Optimum, a cutting-edge Web3 infrastructure startup, has raised $11 million in a seed funding round to build what many in the industry are calling the “missing memory layer” for blockchains.
Blockchains were never meant to remember. Their architecture is designed for consensus and security—not for memory. Each transaction or smart contract interaction is stateless, existing in isolation from all others. As a result, blockchains cannot “recall” previous user actions or data unless this memory is explicitly stored on-chain—an approach that is often expensive, inefficient, and cumbersome.
But what if decentralized applications could access historical data as easily as modern apps do today? What if a DeFi protocol could recall your previous staking activity or portfolio allocations without relying on costly storage or centralized APIs? That’s the vision Optimum is chasing.
The Web3 infrastructure startup has just announced an $11 million seed funding round to build what it calls the “missing memory layer” for blockchains—a permissionless, composable system that enables seamless access to on-chain historical data across multiple ecosystems.
A Funding Round That Signals Web3’s Maturing Infrastructure Layer:
The funding round was co-led by prominent crypto-native investors including Maven 11, 1kx, and Galaxy Ventures, with additional participation from Hashed, Robot Ventures, and Inflection.xyz.
The funds will be used to expand Optimum’s core engineering team, improve its developer tooling, and roll out its data infrastructure across Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, and other leading Layer-1 and Layer-2 blockchain ecosystems.
This funding underscores a broader trend in Web3: an increasing focus on data accessibility, developer experience, and building infrastructure that rivals the capabilities of traditional cloud platforms—without sacrificing decentralization.
Solving Blockchain’s “Amnesia Problem”:
Blockchains are phenomenal at ensuring data immutability and verification. However, when it comes to storing or retrieving large amounts of historical data, they fall short. Most decentralized apps today depend on centralized indexers like Etherscan or services like The Graph to fetch older blockchain states. This reliance introduces potential bottlenecks, limits composability, and undermines the verifiability of on-chain applications.
Optimum aims to change that by tackling what it describes as the “amnesia problem” in blockchain systems.
Its solution is a composable memory layer—a decentralized protocol that allows developers and smart contracts to instantly fetch historical blockchain data without relying on third-party APIs. This enables use cases like querying the ETH balance of an address on a specific date, analyzing MEV or sandwich attacks, or constructing personalized DeFi experiences with historical awareness.
How Optimum’s Memory Layer Works?
At the heart of Optimum’s approach is a cryptographically secure data abstraction layer that compresses and stores verifiable summaries of blockchain history across multiple networks.
It uses advanced techniques such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and succinct data commitments to ensure that any query—past token balances, staking actions, smart contract interactions—is both fast and trustless.
This architecture allows developers to query blockchain history similarly to how they would interact with a database, but with the guarantees of on-chain validation.
To deliver real-time read/write performance, Optimum is also developing DeRAM, a next-generation memory layer that operates like RAM for the blockchain. DeRAM is intended to support near-instant access to recent blockchain states at a fraction of the cost of on-chain storage, unlocking new efficiencies for high-performance dApps.
Together, these layers aim to replicate traditional computing memory hierarchies in a decentralized environment—paving the way for more powerful and intuitive Web3 applications.
A Deep Tech Pedigree: MIT, RLNC, and the Power of Coded Data
Optimum is co-founded by Muriel Médard, a renowned professor at MIT and a pioneer in network coding. Her research in Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) underpins much of Optimum’s architecture. RLNC transforms data into coded packets that are more resilient, composable, and efficient for distributed systems.
Her groundbreaking work in data compression and verifiable storage is now being applied to a decentralized context—turning theoretical models into practical infrastructure for Web3.
In a recently released video, Médard explained how her vision aligns with the broader Web3 mission: “If blockchains are to become the world’s computer, they need a memory system that is fast, decentralized, and accessible. That’s what Optimum is building.”
Making Web3 Feel Like Web2:
One of the biggest frictions in blockchain UX today is the lack of persistence. Smart contracts don’t remember you. Every interaction—whether it’s logging in, checking a balance, or claiming a reward—must be re-verified, restated, or reauthorized.
By introducing memory, Optimum aims to bridge that gap. With historical context built-in, smart contracts can create dynamic, personalized experiences much like apps in the Web2 world. This opens doors to improved DeFi portfolio management, richer NFT histories, cross-chain identity resolution, and much more.
Roadmap: Testnet by Q3 2025, Mainnet in Early 2026
Picture Courtesy: coingape.com
Optimum has already launched a private testnet, and plans to roll out a public testnet by Q3 2025, beginning with support for Ethereum and Solana. The mainnet launch is slated for early 2026, along with a developer SDK and a GraphQL-like query interface that will make it easy for developers to integrate Optimum’s memory layer into their dApps.
The company is also exploring decentralized incentive models to encourage node operators to contribute storage and compute to the memory network. Potential token-based rewards and reputation systems are being discussed to ensure long-term sustainability and decentralization.
Final Word: Memory Powers Intelligence in Web3
As blockchains evolve from static ledgers into dynamic, programmable platforms, memory will become the foundation for a new era of intelligent dApps. From fraud detection to custom user experiences, the ability to “remember” is what separates smart systems from simply distributed ones.
Optimum’s mission is to fill that gap—giving the blockchain world its long-overdue memory layer. And with $11 million in fresh capital and support from some of the top minds in crypto and academia, it’s poised to do just that.
This isn’t just about data infrastructure. It’s about building the foundation for a smarter, more human-centric Web3 future.
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