Key Takeaways
- Michael Dong is the co-founder of Celer Community and Brevis, two blockchain tasks aimed toward enhancing scalability, cross-chain connectivity, and on-chain computation.
- He earned a Ph.D. from UIUC and studied Electronics Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong College, specializing in distributed techniques and protocol design.
- Early roles at Veriflow and Barefoot Networks, together with tech internships, constructed his expertise in networking and large-scale techniques.
Michael “Mo” Dong is the co-founder of blockchain tasks Celer Community and Brevis. He’s a Chinese language-American pc scientist, entrepreneur, and investor. His work facilities on distributed techniques, community protocols, and zero-knowledge cryptography, with an emphasis on enhancing blockchain scalability and effectivity.
Earlier than working in web3, he was a founding engineer at Veriflow, a community verification startup later acquired by VMware. He studied Electronics Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong College (2008–2012), then earned a Ph.D. in Laptop Science from the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2017, the place he targeted on distributed techniques, community verification, and the applying of sport concept to protocol design.
Early Profession in Silicon Valley
Earlier than coming into the blockchain area, Michael “Mo” Dong labored in engineering and product roles throughout Silicon Valley. This early expertise helped him construct a robust basis in distributed techniques, networking, and large-scale infrastructure, shaping the technical path of his later tasks.
Expertise at Veriflow
He was among the many early staff members at Veriflow, a startup targeted on formally verifying pc networks to detect errors, outages, and safety dangers. Between 2014 and 2018, he labored as an Engineering Workforce Lead and Product Supervisor, contributing to each system design and product technique earlier than the corporate was acquired by VMware.
Dong additionally helped discovered Barefoot Networks as a founding engineer, an organization identified for constructing programmable networking {hardware} later acquired by Intel. Earlier in his profession, he interned at Nicira, Microsoft Analysis, and Google, the place he gained sensible expertise engaged on superior networking and large-scale computing techniques.
Founding Celer Community
In 2018, he co-founded Celer Community with Junda Liu, Xiaozhou Li, and Qingkai Liang. The staff aimed to unravel blockchain scalability points through the use of Layer 2 options that transfer transactions off-chain. Celer started with state channels to allow quick, low-cost interactions, then expanded into interoperability options such because the Celer Inter-chain Message (IM) framework and cBridge, which assist cross-chain communication and asset transfers.
The Launch of Brevis
In 2023, Dong co-founded Brevis as a spin-off from Celer Community and took on the function of CEO. Brevis is a zero-knowledge coprocessor that helps good contracts transcend their native limits by permitting decentralized apps to entry historic information, run complicated computations off-chain, and confirm outcomes on-chain by way of cryptographic proofs, enabling extra superior and data-heavy blockchain use instances.
Cross-Chain Challenges and Celer Community’s Method
In an interview on the Crypto Coin Present YouTube channel, Michael “Mo” Dong shared insights on the rising fragmentation inside blockchain ecosystems. He defined that as extra networks emerge, they have an inclination to function independently quite than as a unified system, which ends up in remoted environments with restricted direct communication. This separation usually results in repeated variations of comparable functions throughout a number of chains, together with fragmented liquidity and added friction for customers navigating between completely different platforms.
He went on to explain Celer Community as a connectivity-focused layer constructed to bridge these remoted blockchains. Inside this structure, instruments like cBridge are used to assist the motion of belongings throughout networks, serving to cut back the complexity concerned in cross-chain interactions. Relatively than functioning as a single standalone product, these elements are offered as a part of a broader framework to enhance how blockchains talk and interoperate.
Brevis and the Infinite Compute Layer Idea
In a December 12, 2025, interview on the Web3Privacy Now YouTube channel and recorded on the Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress (ECC#2) in Buenos Aires, Michael “Mo” Dong mentioned the structural limits of present blockchain designs and launched the idea behind Brevis, which he describes as an “infinite compute layer” for Web3.
He defined that almost all Layer 1 blockchains obtain consensus by having many nodes independently execute the identical computations, a course of that, whereas safe, results in main redundancy. This repeated execution raises prices and limits what can realistically be constructed immediately on-chain, particularly for functions that rely on processing giant volumes of historic information, similar to analyzing buying and selling patterns or exercise throughout decentralized exchanges.
Imaginative and prescient for Scalable and Related Blockchains
Michael Mo Dong’s imaginative and prescient focuses on making blockchain techniques extra scalable, linked, and environment friendly. Along with his background in distributed techniques, he works to push the boundaries of present blockchain designs by enhancing how networks talk and course of information.
Via Celer Community, he goals to attach separate blockchains to allow them to work together extra simply, whereas Brevis expands this concept by permitting sophisticated computations to be executed off-chain and verified on-chain. Total, his purpose is to assist a blockchain ecosystem that works extra easily, handles extra information, and is best suited to superior functions.
Ultimate Ideas
Michael “Mo” Dong has targeted his work on enhancing how blockchain techniques scale, join, and deal with complicated duties. His background in distributed techniques and community design has formed his method to constructing extra environment friendly and dependable infrastructure. Via Celer Community and Brevis, he works to attach separate blockchains and allow extra superior computations than present techniques can deal with. Total, his efforts purpose to assist a extra linked and succesful Web3 ecosystem that may deal with bigger workloads and extra sensible use instances.