Monad — Introducing a New Paradigm in Community Building

1. Introduction

The role of community in the blockchain sector is frequently discussed. We often hear that a strong community determines a project's success or failure. Yet, it is rare to find clear examples where the community genuinely contributes, forms strong internal bonds, and receives proper recognition from the team.

In the current market, new projects launch constantly. Capturing the attention of a limited group of users and converting them into community members is a difficult first step. Even if a community grows, the market's investment-driven nature often causes activity to drop rapidly when token prices fall. We have observed this pattern repeatedly in the industry's short history.

Despite these challenges, a new project has attracted significant attention due to unprecedented community activity, even before its testnet launch. This project is Monad, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). We will examine the two pillars supporting Monad: its technology and its community. Specifically, we will analyze how Monad is introducing a new paradigm for blockchain communities.

2. What is Monad?

Keone, Monad's co-founder and CEO, previously worked in high-frequency trading (HFT) at Jump Trading. During his eight years in traditional finance, he observed that blockchains, including Ethereum, could not handle the scale required by traditional financial systems. For example, traditional systems often process between 2 to 4 million transactions daily, with nominal volumes exceeding $1 trillion. This experience led him to conclude that limited scalability was a major barrier to adoption. He aimed to bridge traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) by creating a network capable of processing transactions at that scale. This vision provided the foundation for Monad.

As noted, Monad's primary goal is to enhance scalability through faster processing and lower costs. While several Layer 1 projects, such as Solana, Aptos, and Sei, have launched with a focus on scalability, Monad differentiates itself by offering full EVM compatibility. This ensures Monad can fully support Ethereum developers and decentralized applications (dApps). It effectively positions itself as a "faster and cheaper Ethereum." By doing so, Monad seeks to distinguish itself from existing Ethereum rollups and other Layer 1 solutions.

3. Monad, Fast and Cheap Ethereum

Let us examine the technical aspects that have drawn attention to Monad. Two features stand out: 1) portability enabled by full EVM compatibility, and 2) scalability achieved through Monad's unique consensus and execution architecture.

3.1. Portability: Fully Absorbing Ethereum

Portability refers to the ability to migrate Ethereum dApp smart contracts to Monad without code modifications. This feature allows Monad to integrate fully with the Ethereum ecosystem, which holds the largest capital and user base in the industry. Monad achieves this portability through two components: 1) Full EVM Bytecode Compatibility and 2) Full Ethereum RPC Compatibility.

3.1.1. Full EVM Bytecode Compatibility

Bytecode is the format in which contracts are stored and executed on the Ethereum network by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Smart contracts written in Solidity must compile into bytecode before the EVM can process them.

Monad's Full EVM Bytecode Compatibility ensures that any contract deployed on Ethereum can transfer to Monad without modifications. This compatibility allows Monad to accommodate the approximately 1,100 dApps operating on Ethereum. By enabling easy migration, Monad addresses the common challenges new ecosystems face, such as attracting popular dApps and their users. This enhances its competitive position in the market.

3.1.2. Full Ethereum RPC Compatibility

Ethereum RPC (Remote Procedure Call) is a protocol used to communicate with Ethereum nodes. It allows access to data and transaction transmission using the JSON-RPC standard. While full EVM Bytecode Compatibility allows Monad to migrate dApps directly, RPC compatibility ensures that tools interacting with Ethereum nodes—such as MetaMask, Etherscan, Dune, and Hardhat—work seamlessly within the Monad ecosystem.

3.2. Scalability: Achieving 10,000 TPS

Scalability refers to a network's ability to process transactions quickly while maintaining low costs. A key metric for assessing scalability is Transactions Per Second (TPS). On March 14, Monad announced via Twitter that it achieved 10,000 TPS on its devnet. This milestone indicates Monad has created an environment capable of processing 1 billion transactions per day.

Monad achieves high scalability through its unique consensus and execution mechanisms. In this chapter, we will analyze the core components of these mechanisms that enable such performance.

3.2.1. Consensus

Monad's consensus mechanism is structured around four key components:

MonadBFT: This is Monad's unique consensus algorithm. It employs pipelining to handle block proposals, voting, and finality across multiple rounds rather than a single round.
Shared Mempool: To verify the hash of proposed blocks under MonadBFT, Monad uses a system where each node shares its mempool. The mempool is the storage area for transactions waiting to be validated.
Deferred Execution: Unlike Ethereum's consensus structure, where consensus on a block requires all nodes to complete transaction execution, Monad separates consensus and execution. Nodes first agree on the order of transactions and then proceed with their execution.
Carriage Cost & Reserve Balance: This system addresses the potential issue of transaction failures due to insufficient gas fees. When a user submits a transaction, they pay a carriage cost upfront. If the transaction is executed successfully, this cost is refunded. The reserve balance refers to a dedicated balance set aside by each node to cover transaction fees.

