Monad
By Geoffrey Lyons
Monad is the project behind the high-performance Monad blockchain, currently in testnet phase.
Many consider it to be a potentially breakthrough project in the crypto space for its ability to handle high volume while also being compatible with Ethereum.
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Cheat sheet
3 things to know about Monad
- It’s super fast. Monad targets 10,000 transactions per second with one-second block times (the time it takes to confirm a new batch of transactions). This makes it one of the fastest Layer 1 blockchains being built today.
- It’s fully EVM compatible (EVM = “Ethereum Virtual Machine”), meaning apps built for Ethereum - where a significant majority of crypto’s value resides - can run on Monad with little or no changes.
- It’s a best-of-both-worlds innovation that improves speed and security. By using parallel execution (processing many transactions at once) Monad boosts throughput without sacrificing Ethereum’s security model.
Interesting fact
With just around 20 employees, Monad raised $225M in its Series A funding round. That’s over $11M per employee. |
Gunning for Solana?
Dubbed by some as a “Solana killer,” Monad seeks to combine Solana’s speed with Ethereum’s developer ecosystem, offering a powerful new alternative.
Speed
Solana is currently the reigning champion of throughput. But while it boasts a theoretical maximum of 65K transactions per second (TPS), on average Solana tends to process around 1-2K. Monad, meanwhile, is designed to handle 10K TPS.
BUT…Monad hasn’t yet proven those speeds in the wild. Its 10K TPS target is still theoretical. |
Developer ecosystem
Solana uses its own custom virtual machine, which comes with a steep learning curve for developers. Monad is EVM-compatible, meaning it runs Ethereum-native apps out of the box. This allows Monad to tap into Ethereum’s established developer base, speeding up adoption and innovation.
BUT…Solana already has a thriving ecosystem, developer momentum and user base. It’s not going anywhere. |
Need for speed
Two of Monad's three co-founders, Keone Hon and James Hunsaker, have extensive backgrounds in high-frequency trading (HFT): where large volumes of trades are executed in fractions of a second. Keone led an HFT team for over eight years and James constructed a high-speed trading system that could handle billions of dollars worth of daily transactions. Both have leveraged this experience to influence Monad’s speed and scalability.
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