From: thepipeline_xyz
The inspiration to build Monad stemmed from a combination of prior experience in high-performance systems and a direct observation of the limitations within existing blockchain infrastructure [00:02:12].
Background in High-Frequency Trading (HFT)
The founders, James and his colleague, first met in 2014, working together on a high-frequency trading team at Jump Trading [00:01:14]. Their role involved building a complete trading system from the ground up, processing incoming packets from exchanges, making rapid trading decisions, and sending orders back out [00:00:25].
This environment is extremely competitive and latency-sensitive [00:01:01]. In HFT, the ability to decide faster and send orders to an exchange determines who secures liquidity or queue position [00:00:39]. This intense competition drove numerous iterations of system improvements, focusing on reducing latency and building highly performant systems [00:01:04].
Transition to Blockchain and DeFi
By 2021, James and the team transitioned to Jump’s crypto division, immediately engaging with DeFi projects [00:01:18]. James, in particular, spent about six months working on Solana DeFi, including Pith [00:01:35].
This direct involvement quickly highlighted a critical gap:
- A significant need for a more performant blockchain in general [00:01:41].
- A specific and pressing need for a more performant Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) [00:01:46].
The existing EVM implementations were found to be very inefficient and lacked the level of optimization seen in the high-frequency trading systems they previously developed [00:01:51]. This highlighted challenges in current blockchain infrastructure and blockchain system design.
Monad’s Founding Principle
The team recognized that their background in building highly performant systems from the ground up was uniquely suited to address these technical challenges and solutions in blockchain performance [00:02:00]. While understanding that significant optimization work would be required, the clear need for a more performant EVM became the primary driver for Monad [00:02:04]. The initial implementation of a parallel EVM was a direct outcome of this realization [00:01:11]. The observed performance differences between Solana and Ethereum further underscored the potential for optimizations in the EVM space [00:02:27].