From: thepipeline_xyz
Monad has adopted a unique strategy by building its protocol entirely from the ground up, rather than forking an existing open-source project [01:46:27]. This approach ensures greater technical control and allows for very specific implementations that optimize performance [02:06:09].
Why Build From Scratch?
Building a blockchain from scratch provides more technical control over the product [02:04:47]. While forking an open-source project allows leveraging existing work, Monad anticipated needing to modify so many aspects that it would not have benefited from ongoing maintenance or new features of a forked project [02:17:17]. This ground-up approach allows for precise control over memory allocation, disk interaction, and other low-level system details to achieve optimal performance [02:41:09].
The decision to build from scratch also addresses the historical context of Ethereum’s design, which was deliberately rate-limited to maintain low node requirements [04:06:07]. In contrast, Monad was envisioned as a high-performance EVM chain with no design restrictions other than 100% EVM compatibility [04:24:47]. The goal was to maximize network and hardware performance while still targeting consumer-grade nodes, achievable with a PC costing around $1,000 [04:50:35].
Building such a system is inherently difficult, requiring highly skilled low-level system engineers who are rare in the general development community [05:12:00].
Technical Challenges in Blockchain System Design and Solutions
The main challenges in building Monad revolved around achieving concurrent execution to leverage multi-core machines [06:16:34]. Most existing clients are single-core for transaction execution [06:27:00]. Key innovations include:
- Pipelined Execution: Overcoming dependencies between transactions in a block to work on multiple transactions simultaneously [06:46:00]. This is likened to a “washing machine” analogy, where different loads are processed in parallel stages (washing, drying, folding) to increase throughput [08:26:00].
- Database Optimization: Eliminating delays from disk access, which can be significant (30 microseconds or more) [07:10:00]. Monad’s database design ensures the CPU is constantly busy, minimizing idle time spent waiting for disk I/O [07:53:00].
- Constant Machine Utilization: The core innovation in Monad is to keep the machine busy, minimizing waiting times, especially for disk access [07:55:00].
This intense optimization represents the “1 to 100” stage of innovation, similar to evolving the Wright brothers’ first airplane into a modern, highly optimized jet [10:06:00].
What Monad Unlocks
Monad aims to provide a performant version of shared global state with built-in payment rails and programmability, enabling applications to reach millions or hundreds of millions of users [13:06:00]. This includes:
- High-Fidelity DeFi: Enabling personal finance at scale with cheap transaction fees and low slippage, fostering efficient on-chain markets [13:49:00].
- Consumer Applications: Supporting consumer-facing applications that require scaling to hundreds of millions of users, targeting over a billion transactions per day [14:22:00]. This is a bet on the consistent growth of crypto adoption [15:23:00].
- Sponsored Gas Fees: Facilitating applications that sponsor gas fees for users, making the user experience simpler and enabling new business models where transaction costs are a fraction of a cent [37:11:00]. This is particularly relevant for DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure networks) spaces, such as marketplaces for health data or device-contributed compute/data [38:18:00].
- Unpredictable Applications: Just as the internet’s bandwidth improvements led to unforeseen applications like YouTube and Instagram, Monad’s performance could enable entirely new types of applications, such as AI agents or complex inscription activities [42:50:00].
The Path Forward: Testnet as a Starting Line
The launch of the public testnet is viewed not as a finish line, but as a starting line [00:25:25]. It serves as a showcase of the technology and a feedback loop from early testers and infrastructure providers [17:22:00].
Benchmarking Real Usage
Monad’s devnet facilitated significant stress testing, including a team sending 3 trillion gas worth of usage in a few hours, equivalent to about 30 days of Ethereum throughput [17:53:00].
A key aspect of Monad’s benchmarking strategy is replaying real Ethereum history, rather than simple token transfers [19:39:00]. Simple token transfers or ERC-20 contract updates are relatively easy for blockchains to process, making high TPS (transactions per second) numbers misleading [19:51:00]. Real-world Ethereum usage involves complex smart contracts, AMMs, lending protocols, and expensive computations like ZK proofs, which are far more taxing [21:26:00]. Monad aims to handle this “real usage” effectively [22:34:00].
Rejecting Misleading Metrics
Monad deliberately avoids deceptive benchmarking practices common in the space, such as:
- Artificially simple transaction types [22:56:00].
- Using extremely high-end, inaccessible hardware [23:02:00].
- Manipulating node geographic distribution or stake weight to appear decentralized while centralizing consensus [23:04:00].
Instead, Monad intentionally tests worst-case scenarios, like highly stake-weighted nodes in distant geographical locations (e.g., Singapore and New York), to optimize performance under challenging conditions [25:35:00]. The focus is on using technology to advance the decentralization-performance tradeoff curve [24:40:00].
Continuous Innovation
The public testnet’s goal is to exercise the Monad technology, gather feedback, and identify areas for further optimization [32:45:00]. While aiming for seamless user experiences even under stress (e.g., graceful degradation instead of errors during NFT mints), the team recognizes that continuous improvement is necessary [29:05:00].
Monad’s team has a “massive queue of ideas” for ongoing optimizations, rewrites, research, and new features like usability, privacy, and increased decentralization [48:59:00]. While the client will support hundreds of nodes at launch, the long-term goal is to reach thousands, on par with Ethereum and Solana [49:31:00]. This long-term vision emphasizes that the launch is just the beginning of many years of innovation and work [50:09:00]. This reflects a focus on real technological innovation rather than merely a go-to-market strategy [52:35:00].
The public testnet also serves as a showcase for applications already built on Monad, generating excitement within the crypto space and inviting more builders to leverage its performance capabilities [33:38:00]. It’s the first time the network is openly available, allowing anyone to test it and see its real-world performance [34:46:00].