Monad's innovative MonadBFT algorithm decouples block consensus from execution. It is designed to enhance scalability by enabling rapid transaction processing and reducing costs. Each of the four components is crafted to complement the others. This approach addresses potential challenges that could arise from focusing solely on scalability. For example, the shared mempool mitigates issues related to nodes only receiving block hashes. The carriage cost and reserve balance system addresses potential gas fee shortages that could result from deferred execution.

3.2.2. Execution

Monad’s unique execution mechanism revolves around two key elements:

Optimistic Parallel Execution: This approach enables the parallel processing of transactions in the upcoming block. It does this even before consensus on the previous block is finalized. It operates under the assumption that all operations will be valid. If any errors are detected during the validation stage, the specific transaction is re-executed. Ultimately, the results of all transactions are arranged linearly, similar to Ethereum.
MonadDb: This custom-built database stores state information and supports asynchronous input/output operations. This feature enables the system to begin processing the next transaction without waiting for the previous transaction's results to be finalized.

Monad’s approach to improving scalability extends beyond pipelining for parallel transaction execution. We recognize that one of the biggest challenges to EVM scalability is the bottleneck caused by state access. Monad developed its own database, MonadDb, to address this issue. No matter how many threads are utilized for parallel processing, the effectiveness is significantly diminished if they cannot simultaneously access the state data in the database.

4. Community, The Alpha and Omega of the Project

Monad's recent surge in popularity is not solely due to its rapid transaction processing speed. It is also significantly influenced by the pivotal role of its community. While the importance of community in the blockchain industry has long been emphasized, few projects have successfully mobilized their community members as actively as Monad has. This is particularly true before the launch of their testnet. Monad stands out as a rare example where community engagement has been both recognized and actively practiced. Participation is regularly highlighted on the project's official social media accounts and by core foundation members. In this chapter, we will explore the structural uniqueness, core values, and growth background of the Monad community.

4.1. Direction of Monad Community Design

In the early stages of community development, Monad encountered challenges in fostering active participation from its members. This led to the creation of a tiered system. Members receive different levels of access based on their contributions. The rationale behind this structure was well articulated in an interview with Keone and Kevin on the Good Game Podcast. When the Monad Discord server was launched in October 2022, all participants were given a "Pioneer Role" to encourage active engagement. However, contrary to expectations, many members who received the role did not remain active. This experience taught Keone and Kevin two important lessons. First, the criteria for role assignment needed to be stricter. Second, it was crucial to encourage a broader range of community activities beyond simple, repetitive tasks.

Next, we will examine the structure and characteristics of the Monad communities on Discord and Telegram.

4.2. Structure of the Monad Community

4.2.1. Discord

Wormhole airdropped 8,000 $W to Monad members with Nads role.

That was worth ~$14,000 at launch. As a pipeline intern and member of the OG TG, I know many Nads who have received the airdrop. Some come from countries where this amount of money is extremely high.

NADs on top. pic.twitter.com/smlruV5CML

— Henrik (@HWihler) April 7, 2024

Activities within the Monad Discord community have been ongoing for a significant time. These include chatting, completing daily missions, and creating Monad-themed memes. These activities have helped establish a unique identity for the project. Meme characters like Molandak, Moyaki, and Chog have become synonymous with Monad. They were all created through the spontaneous efforts of community members. The Monad Foundation has embraced these characters. They have incorporated them into various branding efforts, including the creation of guilds and merchandise.

Below is an overview of the currently identified roles, along with their associated permissions and how they can be obtained:

4.2.2. Telegram Community

While Discord serves as an open community space for everyone, Telegram offers a more private environment. This environment is reserved for members who have made significant contributions to Monad over an extended period. Currently, there are three active chat groups: the OG Chat, the House of Molandak, and the House of Moyaki (formerly known as Purgeatory).

Access to Monad's Telegram chat groups is granted to members who actively engage in community activities both online and offline. This includes interacting with the community on Twitter and Discord, participating in various Monad offline meetups, and significantly contributing to Monad's branding efforts. Only after demonstrating such commitment can members receive an invitation link to the House of Molandak or Moyaki from a member with invitation privileges or directly from a Monad Foundation member.

