This episode discusses the technical advantages of parallelizing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the strategic decisions behind blockchain architecture, and the innovation driving the next generation of high-speed chains.

Compiled & Translated by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Guests: Keone Hon, Co-founder & CEO of Monad Labs; Jay Jog, Co-founder of Sei Labs; Vijay Chetty, CEO of Eclipse Labs

Host: Laura Shin, Writer and Host of Unchained

Podcast Source: Unchained

Original Title: How to Build the Fastest Onchain Experience With Monad, Sei, and Eclipse

Broadcast Date: August 28, 2024

Key Points Summary

In this episode, Keone Hon from Monad Labs, Jay Jog from Sei Labs, and Vijay Chetty from Eclipse Labs shared their different approaches to scalability and performance on high-throughput blockchains. They discussed the technical advantages of parallelizing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the strategic decisions behind blockchain architecture, and the innovation driving the next generation of high-speed chains.

Monad

How Monad Started and Its Initial Mission

• Keone introduced the origin and mission of Monad. Monad is a blockchain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, adopting a design called pipeline architecture, capable of achieving high throughput of 10,000 transactions per second, with a block generation time of one second. Monad was founded in early 2022 by three co-founders, Eunice Girda, James Hon Saker, and Keone. Keone and James had worked at Jump Trading for about eight years, focusing on building high-performance trading systems and participating in Solana DeFi-related work in Jump's crypto team.

• They realized the urgent need in the market for higher-performance EVM execution, so they decided to leave Jump and start Monad with Eunice Girda.

• Keone pointed out that the core goal of Monad is to achieve maximum performance from minimal hardware, requiring the construction of new software from scratch and the introduction of new architectural improvements. The design philosophy of Monad is to stack four major improvements together, each of which has a multiplier effect on the overall efficiency of the system, thereby achieving outstanding performance.

Features that Make Monad a High-Throughput Blockchain

• Keone detailed several key features of Monad to achieve high throughput.

  • Firstly, Monad adopts a customized state database that can natively store Ethereum Merkle tree data on SSD, enabling more efficient state access.

  • The second improvement is optimistic parallel execution, which allows multiple transactions to run in parallel while ensuring that the final result is consistent with serial execution.

  • The third is asynchronous execution, which creates independent "lanes" between consensus and execution, allowing execution to fully utilize the entire block time, not just a small part of it.

  • Finally, Monad BFT is a performance consensus mechanism that can maintain synchronization between hundreds of globally distributed nodes.

• Addressing the composability issue of parallel processing, Keone explained that Monad's blocks are still linear, and transactions within the block are also defined linearly, so the total order between transactions is maintained. Parallel processing occurs in the background and does not affect the final results of transaction execution. The guarantee of this optimistic parallel execution is that despite some processing during parallel execution, the final submission is still based on the original transaction order, ensuring that each submission is correct and can be re-executed if any input changes.

• In addition, Keone also mentioned that the customized state database is designed to address blockchain bloat. As the state continues to grow, the cost and latency of accessing the state also increase. The database structure used by existing Ethereum clients is complex, resulting in a large amount of interaction when accessing a state in the Merkle tree. Monad's customized database (called Mona DB) specifically optimizes the storage of Ethereum Merkle tree data, and although building the database from scratch is a complex process, it is an important step in improving execution efficiency.

Why Monad Chose to Create a New Blockchain Instead of L2

• Keone explained the reasons why Monad chose to be an independent blockchain rather than L2.

• Firstly, decentralization is their primary consideration. They believe that decentralized block production and participation of consensus nodes are crucial for resisting censorship and overall network control. Most existing L2 solutions still rely on centralized sequencers, which contradicts their decentralized philosophy.

• Secondly, performance and cost are also key factors. To build a truly high-performance system, every layer of the technology stack, including execution components, consensus components (maintaining synchronization between nodes), and data availability, must be optimized. Keone emphasized that Monad's goal is to comprehensively address these issues and build an efficient single system to achieve maximum performance.

