wei Dai, Research Partner at 1kx, highlighted the potential of RLNC, noting its ability to solve critical bottlenecks in decentralized networks and supercharge all blockchains. Muriel Médard, co-founder of Optimum, emphasized the importance of a scalable memory layer in addressing the systemic inefficiencies of blockchains, which currently lack the memory architecture needed for efficient computing.

Ask Aime: What impact will Optimium's data infrastructure project have on the blockchain industry?

Optimum is tackling three key issues in blockchain infrastructure: inefficient data propagation, redundant storage, and slow access. The company's solutions include OptimumP2P, a pub-sub protocol that functions as a memory bus, and Optimum deRAM, a decentralized RAM layer that ensures the properties of atomicity, consistency, and durability (ACID) of data. These innovations are designed to increase speed, reduce costs, and improve performance for node operators, developers, and end users.

Optimum is currently live on a private testnet with OptimumP2P and is inviting L1s, L2s, validators, and node operators to experience its high-speed, decentralized memory layer. The funding will accelerate integration across major ecosystems, enhancing scalability, lowering costs, and improving performance for node operators. This will enable developers to build faster, more responsive decentralized applications (dApps) and ultimately deliver a cheaper, smoother experience for end users.

Optimum is the first decentralized high-performance memory layer for the world computer, designed to eliminate scalability bottlenecks by enabling fast data propagation, efficient storage, and real-time access. Powered by Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC), a patented technology, Optimum scales any L1/L2 and enhances node operators' performance and APY by boosting network speed, resilience, and throughput, improving dApp performance and user experience.

Co-founded by MIT professor Muriel Médard, the inventor of RLNC, and backed by a consortium of leading investors, Optimum is poised to scale Web3 infrastructure for the next generation of decentralized networks. Users can learn more at getoptimum.xyz and follow Optimum on x.com/get_optimum.