This is Eric Golden and today we’re going to break down the mechanics behind three major blockchains: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. Blockchain is a term you hear a lot, both in this show and in Web3 more generally. But what do they actually mean and how do they work? That is the subject we’re going to cover today and something I’ve wanted to do for some time. My guest for this episode is Keone Hon. Keone is a Math Prodigy who spent close to a decade building systems for high-frequency trading. Today, he is the co-founder and CEO of Monad Labs and is building a blockchain alternative to Ethereum and Solana. He has that rare blend of deep technical knowledge and the ability to communicate clearly, so he is the perfect guest for this episode. Please enjoy my conversation with Keone.For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here-----Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes (00:02:47) - (First question) - An analogy to explain how crypto and blockchain work(00:11:20) - Scenarios to further explore his schoolyard analogy for Bitcoin(00:17:03) - The reality of the math and power balance surrounding blockchain technology(00:23:28) - Expanding the analogy to explain Ethereum(00:25:26) - The broad impact of Ethereum on smart contracting and proof of staking(00:29:08) - Major differences between proof-of-work versus proof-of-stake models(00:31:09) - Comparing Solana’s stateless design to the older chains(00:34:44) - The added privacy and speed advantages enabled by Solana(00:35:56) - The real security and risk profiles of these major chains(00:38:09) - Explaining Solana’s parallel transactions (00:40:52) - Why the creation of new chains and further chain optimization still matters(00:42:27) - Why he got interested in the problem of chain efficiency and accessibility(00:44:54) - How crypto tech continues to build upon itself and expand to new use cases(00:48:34) - How Monad is building their blockchain to solve inefficiencies in crypto markets(00:50:09) - How he thinks about competition given the open-source nature of the space(00:52:12) - The process of actually building and testing a new chain(00:55:49) - What motivates him to continue building(00:56:53) - Diffusing a new blockchain innovation to users and coders(00:58:38) - What he’s most excited to see built over the next six months and six years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keone Hon, Co-founder and CEO of Monad Labs, dives into the groundbreaking design of Monad's EVM-compatible L1 blockchain, capable of processing over 10,000 transactions per second. He discusses the transition from traditional finance to decentralized trading, emphasizing the challenges of NFT trading. Keone outlines Monad's unique execution and consensus optimizations, including its use of asynchronous execution and MonadDB for efficient state storage. He also explores scalability, community engagement, and the innovative proposer-builder separation to enhance transaction efficiency.

Delve into building high-performance blockchains with Monad, focusing on EVM compatibility, parallel execution, and state database design. Learn about hardware requirements, L1 competition, and community building. Explore collaborations with Arbitrum, wallet security, and comparisons with Solana for state access. Dive into community engagement, on-chain activity evolution, and blockchain business models.

Keone Hon, Founder of Monad, discusses Monad's key technical innovations for high-performance Ethereum-compatible blockchain. Topics include MonadBFT consensus, parallel execution, custom database, achieving 10,000+ TPS, low transaction costs, full EVM equivalence, and attracting developers.

Keone Hon and Intern from Monad discuss building a strong community, meme marketing, layer 1 vs layer 2 considerations, and the importance of performance optimization in blockchain technology. They also touch on brand coherence, internet memes, and comparisons with Hyperliquid.