Why Keone Believes Monad Provides the Best Experience for Developers and Why He Dislikes the "Ethereum Killer" Label

• Keone mentioned that the reason Monad provides the best experience for developers is mainly reflected in two aspects: performance and compatibility. Firstly, Monad is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which means developers can continue to use their familiar tools and libraries, such as the Solidity programming language. This compatibility allows developers to reuse existing components or ensure backward compatibility with Ethereum when building new applications.

• Secondly, Monad provides a significant performance improvement. Through asynchronous execution and efficient consensus mechanisms, developers can deploy applications in the Monad environment to enjoy higher transaction processing capacity. This is particularly important for applications aiming for mainstream adoption, as they need to handle a large number of transactions.

View on the "Ethereum Killer" Label

• Keone expressed a different view. He believes that this description is not accurate because the Monad project focuses on some under-researched directions in the Ethereum scalability space. Keone emphasized that the team hopes to enhance Ethereum's capabilities by exploring different technological pillars, rather than replacing it. Their goal is to contribute to Ethereum's scalability roadmap by proposing improvements (EIPs) and collaborating with other researchers.

• Keone further pointed out that Monad can be seen as a pioneering environment for certain Ethereum improvements, which may eventually push some improvements into Ethereum or other environments over time. Therefore, Monad's goal is to enhance Ethereum's capabilities rather than eliminate it.

Large-Scale Venture Capital Financing Activities of Monad and Their Use of Funds

• Monad recently completed its largest financing activity of 2024, raising a total of $225 million. Keone stated that the funds will be used for various purposes, with the primary goal of expanding the team and recruiting more talent to drive the Monad project and the entire industry forward. They not only hope to recruit professionals in the crypto field but also plan to attract low-level engineers with rich experience in other fields and introduce them to the crypto industry.

• Keone emphasized the team's gratitude for the support of investors and believes that the funds provide them with ample resources to realize their vision.

• Keone also mentioned that although Monad has not been officially launched, it has already attracted the attention of numerous venture capitalists and applications. For example, Monad applications such as Kintsu and Kuru recently received funding. This attention reflects the capabilities of the teams in the Monad ecosystem and the expectations of investors for high throughput, low fees, and full EVM compatibility. In addition, investors are also confident in the ongoing improvements driven by the Monad team, which will contribute to the long-term expansion and enhancement of EVM capabilities.

Strong Community of Monad

• Keone pointed out that Monad has a strong community, mainly due to the active contributions of community members and the efforts within the team. He believes that the growth of the community is ultimately driven by members who feel they can contribute. The role of the Monad team is to create a friendly environment, make people feel welcome, manage spam, and create a positive atmosphere.

• Keone expressed gratitude to the individuals in the community who are actively involved, setting high standards, creating exciting memes and artwork, and organizing various activities. For example, Monad has also established the Monad Running Club, a Strava group where members record their runs to improve their fitness levels. Additionally, there is the Mon Lingo program aimed at learning new languages together.

• These community activities showcase the fun of the Monad community, emphasizing the building of friendships and relationships, rather than just focusing on financial gains or "farming" behavior. The establishment of this social network is crucial for a successful blockchain community.

Next Steps for Monad and the Possibility of Token Launch

• Keone stated that the testnet and mainnet of Monad are about to be launched, and the team is working hard. Although there is no exact release date, progress is going very smoothly.

• Regarding the issue of the Monad token, Keone is currently unable to provide specific information, despite leaks and subsequent retractions regarding the token name. He stated that he cannot comment on this at the moment.

Sei

What is Sei and the Role of the GameStop Event in Its Creation

• Sei is a full-featured first-tier blockchain, initially inspired by Jay Jog and his co-founder Jeff Feng's experience during the GameStop event in 2021. At that time, Jay was the engineering lead at Robinhood and witnessed the internal chaos of the event. When the buying of GameStop and other stocks was suspended, Robinhood faced immense public pressure, which made him very uneasy because as an insider, they did not have complete background information but had to bear reputational risk.

