This is a segment of the 0xResearch newsletter. Subscribe to read the full edition.
Blockchain networks have long been styled as “decentralized world computers” since Ethereum. However, one of the key elements of modern computing is memory.
Now, with the launch of this week’s private testnet, MIT incubated Startup Optimum is taking the first step to fix it.
Founded by MIT professor and well-known network coding researcher Muriel Médard, Optimum aims to build a high-performance memory layer for blockchain. Starting with data propagation, co-innovation, which ultimately addresses the equivalent of distributed RAM, is based on random linear network coding (RLNC).
Unlike typical gossip-based peer-to-peer systems (packets where nodes turn redundant), RLNC uses coded data packets that increase bandwidth efficiency and resilience. According to the team, in private testing and academic research, the technique shows up to 20x improvement in propagation bandwidth and double increase in speed, indicating flexible trade-offs depending on the application needs.
Médard told BlockWorks.
“We signed multiple Mouss with large node operators,” Médard said. Private testnets are invitation-only and are opportunities that help operators to verify performance and shape the direction of the product.
Protocol’s first product, Optimump2p, replaces traditional gossip protocols like Libp2p with Publish-Sub (Publish-Subscribe), which acts like the memory bus of traditional computing. This technique can have obvious benefits, such as speed of block propagation, reduced Mempool congestion, improved performance for validators, RPC providers, and even DEX operators.
Some of these improvements go straight to the operator’s revenue. But ultimately, Optimum will also be aimed at smaller players. We plan to introduce utility tokens to contribute to data propagation and ultimately memory access, and to reward nodes in order to contribute to memory access proportionally to useful work performed regardless of uptime or interest.
“Almost all blockchain innovations focus on calculations and execution,” Medard said. “But without fast, reliable data access and propagation, blockchain cannot act as a true high-speed computing network.”
Optimum’s blockchain-independent approach has already attracted significant support, and is a $11 million seed round led by 1KX, which includes investors such as robot ventures, CMT Digital, Spartans and Finality Capital.
The focus on practical performance improvements has attracted the attention of other infrastructure teams, including available data availability providers.
Avail co-founder Prabal Banerjee looked at the potential link to the RLNC roadmap.
“The RLNC and P2P optimization application is interesting for us,” Banerjee told BlockWorks, but needs further review. “This phase is exploring multiple ways to optimize a 10GB block network based on the strategies outlined in the scaling roadmap.”
