Introduction

In the first half of this year, we announced Zaros' expansion into the Monad Ecosystem. Although Monad has yet to go live, we are fully committed to being there from day one, launching on both testnet and mainnet as soon as they go live.

The support we've received from the Monad community has been incredible. This community stands out as one of the most dynamic and enthusiastic in the blockchain space.

Monad is developing an EVM-compatible blockchain with parallel execution capabilities, which will enable significant scaling of on-chain transactions. Since Monad is EVM-compatible, any application currently built on Ethereum or its Layer 2 solutions can seamlessly deploy on Monad.

The purpose of this article is to educate the Zaros community about Monad and to explore the strategic advantages of our expansion into this promising ecosystem.

Let’s get going.

What is Monad?

Let's start by understanding what Monad is and the problem it aims to solve.

As anyone familiar with the blockchain world knows, scalability has long been a challenge for Ethereum. During periods of high network activity, transaction costs can become prohibitively expensive. This scalability issue has enabled the emergence of numerous projects over the past few years, including alternative Layer 1 blockchains like Solana, Avalanche, Aptos, and Sui, as well as Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Starknet.

Initially known as "Ethereum Killers," these alternative Layer 1s sought to attract users to a different blockchain that could scale more effectively. Meanwhile, Layer 2 solutions have aimed to enhance Ethereum's scalability while maintaining the security and integrity of the original network. Each of these solutions has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Now, Monad is introducing a new approach that has generated significant excitement: Parallelism.

Monad is developing an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain that leverages parallel execution to process Ethereum transactions more efficiently. The goal is to achieve high transactions per second (TPS), rapid blockchain performance, and quick finality—similar to what Solana offers—while also attracting decentralized applications (dApps) and developers from the Ethereum ecosystem, which remains the foundation for most blockchain protocols.

While several modern blockchains have implemented parallelization, they often struggle to attract developers due to their lack of compatibility with the EVM environment. Monad, on the other hand, is building something that could harness the network effects of the Ethereum ecosystem.

How Does Parallelism Work?

For a comprehensive understanding of Monad and its various aspects, we recommend exploring their documentation, which you can find here.

In this section, we'll explain what parallelism is, how Monad implements it, and how this innovation benefits the DeFi ecosystem, including Zaros.

One challenge with EVM blockchains is that transactions are processed sequentially, meaning the EVM handles one transaction at a time. In a high-demanded network, this approach is inefficient. If two transactions are unrelated, there’s no reason they can’t be executed simultaneously. By enabling concurrent execution, higher transactions per second (TPS) can be achieved, as seen with blockchains like Solana and Sui.

Because the EVM is not designed to execute transactions in parallel, Monad introduces a concept called Optimistic Parallel Execution, which merges parallelism with optimistic execution.

In practice, this means that while transactions on Monad are still ordered sequentially, the network can execute multiple transactions simultaneously.

Optimistic execution allows Monad to begin processing transactions before preceding transactions in the block are fully completed. While this can sometimes lead to incorrect executions, Monad addresses this issue with a verification process:

During execution, Monad tracks the inputs used in transaction 2 and compares them to the outputs of transaction 1. If a discrepancy is found, indicating that transaction 2 was executed with incorrect data, Monad reprocesses the transaction using the correct data.

Although Monad executes transactions in parallel, the final state for each transaction is "merged" sequentially to ensure accuracy, as described above.

For those interested in diving deeper into the technical aspects, Monad’s documentation references related computer science concepts such as optimistic concurrency control (OCC) and software transactional memory (STM).

The “pipelining” system of Monad brings to reality an ecosystem that offers high scalability, EVM compatibility, and the potential for a significant network effect.

Applications that were previously inefficient to build on Ethereum due to high transaction demands, expensive gas fees, and slow execution can now be efficiently deployed on Monad.

Fundraising

The concept of parallelism within the EVM ecosystem is more than just hype—it's a plausible idea that has attracted substantial support from venture capital firms wanting to bring it to life through Monad.

Since 2023, Monad has successfully raised $244 million, a clear indication of the serious confidence investors have in this technology.

Below are the details of each funding round, as reported by CryptoRank:

• Seed Round (February 2023): $19 million raised, led by DragonFly Capital.

• Undisclosed Round (April 2024): $225 million raised, led by Paradigm.

Monad’s Community

Monad has proven to be effective in terms of technology. But success in the crypto and tech spaces requires more than just advanced technology; it demands an active and engaged user base. The best tech doesn’t always win—users do.

Fortunately, this has not been an issue for Monad. In fact, it’s one of the protocol’s greatest strengths. Despite not being live yet, Monad has already attracted one of the most passionate and engaged communities in the crypto space.

If you join Monad’s Discord or follow them on X, you’ll quickly see what we mean. You might even find yourself saying “gmonad” every single day.

As of August 12th, 2024, here are some key numbers from the Monad community:

• X Followers: 310k

• Discord Members: 370k

While these numbers are impressive, what truly sets Monad apart is the level of engagement within its community. For example, you can find a meme library on Notion, filled with countless images and GIFs that the community adds, reflecting the creative energy of its members.

People are excited for the launch of Monad. Since announcing our expansion into the ecosystem, Zaros has received massive support from the Monad community. One notable example is our partnership with the Monadians, an exclusive PFP collection poised to be pioneers in the future Monad ecosystem. Additionally, we recently participated in a Twitter Spaces session with the Monad team.

How does it benefit Zaros?

We only see good reasons to be launching on Monad. From a technological standpoint, Monad is exceptional. Given that we've already developed our perpetuals DEX on Arbitrum, an EVM network, deploying on Monad will be a seamless process.

By launching on Monad, we can take full advantage of its parallelism within a Layer 1 blockchain, enabling us to scale transactions per second significantly. This opens up a world of possibilities, ranging from enabling high-frequency trading to offering exclusive products. Our focus will be on scaling our solutions and expanding our user base in response to ecosystem demands. The next two products in our pipeline are:

• A Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) for spot markets, harnessing Monad's parallelized EVM.

• A bribe mechanism to incentivize liquidity provision

On the community front, we’re equally hyped about launching on Monad. The project has already attracted a strong community, eagerly anticipating the official launch of the testnet and, later, the mainnet. By being an early participant in this ecosystem, Zaros has the opportunity to capture a substantial portion of this community, positioning ourselves as the leading perpetuals DEX within Monad’s ecosystem.

Future Campaigns: What to expect?

We will be live on Monad’s testnet and mainnet as soon as each network is launched. We’ll be there from day 1.

One exciting announcement we can share in advance is our plan to host an exclusive zPoints pre-season on Monad. Users will be able to trade on Zaros via the Monad blockchain, accumulate zPoints, and—since you’ll be directly interacting with an application on the Monad blockchain—potentially benefit from any future token airdrops that Monad may offer to its users.

So far, the Zaros Trading League has been the best way for users to climb the zPoints rankings. Participants can accumulate zPoints through various tasks and earn multipliers by performing well on the leaderboard during the trading league.

On Monad, we’re offering a unique opportunity: you’ll not only be farming zPoints but also engaging with one of the most anticipated blockchains and dynamic communities in the space— right from day one.

Final Notes

The upcoming expansion of Zaros into the Monad ecosystem marks an amazing milestone in our journey. Monad's approach to parallelism within an EVM-compatible blockchain not only offers an efficient network but also opens the door to a wealth of new opportunities for both developers and users.

As we prepare to launch on Monad's testnet and mainnet from day one, we’re well positioned to become a key player in the ecosystem. Our initiatives, such as the upcoming trading league, will provide our users with exciting opportunities to engage with Monad while benefiting from our platform’s rewards.

The support we've received from the Monad community is a testament to the strength of this partnership. We are excited to be at the forefront of this journey, and we look forward to continuing to deliver value to our community.

Stay tuned for more updates, and get ready to join us as we lead the perpetuals DEX industry into the future with Monad.

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