• After experiencing the GameStop event, Jay and Jeff decided to create a decentralized trading platform aimed at avoiding similar situations. Initially, they wanted to build an on-chain decentralized exchange (DEX), but found that there was no suitable ecosystem to support a chain-based order book exchange at the time. Therefore, they decided to build it as an independent chain, which eventually evolved into Sei, a blockchain platform focused on efficient trading and decentralized finance.

Why Jay Believes the EVM Developer Ecosystem is So Strong

Jay believes that the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) developer ecosystem is strong for several reasons:

1. High Developer Ratio: Currently, about 80% to 90% of developers in the crypto field are EVM developers. This means that the EVM ecosystem has a large developer base.

2. Technical and Ideological Stickiness: EVM is not just a technology stack but an ecosystem. A rich set of tools and developer culture has formed around EVM, giving developers a stronger sense of belonging and stickiness in this environment. Many developers are opposed to switching to other execution environments, partly due to the technical complexity and the potential for errors in code when transitioning to a new environment, which could affect the security of the entire project.

3. Performance Limitations: Jay pointed out that the biggest limitation of EVM is its inadequate throughput, leading to a poor user experience. For example, Ethereum's transaction processing capacity is low, and users need to pay high transaction fees during peak periods, making it difficult for ordinary users to operate on the chain.

4. Potential of Parallel Processing: Jay mentioned that EVM currently processes transactions in a single thread, while modern computers are multi-core and can handle multiple workflows simultaneously. Their core insight is that by parallelizing EVM, modern hardware can be more effectively utilized to increase transaction processing capacity. This is also the reason they chose to build Sei, making it the first parallelized EVM.

5. Combining Advantages: By combining the advantages of EVM with high-performance blockchains (such as Solana), Sei can maintain the EVM developer ecosystem while providing higher performance and user experience.

Why Sei Transitioned from Cosmos to EVM, Leading to the Launch of V2

Jay explained the process of Sei transitioning from the initial Cosmos to EVM and the reasons for the launch of V2, including the following points:

• Initial Choice: In the initial stage of Sei, the team chose to use the Cosmos SDK to build application-specific chains because the Cosmos SDK is a well-tested framework that makes it easier to launch projects. This allowed them to quickly establish the infrastructure.

• Transition to a General Chain: As the project developed, the Sei team realized that they needed a more general solution, and the Cosmos SDK was still a good starting point. However, they found some inefficiencies in its use and made several optimizations.

• Optimization of Consensus Mechanism: Initially, Sei used the more basic Tendermint consensus mechanism. To improve performance, they optimized the block propagation and processing, ultimately developing the "twin turbo consensus," making Sei one of the fastest blockchains currently.

• Performance Advantage: Through these improvements, Sei achieved a final confirmation time of 400 milliseconds, faster than the confirmation time of other chains such as Solana. This high performance sets Sei apart in the competition.

• Decision to Transition to EVM: With a deeper understanding of market demand and the developer ecosystem, Sei decided to launch V2 and transition to the EVM environment. This transition not only attracts a large number of EVM developers but also leverages the rich tools and resources in the EVM ecosystem to enhance user experience and development efficiency.

What Makes Sei the "Fastest Chain, Even Faster Than Solana"

Jay explained how Sei became the "fastest chain" and detailed the features of the twin turbo consensus, including the following points:

• Mechanism of Twin Turbo Consensus:

  • In the traditional Tendermint consensus mechanism, processing a block requires two rounds of voting: pre-vote and pre-commit, before the block is processed. This process is time-consuming.

  • The innovation of Sei is that it starts processing blocks in parallel during these two rounds of voting. This means that block processing can occur simultaneously during the voting period, saving time. For example, if the voting process takes 300 milliseconds, Sei can use this time to process blocks, thereby improving overall performance.

• Optimization of Block Propagation:

  • In traditional Tendermint, when a block is committed, the entire block must be sent through the network, even if most of the transactions are already in the memory pool of each validator.

  • Sei's solution is to only send transaction hashes (each hash is about 32 bytes) instead of the entire transaction. This significantly reduces the amount of data transmitted over the network, allowing validators to reconstruct the block locally, thereby improving performance.

