For those who are new to Monad and maybe have seen their logo or some of their purple mascot memes, or Thread Guy's recent hire to their team, here's a quick overview. Monad is a new blockchain layer 1 (like ETH, BTC, SOL) with the goal of becoming the most peformant layer 1 blockchain to scale the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). That's a bit of a mouthful so let's break it down.
Layer 1 blockchains are really the infrastructure of web3, so Monad is developing the building blocks for defi and other decentralized applications to run on top of. This is different than chains like Optimism or Arbitrum that have been developed to scale the Ethereum blockchain - these are layer 2 rollups, not layer 1 blockchains. They confirm transactions in batches down to ETH layer 1, whereas Monad will confirm transactions directly to their blockchain.
Performance for Monad is how we develop web3 infrastructure in a way that can properly compete with web2 applications. Most of the current layer 1 blockchains are grossly underperforming from what retail consumers expect in their software performance. While bitcoin has provenance and serves a specific purpose for store of value of digital assets, the block size and block times make it prohibitive for proper consumer-level interaction at scale. Ethereum, which has been the dominant chain for DAPPs/Defi operates at a typical 10 transaction per second (tps) rate. This doesn't scale well and can be felt by traders or anyone interacting on chain during spiky events that cause gas prices to soar in order to get transaction confirmation priority. Monad on the otherhand is targeting a 10,000 tps - that is 1,000x faster than Ethereum.
Monad tackles performance by optimizing across all levels of the tech stack - database, VM, consensus and networking layers in order to streamline EVM transaction processing. Operating as a layer 1 helps them maintain a high degree of decentralization, which pushes the blockchain ethos forward. Many layer 2's are not very decentralized. They use the term parallelization to describe running transactions in parallel to increase throughput as part of their algorithm that helps them achieve the performance they are targeting.
With an absolutely stacked team (let's face it, any team that can successfully recruit Thread Guy is making a deep playoff run) and a recent $225M raise from some of the biggest funds and angel investors in the space, this is definitely a project to watch.
How to get access to Monad's upcoming airdrop?
There is a lot of speculation out there about how to get access to this very hyped upcoming drop. Please note this is not financial advice, nor have these been communicated officially by the Monad team so please use your judgment when making any investment decision - crypto is a volatile market and I always suggest only investing what you can afford to see go to zero. That being said, Monad community members received airdrops from Wormhole earlier this year and there is some speculation that when W token staking goes live, stakers of at least 2,000 W tokens will qualify for Monad's airdrop. Additionally, one of Monad's angel investors, InverseBrah, is also the founder of an NFT project on Solana called Wassieverse, which he has suggested is the true investor in the recent raise (the project). Finally, the tried and true method of engaging within the Monad community, creating memes, writing threads and generally finding ways to boost awareness are likely ways to get elevated roles in the Monad discord that may lead to some airdrop allocation. Full disclosure, I am a holder of W tokens and a Wassieverse NFT.
For more information about Monad and to engage with the community, here are a few useful links: