Monad, a firm dedicated to enhancing the scalability of blockchain technologies, has unveiled its latest protocol, RaptorCast, designed to improve block propagation. Keone Hon, co-founder of Monad, highlights that current blockchains face significant hurdles in distributing large blocks globally without sacrificing speed and decentralization.
Challenges in Block Propagation
According to Keone Hon, increasing block sizes to improve performance can often slow down data flow within the system. Transporting large blocks across a global network of validators tends to take more time, potentially causing delays in the expected transaction speed. This scenario introduces a challenging balance between speed, decentralization, and bandwidth usage within high-performance blockchain projects.
RaptorCast: The New Propagation Protocol
Monad’s solution, RaptorCast, diverges from traditional block propagation methods by disseminating blocks in encoded fragments. Utilizing fountain-type error correction algorithms, RaptorCast divides the blocks into encoded parts. Validators within the network can reconstruct the full block data once they assemble enough fragments.
In this model, instead of the block leader distributing all block data to every validator, encrypted fragments are allocated among validators. These fragments circulate primarily based on stake weight across the network, and validators further distribute their fragments to other nodes. This approach allows the pieces to be reassembled even if there are delays or data losses, distributing the bandwidth load across the network.
The Monad team articulates that through RaptorCast, blockchain networks can achieve high transaction capacities while maintaining global decentralization.
Prioritizing Speed and Security
The RaptorCast protocol facilitates the creation of blocks containing approximately four thousand transactions within 400 milliseconds. Cryptographic audits and packet verification mechanisms are employed to optimize data flow and ensure overall network security. This system aims to safeguard against misuse during multi-hop data transmissions.
Keone Hon emphasizes that blockchain technology needs to consider not just high transaction capacities but also the physical limits of networks. A key focus of the protocol is to share large and swift blocks effectively without overwhelming the validators.
Meanwhile, Alchemy Pay, a company active in the digital asset ecosystem, has announced a new integration with Monad, facilitating the purchase of the MON token worldwide using traditional payment methods. This collaboration aims to provide users with an additional layer of convenience in accessing the Monad ecosystem.