• Introduction of Parallelization:

  • In addition to the twin turbo consensus, Sei also introduced parallelization technology to further improve the performance of the execution layer. This parallel processing capability allows Sei to more efficiently utilize computing resources.

• Market Feedback and Transition:

  • When Sei initially launched V1, it only supported Cosmos and Rust smart contracts, which resulted in fewer users due to developers being unwilling to learn a new programming language.

  • Through communication with developers, Sei received consistent feedback requesting support for EVM. As a result, the team decided to transition to EVM and further optimize and improve based on this transition.

• Successful Launch of V2:

  • Sei announced V2 in November last year and officially launched it in May this year. The V2 version combines EVM and Cosmos smart contracts, allowing developers to use different smart contract languages on the same chain.

  • With the launch of V2, Sei's ecosystem rapidly expanded, attracting significant attention from new projects and investors, leading to a significant increase in TVL (Total Value Locked).

How Sei DB Works and Why Jay Believes Monolithic Architecture Has Many Advantages Over Modular Architecture

Operation of Sei DB

• State Storage and Data Writing:

  • With parallelized transactions and higher throughput, the amount of data written to the Sei blockchain has significantly increased, leading to a state load issue, which is one of the main causes of decreased blockchain performance.

  • To address this issue, Sei introduced CDB (a new database solution) with two main ideas at its core:

    • Memory-Mapped IVL Tree: In the V1 version, the entire tree structure was stored on disk, but in V2, Sei split it into multiple files and removed a large amount of metadata, resulting in a reduction of approximately 60% in stored data. This makes running a full node easier and allows for faster scalability.

    • Asynchronous Disk Writing: States are created in memory instead of being immediately written to disk, resulting in improved write speed. Jay mentioned that the write speed increased by 287 times when committing a block. This improvement significantly enhances performance, reduces latency, and increases throughput.

Advantages of Monolithic Architecture

• Complexity Management:

  • Jay believes that monolithic architecture has clear advantages in managing complexity compared to modular architecture. In modular architecture, the dependencies between multiple microservices increase the complexity of the system. For example, the separation of the execution layer, settlement layer, and data availability layer may lead to communication issues and increase system fragility.

• Performance Optimization:

  • In monolithic architecture, all components run within the same system, eliminating communication latency between different modules, thereby improving overall performance. Jay emphasized that top performance is always better in a monolithic chain than in a modular system because modular architecture requires handling additional communication overhead.

• Fault Tolerance:

  • If a part of a modular architecture fails, it may affect the finality and availability of the entire system. In monolithic architecture, all functions are centralized in one system, reducing the impact range of failures.

• Jay emphasized that although modular architecture may be more suitable in certain situations (such as requiring dedicated block space), monolithic architecture provides a better solution for applications seeking top performance. The design of Sei DB aims to support high-performance requirements by optimizing state storage and improving write speed while reducing system complexity.

Eclipse

How Eclipse Operates by Combining Ethereum, Solana, and Cosmos

Vision and Goals of Eclipse

• High Throughput L2 Solution: Eclipse aims to build a high-throughput Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) solution, intending to improve efficiency by optimizing the execution environment. Vijay emphasized that Eclipse chose to use the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) because it provides higher parallel processing capabilities and throughput than the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Modular Architecture

• Modular Design: Eclipse adopts a modular design approach, utilizing different blockchain technologies to meet various needs:

  • Execution Layer: Eclipse uses the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) because it can provide higher throughput and has a large Rust developer community. This allows Web 2 developers to easily transition to Web 3 and build applications with SVM's high performance.

  • Settlement and Consensus Layer: Eclipse chooses Ethereum as the settlement and consensus layer to leverage Ethereum's large user base and diverse assets. This combination allows users to enjoy the superior user experience of Solana applications while still accessing Ethereum's assets and ecosystem.

  • Data Availability Layer: Eclipse selects Celestia as the data availability solution because it is a leading modular data availability solution, providing the best block data publishing cost.

