MegaLabs, a company on a mission to revolutionise the Ethereum blockchain, has successfully secured $20 million in seed funding.
This funding will be used to propel the development of MegaETH, a groundbreaking Ethereum-compatible blockchain boasting "real-time" capabilities.
But what truly sets MegaETH apart is the involvement of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin himself, who participated in the seed round as an angel investor.
This high-profile endorsement sheds immense light on MegaETH's potential and has the crypto world buzzing with anticipation.
Buterin's participation as an angel investor in MegaETH signifies a powerful endorsement of the project's potential.
Vitalik Buterin is a prominent figure known for co-founding Ethereum and pioneering smart contract technology.
His belief in MegaETH sheds light on the project's potential to address some of the most pressing challenges faced by existing blockchains.
This involvement from one of the most respected figures in the blockchain space serves as a beacon of trust for potential users and investors alike.
The $20 million seed funding round wasn't solely fueled by Buterin's vision. Dragonfly Capital, a well-respected venture capital firm focused on blockchain technologies, spearheaded the round.
Joining them were a consortium of prominent investors, including Figment Capital, Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin, and Jordan Fish (also known as Cobie).
Screenshot from cryptorank.io
The seed funding round for MegaLabs has propelled MegaETH's fully diluted token valuation to a staggering nine figures, exceeding $100 million.
This impressive line-up of backers highlights the immense potential that industry leaders see in MegaETH.
So, what exactly is MegaETH, and why is it generating so much buzz?
MegaETH is envisioned as the first-ever "real-time blockchain" that seamlessly integrates with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
This "real-time" moniker refers to MegaETH's ability to process transactions the moment they arrive, boasting a staggering speed of 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) with near-instantaneous responsiveness.
This is a significant leap compared to the limitations of current blockchain solutions.
Gas parameter comparison among EVM chains in 2024 (Source: Paradigm)
The table above compares gas parameters across various EVM chains in 2024, highlighting their limitations. While opBNB leads with a high gas rate of 100 MGas/s, it remains low compared to Web2 servers.
For instance, 100 MGas/s equates to just 650 Uniswap swaps or 3,700 ERC-20 transfers per second, far below modern database servers that handle over a million transactions per second in benchmarks like TPC-C.
MegaETH aspires to bridge the gap between the existing constraints of blockchain technology and the demands of mainstream consumer applications.
It aims to deliver a smooth user experience that rivals popular Web2 platforms while upholding the core principles of decentralisation and security that are fundamental to blockchain technology.
To achieve this ambitious goal, MegaETH leverages a combination of innovative technologies, including elements from Optimism, a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum.
Interestingly, the inception of MegaETH was inspired by Buterin.
The inspiration can be traced back to Buterin's 2021 blog post titled "Endgame," which explored solutions for scaling the Ethereum network.
In the post, Buterin emphasised the importance of creating highly scalable EVM implementations as a critical step towards achieving true scalability for Ethereum.
MegaLabs took Buterin's vision to heart and is actively working to address this challenge.
MegaETH accomplishes this feat through a combination of innovative techniques, including:
This approach leverages nodes with varying hardware configurations, allowing them to specialise in specific tasks.
This specialisation significantly boosts performance compared to traditional blockchains where all nodes perform the same functions.
MegaETH optimises the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the environment where smart contracts execute.
This optimisation pushes transaction throughput, latency, and resource efficiency to the limits of the underlying hardware.
MegaETH incorporates elements from Optimism, a popular Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution, to prevent errors and maintain the security of the network.
Traditional blockchains often struggle with state synchronisation, where full nodes need to catch up to the latest state of the network.
MegaETH tackles this challenge with a novel approach that significantly reduces the time required for synchronisation.
MegaETH boasts several advantages over existing Ethereum scaling solutions, including:
Founded in 2023, MegaLabs is the brainchild of three passionate co-founders: Yilong Li, Shuyao Kong and Lei Yang.
Yilong Li and Lei Yang focus on the technical aspects of the project while Shuyao Kong serves as the Chief Business Officer.
Their vision is to bridge the gap between the current limitations of blockchain technology and the demands of mainstream consumer applications.
By leveraging the security and decentralisation of Ethereum, while simultaneously achieving real-time performance, MegaETH aims to create a robust and user-friendly platform for developers and users alike.
Chief Executive Officer
Yilong Li, co-founder and CEO of MegaETH, brings extensive expertise from his previous role as a Senior Software Engineer at Runtime Verification.
He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, contributing to MegaETH's leadership and technical direction in blockchain innovation.
Chief Business Officer
Shuyao Kong, also known as Brother Bing within X’s crypto community, co-founded MegaETH after serving as Head of Global Business Development at ConsenSys.
She holds a degree in Economics and Psychology from Smith College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Prior to her roles at MegaETH and ConsenSys, she was a blockchain consulting manager at ConsenSys and served in advisory and consulting roles at Long Crypto Group, IBM, and Veridise.
Shuyao Kong also founded Hotpot DAO, a global social collective born from a craving for spicy Asian food during MCON 2021 in Denver.
What started as a spontaneous hotpot lunch with 10 attendees has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with city chapters hosting independent events.
Chief Technology Officer
Social: X
Lei Yang is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of MegaLabs. He leads the development of MegaETH, touted as the first Real-Time Blockchain.
He recently completed his PhD in Computer Science at MIT under Mohammad Alizadeh, focusing on efficient consensus and synchronisation for distributed systems.
Lei holds a Master's degree from MIT and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Peking University.
His research interests include designing robust and performant systems for blockchain networks, with notable contributions in BFT state machine replication protocols and rateless codes for set reconciliation.
His work is supported by the Ethereum Foundation.
MegaLabs is targeting an early fall launch for their public testnet, allowing developers to experiment with the capabilities of MegaETH and build innovative dApps that were previously unimaginable.
Following a successful testnet phase, the mainnet launch is expected by the end of the year.
This signifies a significant milestone for MegaETH and the potential transformation of the blockchain landscape.
The crypto community has responded enthusiastically to the announcement of MegaETH and the involvement of Vitalik Buterin.
Buterin's endorsement serves as a powerful validation of the project's potential, and many believe MegaETH has the capability to fundamentally alter the landscape of decentralised finance (DeFi), online gaming, social networking, and countless other blockchain applications.
Is MegaETH the future of blockchain?
While it’s worth anticipating, Coinlive suggests keeping a close eye on its development before rushing to conclusions.
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