Conversations with the Founders of MegaETH and Monad: Reshaping Ethereum's Future (Condensed Edition)

Compiled by: brother bing

Translated by: TechFlow

Guests: Keone Hon, Founder of Monad; Lei Yang, Co-founder of Mega ETH

Hosts: Ryan Sean Adams, Co-founder of Bankless; David Hoffman, Co-founder of Bankless

Podcast Source: Bankless

Original Title: Mega ETH vs Monad: The Battle To Shape Ethereum's Future

Release Date: August 21, 2024

Click here for full podcast notes

Background

In this episode, we explore the frontier of the EVM—two blockchains built on radically different architectures: Monad and Mega ETH.

Monad is a Layer 1 project aiming to achieve over 10,000 transactions per second by re-architecting both execution and consensus layers from the ground up.

Mega ETH is a Layer 2 project focused on performance optimization, targeting over 100,000 Ethereum transactions per second.

This podcast dives into the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), specifically how Mega ETH and Monad plan to make Ethereum faster.

We'll answer the following questions:

1. Which is faster, more decentralized, and more censorship-resistant: Monad or MegaETH?

2. How have both projects built massive communities before launching testnets or mainnets?

3. How do they respond to criticisms that "building on the EVM is like building a house on sand"? And does this undermine Solana's value proposition?

Here are the key highlights from the discussion:

Parallelization

Keone:

• Database Optimization: Parallelizing reads is only a minor improvement compared to enabling parallel database reads—a core innovation in Monad. Monad builds a database entirely from scratch, optimized for efficiently storing Ethereum Merkle tree data on disk.

Lei:

• Performance Focus: MegaETH is unapologetically performance-oriented. It reduces execution redundancy by using a single active sequencer to process all transactions. Other nodes subscribe to state updates but do not execute transactions themselves.

• Hardware Efficiency: MegaETH developed a new data structure similar to the Merkle Patricia Trie, optimized for hardware (SSD, memory), by compiling Ethereum smart contracts from bytecode directly into native assembly and instructions.

• "We don't prioritize parallelization as a main optimization—we also place strong emphasis on single-threaded performance."

Decentralization

Keone: Monad’s architecture maintains decentralization, trustless neutrality, and censorship resistance through independent staking and full nodes, forming a complete blockchain stack.

Lei: By the definition discussed on the podcast—measured by the number of nodes providing finality, correctness, and censorship tolerance—MegaETH is objectively more decentralized because it's built atop Ethereum. This was a deliberate design choice.

Keone:

"All Layer 2s can claim 'we're more decentralized than Monad because we settle directly on Ethereum.' But what Monad brings is technology that makes Ethereum more efficient without requiring more hardware... [and] this unique direction could ultimately enhance the impact of decentralized systems."

Lei:

"Yes, I agree we're both contributing valuable tech to the Ethereum ecosystem... But if we define hardware cost as the total amount needed to purchase servers and run nodes, MegaETH requires just one sequencer, while Monad needs hundreds of full nodes. Personally, I'm not sure whether buying and operating a powerful sequencer (a few thousand dollars) is more expensive than running hundreds of full nodes on Costco laptops."

Keone:

"If the Monad network had only two nodes, it would indeed be cheaper."

Lei:

"Exactly—but such a hypothetical Monad system would rely on just two nodes for censorship resistance and finality, whereas MegaETH relies on tens of thousands of Ethereum nodes. I believe that’s a crucial distinction."

Modular vs Monolithic Architecture

Keone:

"Monad is a full-stack architecture where all layers are optimized and coordinated together."

Lei:

MegaETH adopts a modular approach, but doesn’t strictly adhere to modularity principles. Performance remains the top priority, even if that means making controversial architectural decisions.

Community

Keone:

• Monad’s community philosophy follows the belief that “individuals matter and everyone can make a difference,” creating an environment of opportunity for app developers and enthusiasts.

• All Monad mascots are community-driven.

• "If you’re in crypto and not having fun, something’s wrong."

Lei:

• MegaMafia is looking for zero-to-one applications that can only exist on MegaETH. We’re especially interested in founders who were previously frustrated by the limitations of existing infrastructure but now have the chance to realize their vision via MegaETH.

• Community rule: Anyone who eats rabbits will be permanently banned from Discord.

• Important note: Shuyao distributes hats.

The Future Role of the EVM

Keone:

The EVM is fundamentally a reasonable and expressive standard. Much of the criticism directed at it is misleading, ignorant, or driven by hype.

Lei:

Recalled that when Vitalik discussed Ethereum’s technical choices, he did not list the EVM among his top three regrets.

Mainnet Launch

Keone:

When Monlandak starts being distributed publicly, that means everything is ready—mainnet will launch.

Lei:

MegaETH plans to launch by the end of this year or early next year.