ZK Fraud Proofs

• Fraud Proof Layer: Eclipse plans to use Zero-Knowledge (ZK) fraud proofs to create a trust-minimized L2 solution. Vijay believes that all optimistic approaches will eventually turn to ZK fraud proofs, so Eclipse aims to be at the forefront in this area.

Addressing Industry Issues

• Addressing Fragmentation Issue: Vijay mentioned that there is fragmentation in the current Ethereum ecosystem, leading to complex coordination between different RFQ and liquidity providers. Eclipse aims to provide a universal L2 solution that can support the needs of most applications, reducing the coordination issues caused by this fragmentation.

How Eclipse Manages the Complexity of Its Modular Architecture

Internal Development and Testing

• Team Efforts: The Eclipse team has put in a lot of internal development and testing to ensure efficient communication between the various layers. Close collaboration with Celestia has significantly improved the efficiency of data publishing.

Optimization of Data Publishing

• Data Volume and Metadata: Vijay mentioned that Eclipse recently set a record for the largest data volume published in a single day, achieved through optimization of data structures. He pointed out that compressed Solana blocks contain a large amount of additional metadata besides the transaction list. Therefore, reducing the amount of metadata and improving data publishing efficiency has become an important optimization focus.

Continuous Learning and Optimization

• Dynamic Adjustments: The Eclipse team is continuously learning and adjusting to cope with the increasing activity. The goal is to reduce the ratio of data volume to activity as activity increases, thereby improving overall efficiency.

Collaboration in the Ecosystem

• Collective Testing and Collaboration: Vijay emphasized that "collective battle testing" with Celestia and other ecosystem partners is an important part of the optimization process. This collaboration not only helps improve their own solution but also drives progress in the entire ecosystem.

Ways to Trade SOL on Eclipse

Bridging Mechanism

• Bridging Required: Trading SOL on Eclipse requires the use of a bridging mechanism. Eclipse will operate a dedicated bridge for transferring Ether (ETH) to Eclipse.

Asset Bridging Partnerships

• Partnerships: Eclipse also collaborates with other bridging service providers, such as Hyperlane, to facilitate bridging of assets from other L1 and L2 networks. This means users can more conveniently transfer various assets to the Eclipse platform.

Wrapped SOL Tokens

• Wrapping SOL: On Eclipse, SOL will exist in the form of wrapped tokens. This means that during the bridging process, the original SOL will be converted into a wrapped version for trading on the Eclipse network.

Vijay's Response to Allegations Against Eclipse Labs' Founder and Former CEO Neel Somani

• Focus on Product and Team: Vijay emphasized that his main focus is on the company's future, the product, and its development roadmap. He is committed to ensuring that the team is aligned in one direction, with 99% of his energy focused on product and team building.

• No Comment on Personal Behavior: Vijay stated that he will not comment on Neel Somani's personal behavior or allegations, as he believes the veracity of these allegations is not for him to judge. However, he supports those who speak out and their right to express themselves.

• Company and Product Priority: Vijay stressed that for him, the most important thing is to focus on the company and the product being built. He believes that the controversies surrounding Neel are primarily personal affairs, and since Neel has left the company, the team will continue to focus on their work.

How Eclipse Attracts Developers

Attracting Solana Developers

• Easy Porting of Applications: Eclipse provides an easy way for existing Solana developers to migrate their applications to Ethereum, to access Ethereum users and assets. This presents a growth opportunity for protocols like Mango and Soul Land to attract more users and assets while bringing the Solana application experience to their users.

Attracting Ethereum Developers

• Cross-Chain Development Opportunities: Vijay pointed out that there has been limited interaction between Ethereum and Solana developers, mainly due to the differences between the two languages (such as Solidity and Rust). However, this situation has been improving recently, with developers exploring how to use Rust on Ethereum, and tools like Rep supporting this cross-chain development.

Addressing Ethereum's Scalability Issues

• Decentralized Trading Experience: Many Ethereum developers have moved their DeFi trading off-chain or onto specific application chains due to scalability limitations. Vijay believes this has led to fragmented experiences, making it difficult to achieve unified liquidity and transparency. Eclipse provides a solution that allows developers to deploy institutional-grade Central Limit Order Books (CLOB) and seamless Request for Quote (RFQ) systems, while keeping these operations entirely on-chain.

