Layer by Layer: Parallelized Execution in the EVM with Monad

Scaling has long been one of the key thrusts of blockchain development, becoming especially important in recent years as increasingly sophisticated smart contract applications and growing user demand for block space have pushed modern blockchains to their throughput limits. A quick look at Ethereum’s transaction fees over the past year demonstrates the sensitivity of the network to spikes in demand, with fees generally rising alongside increased decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes.

There are two prevailing approaches to scaling blockchains that have gained acceptance and captured market share in recent years. The modular approach is characterized by the use of rollups, which are essentially separate chains that perform transaction execution and inherit their security from an underlying base layer - most commonly Ethereum - that is responsible for consensus and settlement. Rollups can be generally divided into optimistic and zero-knowledge (zk) rollups, depending on the method by which they post proofs to their underlying base layer, or Layer 1 (L1), to ensure transaction validity. This process requires proof data to be available on demand, which has also given rise to data availability solutions such as Celestia and EigenDA.