Podcast Summary: Bankless – “Do We Need Another L1? Inside Monad’s Parallel EVM with Co-Founder Keone Hon”

Date: November 25, 2025
Host: Bankless (Ryan)
Guest: Keone Hon, Co-Founder of Monad

Overview

This episode takes a deep dive into Monad, a new high-performance, highly decentralized EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, as Co-Founder Keone Hon discusses Monad’s engineering philosophy, its technical innovations, and why decentralization and performance must coexist. The discussion covers the necessity of new Layer 1s, Monad’s breakthroughs in parallel execution and consensus, comparisons to Ethereum, Solana, and Layer 2 approaches, MEV mitigation strategies, and the ethos behind Monad’s launch.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Another Layer 1? Monad’s Reason for Existence

• Monad aims to deliver a highly performant, decentralized EVM chain with fast finality—“delivers performance that is needed right now...and delivers that fast finality right now.” (A, 00:00).
• Keone emphasizes that Layer 1 innovation is essential, especially at the consensus layer, which Layer 2s typically ignore. “Consensus is what gives blockchains decentralization...Innovation at the consensus layer...is an extremely important and underexplored aspect of crypto these days.” (A, 01:49)

2. Defining Decentralization

• Technological viewpoint: “Decentralization means that control over the system is split into many different horcruxes...all keep each other accountable and enforce the rules of the system...” (A, 02:56)
• Social viewpoint: Decentralization includes community watchdogs—“people who are observing what’s going on and serving as the white blood cells of the system.” (A, 04:57)
• Democracy is key: Monad is “a consumer grade hardware chain...Anyone can take a Costco MacBook and run a node...” (A, 06:21)

Home Validator Requirements

• 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD, 100 Mbps bandwidth, reasonable CPU ($1,500 to assemble). Validators need 300 Mbps bandwidth. (A, 06:21, 34:20, 36:19)

3. Design Philosophy: Maximizing for Decentralization

• Monad deliberately avoids requiring expensive hardware, optimizing for high performance within low hardware limits. “It’s about low hardware requirements plus a really high performance.” (A, 11:06)

4. What are Blockchains For?

• “The fundamental purpose of a blockchain is to give a means of coordination...that is only enabled by shared global state...” (A, 12:28)
• Self-verifiability and self-sovereignty are central: “It is about self verifiability, it's about self sovereignty...” (A, 12:28)

5. Monad’s Technical Innovations: Six Key Stack Improvements

(A, 18:44–27:19)

1. Monad BFT (New pipelined consensus mechanism)
2. Asynchronous Execution (Decoupling consensus and execution, running both in parallel)
3. Parallel Execution (Optimistic multi-threaded transaction processing)
4. JIT Compilation (EVM bytecode compiled directly to machine code for efficiency)
5. Monad DB (Custom database natively storing Ethereum’s Merkle state, optimized for SSDs)
6. RaptorCast (Fast, chunked block propagation protocol for global distribution)

“It’s a combination of stacking, multiple improvements on top of each other that are all needed.” (A, 16:08)

6. Why Not a Layer 2?

• Layer 2s outsource consensus and don’t address fundamental decentralization problems. Monad seeks to improve both execution and consensus “to make the EVM more powerful...in a highly decentralized way.” (A, 01:36)

7. Comparisons to Solana, Ethereum, and Mega Eth

• Monad is “the EVM’s answer to Solana,” paralleling its performance efforts but “quite different...Solana has really high hardware requirements.” (A, 28:45)
• Ethereum’s focus is on ZK scaling and lean validators; Monad is about maximizing single-node performance without large hardware.
• Mega Eth: Monad is focused on decentralizing at the L1; Mega Eth (L2) leans on Ethereum for security and is more permissive of high hardware requirements. (A, 79:02–81:05)