Providing High-Quality DeFi Application Experiences

• Institutional-Grade DeFi Applications: Eclipse aims to provide users with high-quality DeFi application experiences while keeping all operations entirely on-chain, contrary to the current trend of moving intents and RFQ systems off-chain. In this way, Eclipse can help developers achieve better user experiences and greater transparency.

Vijay's Expectations for Thriving Areas on Eclipse

DeFi Sector

• Institutional-Grade DeFi Experience: Vijay is looking forward to seeing some institutional-grade DeFi experiences during hackathons, especially Central Limit Order Books (CLOB) and Request for Quote (RFQ) systems. He emphasized that these systems need to provide a good user experience for easy access by ordinary users.

Meme Coin Sector

• Fair Distribution and Community Ownership: Vijay noted that there has been a lot of activity around Meme Coins on Solana, and he looks forward to seeing innovations related to fair distribution and community ownership. These concepts can be applied to crypto companies supported by venture capital, promoting community participation and development.

Consumer Experience

• High-Throughput Consumer Applications: Vijay emphasized that the high throughput provided by Eclipse presents a huge opportunity for building top-notch consumer experiences. He mentioned that mainstream Web 2 social applications have a high volume of transactions and interactions per second, making it an interesting design space to leverage Eclipse's capabilities to support these applications. He cited successful examples such as Friend Tech, Forecaster, and Lens, which have demonstrated potential in this area.

Infrastructure

• Decentralized Physical Infrastructure: In terms of infrastructure, Vijay mentioned the potential of decentralized sensor networks and decentralized artificial intelligence. He believes that while there is some hype in this area, there are still many interesting possibilities in the design space of large-scale sensor and deep networks.

Eclipse's Next Plans and Possible Mainnet Launch Time

• Vijay mentioned that Eclipse has already launched the mainnet for developers but is not actively pushing frontend tools for ordinary users at the moment. Their focus is on helping developers and infrastructure partners deploy applications to the mainnet environment.

• The public mainnet launch is expected to take place around September, at which time various interfaces and gamified experiences will be introduced for ordinary users.

Development Plans After Launch

• Withdrawal Functionality: Before the public mainnet launch, users will be allowed to perform withdrawal operations, which is a basic requirement.

• Phased Development: After the mainnet launch, Eclipse will transition to the first phase of Rollup in the following months, which will include the introduction of permissionless fraud proofs, trust-minimized bridging, and forced inclusion functionalities.

• Gradual Open Sourcing: Eclipse plans to gradually open source a part of its technology stack in the future, with the currently released parts using the Apache 2.0 license, allowing for academic use and reuse.

Decentralization and Governance

• Decentralized Future: Vijay emphasized that decentralization and governance are part of Eclipse's roadmap, and the Eclipse Foundation is developing a related timetable.

Competitiveness and Innovation

• High Throughput Opportunities: Eclipse aims to provide significantly higher throughput and plans to be the first to implement an independent validator client developed by the Jump team for Solana.

• Hardware Acceleration: Vijay stated that Eclipse will also conduct research on hardware acceleration, with the goal of achieving throughput of hundreds of thousands of transactions per second to support the scale of Web 2 and Web 3 applications.

Suitable Application Types

• Key Application Areas: Vijay specifically mentioned that Eclipse is best suited for application types including on-chain Central Limit Order Books and RFQ systems, mainstream consumer applications covering millions of users, and deep applications such as large-scale sensor networks.

Summary

In summary:

• Monad focuses on optimizing EVM performance to provide an efficient Ethereum experience.

• Sei aims to enhance DeFi transaction efficiency through a decentralized trading platform combined with parallelized EVM.

• Eclipse provides a high-throughput Ethereum L2 solution by combining various blockchain technologies, modular architecture, and ZK fraud proofs.

These three projects have each proposed innovative solutions to different challenges in blockchain performance and decentralized applications, driving the diversified development of blockchain technology.

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