Sam Battenally is the CEO and co-founder of RISE Chain, a layer-2 blockchain project focused on achieving high transaction speeds and low latency ^[1]. He leads the development and strategic direction of the project, which aims to address performance limitations in existing blockchain networks ^[1].

Education

Sam Battenally earned a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E. Hons) in Electronics, Communications and Mechatronics from The Australian National University, graduating in 2014. ^[2]

Career

Sam Battenally began his career as a Student Electronics Design Engineer and Configuration Engineer at Electro Optic Systems Holdings Pty Limited from November 2013 to December 2014. He then worked as an Electronics Design Engineer at Genesys Electronics Design from December 2014 to May 2017. Following this, he held roles as Senior Hardware and Software Co-design Engineer and Senior Software Engineer Technical Lead at Seeing Machines from May 2017 to June 2019.

Batternally served as a Senior Software Engineer at Okra Solar from June 2019 to February 2022. Concurrently, he served as Co-Founder and CTO at Robo Labs from June 2021 to January 2024 and as an Advisor at BoF.xyz from June 2022 to December 2023. Since December 2023, he has been the Founder and CEO at RISE. ^[3]

RISE Chain

Sam Battenally serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of RISE Chain ^[1]. RISE Chain is being developed as a layer-2 blockchain solution designed to enhance the speed and efficiency of decentralized applications ^[1]. The project's primary technical objective is to achieve high performance metrics, specifically in terms of transaction speed and latency ^[1], which the team views as necessary for the broader adoption of blockchain technology ^[1]. Battenally is responsible for guiding the project's strategic direction, overseeing its development, and representing the company publicly ^[1]. His focus is on building a blockchain network capable of handling a high volume of transactions with minimal delay ^[1].

The project utilizes a mechanism referred to as "Shreds" to enable sub-block transaction confirmations ^[1]. This approach is intended to reduce the time it takes for transactions to be considered confirmed on the network ^[1]. The stated goal for transaction latency is as low as 5 milliseconds ^[1]. The target throughput for the network is over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) ^[1]. Battenally has publicly discussed the potential applications for a high-speed network like RISE Chain, including financial systems and interactive digital environments ^[1].

Under Battenally's leadership, RISE Chain has raised capital to support its development ^[1]. The project secured a $4 million investment from Galaxy Ventures, the venture capital division of Galaxy Digital ^[1]. This investment brought the total capital raised by RISE Chain to $8 million ^[1]. Earlier funding rounds included support from individuals such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. As of June 2025, RISE Chain is operating in a testnet environment ^[1]. The team has indicated plans to launch the project's mainnet later in 2025 ^[1]. A token related to the project is also anticipated to launch around the same time ^[1].