Everything you need to know about the Monad project

4 min readJul 14, 2023

What is Monad?

Monad is an upcoming layer-1 blockchain, equivalent to the EVM, that aims to provide a transaction throughput of 10,000 transactions per second (tps). Our platform offers app developers the best of both worlds — portability and extreme performance.

What is Monad’s Mission?

Over the past few years, the value of decentralization has become evident. The potential for developers to achieve remarkable feats with permissionless development environments has surpassed centralized solutions. However, developers often face challenges related to throughput and compute cost. Monad addresses these pain points by creating an exceptional development environment, paving the way for a new era of decentralized experiences.

Why should I care?

Mass user adoption implies a significant increase in transaction activity compared to what is currently possible. Presently, Ethereum can only support 500,000 daily users, averaging 2 transactions per day. For blockchain technology to truly penetrate the mainstream, we need a solution capable of supporting 100 times more users (50 million people) and 10 times more transactions per user. Monad positions itself as the best solution to fulfill this vision.

What makes blockchain technology valuable?

In general, smart contract blockchains offer two major innovations:

Censorship-resistant money/computation.
Composability between applications, allowing new apps to leverage existing functionality.

However, developers are currently constrained by high gas costs, limiting their ability to build useful applications that provide value to everyday users. Monad is significant because it expands the possibilities for innovation on smart contract blockchains. By removing the tradeoff between higher gas costs and composability with existing applications, developers can build applications that would otherwise be impossible elsewhere.

How can I become a validator?

To become a validator, please fill out the Typeform link provided on our website: https://www.monad.xyz/validators.

How many validators are there?

Monad’s v0 is expected to accommodate 100–200 validators.

What does EVM equivalence mean?

EVM equivalence implies that the computation layer on Monad closely resembles that of native Ethereum, from the perspective of dApp developers.

Why is EVM equivalence important?

By ensuring EVM equivalence on Monad, we can leverage Ethereum’s existing infrastructure and developer base, simplifying the onboarding process for new apps and developers.

How do Smart Contracts work on Monad?

Smart contracts on Monad function identically to smart contracts on Ethereum. However, we plan to introduce additional features exclusive to Monad beyond the initial launch of the mainnet.

Which wallets support Monad?

All wallets that support Ethereum can be used on Monad. Major wallets like Metamask, Coinbase Wallet, and hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor are compatible with our platform from the first day of launch.

Who is building Monad?

Monad is being developed by Monad Labs, a team comprising world-class talent from Jump Crypto, Jump Trading, Quant Lab, Pattern Research, and Arista. With decades of experience in optimizing code for low latency and designing distributed systems at scale, we are confident in Monad’s success.

Is Monad hiring?

Yes! Monad Labs is constantly seeking talented individuals who are eager to make meaningful contributions. Visit our open positions page here to apply: https://boards.greenhouse.io/monad.

What is the relationship between Monad and Jump Crypto?

There are no official ties between the Monad and Jump Crypto teams.

Tech Questions

10,000 tps; I’ve heard this song and dance before; how will you actually deliver on this promise?

We achieve this through parallel and asynchronous execution of EVM transactions, along with other optimizations in consensus and execution.

What is parallel execution?

Unlike other EVM blockchains that execute transactions one by one in a linear manner, Monad executes transactions in parallel, allowing multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously.

What is asynchronous execution?

In most blockchains, execution and consensus are interdependent, requiring one to be completed before the other. However, with asynchronous execution, consensus is achieved before transaction execution. In other words, these two processes operate independently.

How is Monad different from other EVM blockchains?

While other EVM blockchains offer innovations in either transaction execution or consensus while keeping the other aspects similar to Ethereum, Monad has chosen to implement meaningful changes at every level of blockchain computation. By addressing all these pain points, Monad achieves superior performance while maintaining hardware requirements similar to Ethereum.

Why isn’t Monad a Rollup?

If Monad were a Rollup, it would inherit Ethereum as its consensus solution. In our pursuit of creating the most high-performing solution possible, we aim to introduce optimizations in all aspects of blockchain computation. To achieve this, we need to build our own solution.