8. Block Times, Finality, and Decentralization Trade-offs

• Monad launches with 400ms block times, 800ms finality, 10,000+ TPS, 500M gas/sec. (A, 46:54)
• Keone agrees with Vitalik that physical limits cap how low latency can go without centralization: “400 millisecond latency is close to imperceptible to you as a human.” (A, 51:24)
• “My line is wherever there is a compromise on decentralization...that is the block time at which we can still have globally distributed validators.” (A, 57:39)

9. MEV and Monad’s Approach

• Monad’s asynchronous execution creates a lag, reducing opportunities for toxic MEV strategies.
• Initially, only size-2 bundles allowed; the long-term vision is pre-trade privacy to truly thwart harmful MEV. (A, 59:01)

10. Modular vs. Monolithic Philosophy

• Monad favors the “integrated”/monolithic approach for atomic composability but built with consumer-grade hardware. (A, 63:35)
• No kill switches, admin keys, or multisigs—full code-enforced decentralization at launch. (A, 64:40)

11. Mainnet Launch, Tokenomics, and Distribution

• Integrations: EVM dev tools (Tenderly, MetaMask, Chainlink, etc.) all work out of the box; one Monad client at launch, with desire for more diverse clients in the future. (A, 65:04–66:44)
• $MON token—sale via Coinbase’s new platform for broad, fair distribution. All insiders’ tokens are locked and ineligible for staking or rewards until unlocked. (A, 68:13–72:59)
• 2% targeted inflation year 1 (100B supply, 2B annual issuance), declining as total supply increases—flat block rewards, low dilution. (A, 73:39–75:46)
• Staking: Wide access for retail, no “insider rewards” until tokens unlock.

12. Vision for 2030 & Failure Modes

• Success: Global, permissionless financial tools and businesses, universal access to competitive yields and markets built on Monad. (A, 83:07)
• Failure: If “no one cares about the properties...we value deeply.” (A, 84:16)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Decentralization:

“Control over the system is split into many different horcruxes...all keep each other accountable and enforce the rules of the system...” (Keone, 02:56)

• On Performance Gains:

“With the Monad project, we...deliver over 10,000 tps of throughput, or...500 million gas per second on day one of Monad mainnet.” (Keone, 16:08)

• On Hardware Requirements:

“Monad's a consumer grade hardware chain...Anyone can take a Costco MacBook and run a node...” (Keone, 06:21)

• On Trade-offs and Limits:

“My line is wherever there is a compromise on decentralization...it is literally impossible to have 100 millisecond block times while still preserving that property.” (Keone, 57:39)

• On Token Distribution:

“All insider tokens are locked and thus are not eligible for staking, which...is also a unique aspect of MONAD and monad's launch...” (Keone, 72:19)

• On the Vision:

“It’s really about a more interconnected world that can coordinate on top of a decentralized, trustless layer.” (Keone, 83:07)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Decentralization defined: 02:56–06:21
• Monad’s six innovations: 18:44–27:19
• Comparison to Ethereum and Solana: 28:18–30:27
• Block times debate / Vitalik critique: 49:52–57:39
• MEV approach: 58:14–63:10
• Tokenomics & launch details: 68:13–75:46
• 2030 vision & failure mode: 83:02–84:16

Additional Highlights

• All code is open source, with the invitation for Ethereum devs to learn from completed implementations (as with async execution and EIP 7702). (A, 37:03–39:57)
• Keone’s prior HFT experience at Jump Trading informed Monad’s latency and performance optimizations. (A, 42:52)

Final Thoughts

Monad is presented as a rigorously engineered, EVM-compatible Layer 1, aiming not just for performance, but for true, permissionless decentralization—grounded in both technical innovation (parallel, pipelined execution/consensus, database design) and social philosophy (open access, no admin keys, inclusive tokenomics). If successful, it may reshape the EVM landscape, offering a live experiment in decentralized, high-speed financial coordination.

Advice for listeners:
Check out the Monad validator map to see decentralization in action (A, 85:31).

For further details or to contribute, Monad’s open source codebase and documentation are now public.