[Opening / Mic Check]

Rob: Mic check. All good?

Muir: Yeah, looks good there.

Kent: Mic check. I can hear you, Muir.

Rob: And Masha, you're promoted to speaker now.

Masha: Thanks.

Rob: I can hear you on the space, Mike. Mic check.

[Kickoff]

Rob: Hello everybody. Welcome to another Optimum Spaces. We have excellent guests from Everstake and CMT Digital.

Aryan (CMT Digital): Head of Research. Published an investment thesis on Optimum last week.

Masha (Everstake): Head of staking initiatives. Everstake is one of our early adopters.

[Guest Introductions]

Masha:

Leads staking at Everstake.

4+ years in blockchain, focused on staking infrastructure.

Running 80+ blockchains/protocols, 70+ nodes.

Expertise in staking and re-staking, working with top-tier projects.

Aryan:

Head of Research & Investor at CMT Digital, Chicago-based VC.

4 funds, personally focused on infrastructure.

Experience includes consensus mechanisms, data decoupling.

Miriel:

Co-founder & CEO of Optimum.

Former MIT professor (NEC chair in software engineering).

Founded Optimum out of MIT’s network coding lab.

Kent:

Co-founder of Optimum.

Former MBA student at Harvard, ex-president of Blockchain Club.

Joined Optimum after recognizing market need with co-founder Kishore.

[Recent Announcements]

Raised $11M in an oversubscribed seed round.

Huge community traction: over 200,000 Discord members.

[Tech Overview]

Optimum P2P (Propagation Layer):

Replaces outdated gossip protocol with Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC).

Decentralized, latency-optimized data propagation.

Testnet Update:

Working closely with Everstake.

Validating latency and throughput improvements.

[Aryan’s Investment Thesis]

Infrastructure bottlenecks exist beyond execution (e.g., bandwidth, storage).

Optimum addresses the networking/data layer.

Solana cited as an example of high bandwidth demand.

Bandwidth is a centralization bottleneck.

[Validator Perspective – Masha]:

Validators handle transaction validation, state updates.

Traditional memory layer is static and inefficient.

Optimum introduces dynamic RLNC + DRAM for decentralized state handling.

[Miriel on Timing]:

Execution improvements have outpaced networking/storage.

Modular blockchain stacks need memory and network decoupling.

Validators’ cost structures under pressure.

[Modularity & Design]:

Web3 as a decentralized world computer: compute, memory, and bus.

Bottlenecks exist when memory or data propagation is weak.

Memory must be modular and efficient.

[Validator Economics]:

Faster propagation = higher rewards for validators & stakers.

Optimum uses available resources optimally.

DRAM reduces full-node storage burden.

[Usability Impact – Aryan]:

Reduces transaction delay, improves app UX.

Potential to shift Web2 stack elements on-chain.

Lower gas, faster finality.

[System Analogy – Miriel]:

Your PC doesn’t need a bridge app between Telegram and WhatsApp.

In a well-structured system, memory/bus should be invisible to users.

[Infrastructure Bottlenecks]:

Example: congestion = higher gas = poor user experience.

Optimum = scaling the highway (network bandwidth).

[VM-Agnostic Advantage]:

Works across L1, L2, any VM (e.g., EVM, RISC-V).

In line with Ethereum’s evolving architecture.

[Wrap-up & Future Outlook]

Next product: Optimum DRAM.

Continuous improvement across chains.

Community-first approach: active Discord, OG badge holders, hiring.

[Closing Words]

Rob, Kent, Miriel, Masha, Aryan thank the community.

"Let’s make blockchain feel fast again."

Stay tuned on Discord & Twitter for future events and updates.

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