Andreessen-backed blockchain startup hires former YouTube gaming head

Optimism, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed blockchain startup, has snagged Ryan Wyatt, a former head of gaming at YouTube, as its chief growth officer. Wyatt — who has a long history in e-sports including his eight years at YouTube as its global head of gaming — most recently left another blockchain project, Polygon Labs, in July. He will lead an Optimism team focused on the startup’s efforts to grow its business through partnerships and marketing.

Optimism works on so-called layer 2 technologies in crypto — these systems take transaction data off the Ethereum blockchain, compress it and post it back onto the original chain for just a fraction of the time and cost.