From: thepipeline_xyz
The public testnet for Monad is going live, serving as a showcase for its underlying technology in achieving scalability and performance in crypto networks [00:00:00]. This launch is seen not as a finish line, but as a starting line for further innovation [00:00:25].
Monad’s “Build From Scratch” Approach
Monad has taken a unique approach by building its protocol entirely from the ground up, rather than forking existing open-source projects [00:01:46]. This was done to gain greater technical control over the product [00:02:04], allowing for specific implementations of core functionalities like memory allocation and disk interaction to maximize performance [00:02:41].
Why Others Haven’t Adopted This Approach
While some projects have improved performance in areas like state sync, a focus on raw execution performance for EVM chains has been rare [00:03:59]. This is largely because Ethereum itself is “arbitrarily rate-limited” to low throughput to maintain low node requirements [00:04:04]. Monad, however, was envisioned as a high-performance EVM chain from the start, with the primary restriction being 100% EVM compatibility [00:04:21]. Another goal was to target consumer-grade nodes (around $1,000 PCs) [00:04:47].
Building from scratch is also an inherently difficult and massive undertaking, requiring specialized low-level system engineers [00:05:12]. These engineers are typically found in large tech companies, silicon manufacturers, or high-frequency trading firms, making them hard to come by in the blockchain space [00:05:22].
Technical Innovations for Performance
The main technical challenges in achieving high performance include:
- Concurrent Execution: Modern machines have many cores, but most existing EVM clients are single-core for transaction execution [00:06:20].
- Transaction Dependencies: Transactions within a block are not entirely independent tasks; there are dependencies that complicate parallelization [00:06:36].
- Disk Access Latency: Waiting for disk access (which can take 30 microseconds or more) causes the CPU to sit idle, significantly slowing down sequential operations [00:07:10].
Monad’s key innovations focus on keeping the machine busy and optimizing EVM implementations [00:07:53]. This involves:
- Pipelining: Employing a highly pipelined architecture, akin to doing multiple steps of a process (like laundry) across multiple objects simultaneously, rather than completing one entirely before starting the next [00:08:40]. This contrasts with simple parallel execution where transactions might run side-by-side without an offset [00:08:50].
- Custom Database: Building a custom database to minimize CPU waiting time for disk access [00:08:06].
Benchmarking and Misleading Metrics
Measuring blockchain performance accurately is challenging due to widespread misleading marketing [00:22:41].
- Simplicity of Token Transfers: The simplest task for a blockchain is native token transfers [00:19:51]. Even unoptimized, single-core clients can achieve 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) on artificial benchmarks of simple token transfers [00:20:04]. Claims of 10,000 TPS for token transfers are not impressive as they are “easily achievable” [00:20:27].
- Real-World Usage: Real Ethereum history, including complex transactions like AMMs, lending protocols, and ZK proofs (which can cost $500 per transaction), is far more taxing [00:21:26]. Monad’s benchmarks aim to handle this real usage [00:22:34].
- Deceptive Practices: Other ways projects manipulate performance metrics include:
- Using high-end hardware [00:23:02].
- Geographic collocation of nodes or concentrating stake weight in one location, which can artificially boost consensus speeds by circumventing the physics of data propagation [00:23:04].
- High bandwidth requirements for nodes [00:24:19]. Monad intentionally tests worst-case conditions by setting up highly stake-weighted nodes in distant locations (e.g., Singapore and New York) to optimize for real-world decentralization and robust performance [00:25:40].
What Monad Unlocks
Monad aims to provide a highly performant version of shared global state with built-in payment rails and programmability [00:13:06]. This infrastructure is designed to enable new applications and user experiences that require high throughput:
- High-Fidelity DeFi: Facilitating personal finance at scale for hundreds of millions of users with cheap transaction fees and low slippage, allowing liquidity providers to offer efficient on-chain markets [00:13:45].
- Consumer Space: Supporting consumer-facing applications that need to scale to hundreds of millions of users and require billions of transactions per day [00:14:17].
- Simplified User Experience: Enabling applications to sponsor gas fees for users, making transactions feel free, which requires very low underlying gas costs [00:37:02].
- DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks): Lowering the cost of entry for business models in DePIN, such as marketplaces for health data or device data, where consumers contribute resources (compute, cameras) to a broader network [00:38:18].
This represents a bet on application builders leveraging performant infrastructure for growth, driven by a “monotonically increasing” trend in crypto adoption [00:15:23].
Public Testnet vs. Devnet
The Devnet’s purpose was to gather early feedback, continuously run internal replays, and analyze performance metrics like TPS and gas per second [00:16:35]. It provided a feedback loop for identifying unanticipated use patterns and necessary fixes [00:17:19]. One team sent 3 trillion gas (equivalent to about 30 days of Ethereum throughput) through Devnet in just a few hours [00:17:53].
The Public Testnet marks a new phase [00:17:45]. It is designed for wider public access, allowing real users to test applications, potentially uncover new, unanticipated stress scenarios like large-scale NFT mints or AI agents spamming the network [00:27:28]. The goal is to observe how the system gracefully handles being pushed to its limits without failing or degrading user experience with errors [00:29:05].
Goals of the Public Testnet
For Category Labs, the goal is to exercise the technology, gain more feedback on the client’s strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas for future work [00:32:47].
For the Monad Foundation and the community, the public testnet aims to:
- Showcase the power of the technology and the applications built on top of it [00:33:38].
- Generate excitement and allow users to experience what high performance enables [00:34:07].
- Serve as the “starting line” where Monad’s capabilities become publicly apparent [00:34:48].
- Attract new developers and foster ecosystem growth by enabling teams to deploy and get user feedback [00:35:01].
Misconceptions About Monad and Blockchain Development
A common misconception in the crypto space is that launching a testnet or mainnet is the “finish line” for a protocol, leading to a lack of further innovation or growth [00:48:18]. Many believe that “technology doesn’t matter” or that “go-to-market is more important than technology,” leading to minor changes to existing codebases without significant technological advancement [00:51:41].
Monad, however, views its public launch as merely the “starting line” [00:48:55]. The team has a “massive queue of ideas” for future optimizations, rewrites, research, new features for usability and privacy, and increasing decentralization to support thousands of nodes (matching Ethereum and Solana) [00:49:03]. Their long-term vision involves many years of continuous innovation, focusing on delivering high performance and full backward compatibility as a foundational layer for broader crypto adoption [00:50:09].