Members of the Molandak and Moyaki chat groups are expected to actively participate in ongoing community activities, including weekly missions assigned to each group. Those who excel in these tasks (approximately 10 members from each chat group) are given the opportunity to join the OG Chat each week. However, even within the OG Chat, members are required to continue participating in weekly missions and remain active.

To prevent entering the private chat groups from becoming the ultimate goal, Monad has implemented the "Thursday Purgeday" system across all three Telegram chat groups, including the OG Chat. This system enforces active participation by removing 25 to 50 members every Thursday who have shown minimal engagement. This approach ensures that only the most dedicated members remain in the chat groups, fostering a culture of continuous and enthusiastic participation.

🪓THURSDAY PURGEDAY🪓

Right now, members from all 3 Monad TG chats are being purged in parallel

Want an invite? Leave a comment 👇 pic.twitter.com/qfrP5GiiCH

— Monad ⨀ (@monad_xyz) July 18, 2024

Recently, it was announced that the weekly missions in Monad's private chat groups have been discontinued. This decision reflects the Monad Foundation's recognition of the growing fatigue and dissatisfaction among community members due to the pressure of constant activity. The Foundation now encourages members to contribute to the community at their own pace and discretion. However, the Purgeday remains in place, meaning that the pressure to stay active and engaged is unlikely to be fully alleviated.

4.3. Background of Monad Community Growth

Having explored the history and characteristics of the various channels within the Monad community, this chapter will delve into the strategies that have propelled Monad's community to become one of the most notable in the industry.

4.3.1. Rejecting the Playbook

The term "playbook" refers to a set of standard strategies or rules commonly used in a specific industry to achieve certain goals—essentially serving as a guideline. In the blockchain industry, marketing and community building have traditionally followed a well-established playbook. This often involves promoting a project's strengths through social media posts and using onboarding platforms like Galxe Quest or Layer3 to attract users and followers through simple tasks such as likes, retweets, and quizzes.

While these methods have proven effective in boosting early-stage project metrics like followers, Total Value Locked (TVL), and Daily Active Users (DAU), Monad chose a different path. The project argued that such superficial metrics do not represent an ideal marketing strategy or community development approach. Instead, Monad adopted a novel strategy that diverged from industry norms.

From the outset, Monad's primary goal in community building was not merely to increase numbers. Rather, the focus was on creating a lively and trendy brand image by encouraging community members to engage in humorous and meme-based activities on social media. The aim was to foster a culture where people who encountered these posts would feel a genuine, voluntary desire to join the community.

At the heart of Monad's unique strategy was Kevin, who led the growth efforts at Monad. Widely known on Twitter as "Intern," Kevin introduced a fresh perspective on Web3 marketing. His innovative approach is encapsulated in his post titled "10 Rules for Crypto Marketing & Community: A Systems Approach."

🔎

[Kevin's 10 rules for crypto marketing] 1. Stop posting ads. 2. You are competing with influencers and entertaining content on twitter, not with other protocols. 3. Your marketing & community strategy should take a systems approach. 4. Invest heavily in community. 5. Post and interact with top community content from your main account and from the founders' accounts. 6. Association > Knowledge. 7. Do not blindly copy and paste someone else's strategy. 8. Quality > Quantity. 9. Do things that don't scale. 10. A community is made up of real people with real lives that have other things to do.

Particularly, rules 2 and 6 align closely with the core principles of the Attention Economy, a concept that has become a dominant trend in the advertising landscape of the social media era. The Attention Economy treats human attention as a scarce resource, reflecting a key economic approach in today's industry, where consumer attention directly correlates with a company's value.

Similar to how Nike emphasizes concepts like freedom, boundlessness, and energy over the technical superiority of its sneakers, or how Red Bull highlights the spirit of challenge and pushing beyond limits through extreme sports rather than focusing on the caffeine content of its energy drinks, Monad chose to focus on the humor, freedom, and approachability of its community. Rather than prioritizing the technical superiority of its product or the scale of its investments, Monad effectively communicated its brand image through social media, capturing the interest of Web3 users.

4.3.2. Embracing Web3 Native Culture

Rejecting traditional Web3 marketing strategies, Monad chose to embrace Web3 native culture, particularly through the use of memes. In the early stages of establishing the Monad community’s identity, they adopted a purple-colored version of Pepe the Frog, one of the most iconic memes in the Web3 space. This character, colored in Monad’s signature purple, was widely shared as Telegram stickers and Twitter memes, eventually making purple synonymous with Monad’s identity. As the community evolved, members started creating their own memes, resulting in the birth of characters like Molandak, Moyaki, and Chog. These characters have since become the definitive memes representing Monad.

