From: thepipeline_xyz
The inspiration to build Monad stemmed from a background in developing highly performant systems and identifying a significant need for performant blockchain technology, particularly within the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) space [00:00:00].
Background in High-Frequency Trading
The founders, James and another individual, met in 2014 while working on a high-frequency trading team at Jump Trading [00:00:13]. Their role involved building a complete trading system from scratch [00:00:25]. This system processed packets from exchanges, made rapid trading decisions, and sent orders back to the exchange [00:00:28].
The high-frequency trading environment is extremely competitive regarding latency [00:01:01]. In this space, the participant who can decide and send an order faster wins the opportunity to either take liquidity or secure a queue position for an order [00:00:46]. This intense competition spurred continuous iterations of system improvements, focusing on shaving off latency and building exceptionally performant systems [00:01:04].
Transition to Blockchain and DeFi
By 2021, James and the team transitioned to the crypto division at Jump, where they began working on DeFi projects [00:01:18]. James, specifically, spent about six months working on Solana DeFi [00:01:35].
Identifying the Need for EVM Optimization
During their work in DeFi, they recognized a substantial need for more performant blockchain technology in general [00:01:41]. Crucially, they identified a significant need for more performant EVM implementations [00:01:46].
Existing EVM implementations were found to be very inefficient and lacked the level of optimization that the team had previously applied to high-frequency trading systems [00:01:47]. Their extensive background in building highly performant systems from the ground up made them uniquely suited to address this challenge [00:01:57]. They understood that achieving these optimizations would require a significant, long-term effort involving a complete redesign for high performance [00:02:04].
Monad’s Inspiration
The initial inspiration for Monad was a combination of their experience in building performant systems for trading and their direct interaction with both Solana and Ethereum [00:02:10]. While Solana had undergone many optimizations, the EVM space still presented a vast opportunity for significant performance improvements [00:02:27]. The realization that there were “a ton of optimizations” to be made in the EVM space served as the primary driving force behind Monad’s creation [00:02:36].