Kevin led Monad's marketing strategy. It focused on humorously conveying the project's image through memes, rather than emphasizing technical superiority. This approach fueled the explosive growth of the Monad community. It also introduced a new trend in the Web3 industry: the "Intern" account model. In this model, the "Intern" account operates separately from the official account on social media. It uses memes to communicate market conditions, project updates, and brand identity in a lighthearted manner.

Crypto's a dangerous world, fraught with scams, frauds, and unscrupulous characters.

Here's the Ultimate Opsec Guide that EVERYONE needs to protect your magic internet money 👇🏻

1/69 pic.twitter.com/B0ZWd1TEVq

— Pendle Intern (@PendleIntern) July 31, 2024

Beyond integrating these influencers, Monad is embedding the values of "Monad-ness" throughout the organization. This extends from the foundation to the community. To achieve this, Monad has appointed long-term, active community members as managers for their countries. Some are even recruited as team members. This strategy maintains a consistent brand identity. It fosters a deeper connection between the community and the project, ensuring the ethos is upheld at every level.

4.3.3. Building a True Community

Bill, Monad’s Community Lead, believes the concept of "community" is often misunderstood. He argues that a true community must be more than a collection of audiences following updates. It is more than users engaging with the product, or contributors adding code and branding. According to Bill, a genuine community is defined by member interconnectedness. It is a space where people actively interact, exchange ideas, and collaboratively create new value, such as memes. This principle guides the direction of the Monad community.

As mentioned, most memes representing Monad were created by the community, not the foundation. Today, numerous Monad memes crafted by members are shared across Discord and Twitter. To foster unity, the foundation actively participates in these creative endeavors. One initiative is the weekly "Memes of the Week" selection. The foundation highlights winning memes and their creators through the official account.

Monad Memes of the Week #45

ty: @Hype_Finder, @onekhizzie, @AetheriusEisen, @miami_eth 💜 pic.twitter.com/ngpIdIiG9Q

— Monad ⨀ (@monad_xyz) August 16, 2024

Beyond meme creation, the community expanded efforts into video production and physical merchandise. They even released mixtapes on SoundCloud, based on Monad memes. This broad range of initiatives makes the community accessible. It is enjoyable even for members without specialized blockchain knowledge.

Another example of spontaneous participation is the organization of meetups. These are driven entirely by community members in various countries. Meetups have been held in Japan, China, and Thailand. In South Korea, the Seoul meetup on July 18th was a notable success.

5. Conclusion

5.1. Challenges Ahead

Active participation and content volume by Monad members are unprecedented. However, this engagement brings increasing pressure and workload for members.

To secure roles and belong to groups, members must tackle many tasks. These include daily and weekly missions from Monad, plus regular social media activity. They are expected to showcase creativity and embody "Monad-ness." Even after accessing competitive Telegram chat groups, members must maintain high activity due to the Purgeday system. This workload and pressure are directly proportional to community growth. We often see former members criticizing excessive demands. They cite unclear promotion and expulsion criteria.

Furthermore, many projects struggle to retain users and capital post-airdrop. The importance of long-term retention is evident. For the Monad team, sustaining engagement after rewards will require balance. They must mitigate user fatigue while fostering community growth.

5.2. Monad, Sounding the Alarm in the Industry

Monad has emerged as a top project in the crypto industry. This is due to technical superiority, characterized by perfect EVM compatibility. Scalability is achieved through unique consensus and execution architecture. An innovative community building approach has further cemented its reputation.

The project garnered attention by introducing unprecedented systems. These include private Telegram chat groups and promotion systems. Community-driven meme creation extends beyond simple tasks. While these strategies increased pressure on members and attracted criticism, we cannot deny the impact. Monad has underscored the critical importance of community. It presented a new paradigm for other projects to consider.

As the industry watches, key questions remain. Will the Monad community maintain vibrancy after mainnet launch? How will rewards be structured? To what extent will the ecosystem succeed in absorbing Ethereum’s ecosystem and capital? The answers will be crucial in determining Monad’s long-term impact.

References

Monad Docs
Monad Official Korean Blog
Cookies' X
Four Pillars, The Monster Where Narrative Meets Tech, Monad
Tikare Odunlami, Reasons For The Success Of The Monad Community And Its Potential For Growth
Tunez, Marketing for Monad Native Applications
Good Game Podcast, 10x Devs & 10x Growth Leads with Monad's Keone and Intern
DeFlow, Interview with Monad Labs CEO
Boffin, Memetic Backed Value (MBV): With Head Cultist, Bill of Monad