Monad L1 Development

Chain Configuration

Mainnet

RPC Endpoints (Mainnet)

Block Explorers

Testnet

Key Differences from Ethereum

Gas Limit Charging Model

Monad charges gas_limit * price_per_gas, NOT gas_used * price_per_gas. This enables asynchronous execution — execution happens after consensus, so gas used isn't known at inclusion time.

gas_paid = gas_limit * price_per_gas
price_per_gas = min(base_price_per_gas + priority_price_per_gas, max_price_per_gas)

Set gas limits explicitly for fixed-cost operations (e.g., 21000 for transfers) to avoid overpaying.

Reserve Balance

Every account maintains a ~10 MON reserve for gas across the next 3 blocks. Transactions that would reduce balance below this threshold are rejected. This prevents DoS during asynchronous execution.

Block Lifecycle & Finality

Proposed → Voted (speculative finality, T+1) → Finalized (T+2) → Verified/state root (T+5)

Quick Start: viem Chain Definition

import { defineChain } from "viem";
 
export const monad = defineChain({
  id: 143,
  name: "Monad",
  nativeCurrency: { name: "MON", symbol: "MON", decimals: 18 },
  rpcUrls: {
    default: { http: ["https://rpc.monad.xyz"], webSocket: ["wss://rpc.monad.xyz"] },
  },
  blockExplorers: {
    default: { name: "MonadVision", url: "https://monadvision.com" },
    monadscan: { name: "Monadscan", url: "https://monadscan.com" },
  },
});
 
export const monadTestnet = defineChain({
  id: 10143,
  name: "Monad Testnet",
  nativeCurrency: { name: "MON", symbol: "MON", decimals: 18 },
  rpcUrls: {
    default: { http: ["https://testnet-rpc.monad.xyz"], webSocket: ["wss://testnet-rpc.monad.xyz"] },
  },
  blockExplorers: {
    default: { name: "Monad Explorer", url: "https://testnet.monadexplorer.com" },
  },
  testnet: true,
});

Quick Start: Foundry Setup

Install Monad Foundry Fork

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/category-labs/foundry/monad/foundryup/install | bash
foundryup --network monad

Project Init

forge init --template monad-developers/foundry-monad my-project

foundry.toml

[profile.default]
src = "src"
out = "out"
libs = ["lib"]
evm_version = "prague"
 
[rpc_endpoints]
monad = "https://rpc.monad.xyz"
monad_testnet = "https://testnet-rpc.monad.xyz"
 
[etherscan]
monad = { key = "${ETHERSCAN_API_KEY}", chain = 143, url = "https://api.etherscan.io/v2/api?chainid=143" }
monad_testnet = { key = "${ETHERSCAN_API_KEY}", chain = 10143, url = "https://api.etherscan.io/v2/api?chainid=10143" }

Quick Start: Hardhat Configuration (v2)

const config: HardhatUserConfig = {
  solidity: {
    version: "0.8.28",
    settings: {
      evmVersion: "prague",
      metadata: { bytecodeHash: "ipfs" },
    },
  },
  networks: {
    monadTestnet: {
      url: "https://testnet-rpc.monad.xyz",
      chainId: 10143,
      accounts: [process.env.PRIVATE_KEY!],
    },
    monadMainnet: {
      url: "https://rpc.monad.xyz",
      chainId: 143,
      accounts: [process.env.PRIVATE_KEY!],
    },
  },
  etherscan: {
    customChains: [{
      network: "monadMainnet",
      chainId: 143,
      urls: {
        apiURL: "https://api.etherscan.io/v2/api?chainid=143",
        browserURL: "https://monadscan.com",
      },
    }],
  },
  sourcify: {
    enabled: true,
    apiUrl: "https://sourcify-api-monad.blockvision.org",
    browserUrl: "https://monadvision.com",
  },
};

Deployment

Foundry Deploy (Keystore)

cast wallet import monad-deployer --private-key $(cast wallet new | grep 'Private key:' | awk '{print $3}')
 
forge create src/MyContract.sol:MyContract \
  --account monad-deployer \
  --rpc-url https://rpc.monad.xyz \
  --broadcast
 
forge create src/MyToken.sol:MyToken \
  --account monad-deployer \
  --rpc-url https://rpc.monad.xyz \
  --constructor-args "MyToken" "MTK" 18 \
  --broadcast

Foundry Deploy (Script)

forge script script/Deploy.s.sol \
  --account monad-deployer \
  --rpc-url https://rpc.monad.xyz \
  --broadcast \
  --slow

Hardhat Deploy

npx hardhat ignition deploy ignition/modules/Counter.ts --network monadMainnet
npx hardhat ignition deploy ignition/modules/Counter.ts --network monadMainnet --reset

Verification

MonadVision (Sourcify)

forge verify-contract <address> <ContractName> \
  --chain 143 \
  --verifier sourcify \
  --verifier-url https://sourcify-api-monad.blockvision.org/

Monadscan (Etherscan)

forge verify-contract <address> <ContractName> \
  --chain 143 \
  --verifier etherscan \
  --etherscan-api-key $ETHERSCAN_API_KEY \
  --watch

Socialscan

forge verify-contract <address> <ContractName> \
  --chain 143 \
  --verifier etherscan \
  --etherscan-api-key $SOCIALSCAN_API_KEY \
  --verifier-url https://api.socialscan.io/monad-mainnet/v1/explorer/command_api/contract \
  --watch

Hardhat Verify

npx hardhat verify <address> --network monadMainnet

For testnet verification, replace --chain 143 with --chain 10143 and use testnet RPC/explorer URLs.

Opcode Repricing Summary

Cold state access is ~4x more expensive on Monad than Ethereum. Warm access is identical.

Selected precompile repricing:

Monad-specific precompile: secp256r1 (P256) at 0x0100 for WebAuthn/passkey signature verification (EIP-7951).

EIP-1559 Parameters

The base fee controller increases slower and decreases faster than Ethereum's to prevent blockspace underutilization on a high-throughput chain.

Gas Optimization Tips

1. Warm your storage — cold reads are 4x more expensive; use access lists (type 1/2 txns) for known slots
2. Set explicit gas limits — you're charged for the limit, not usage
3. Batch operations — high throughput means batching is less critical, but still saves gas limit overhead
4. Avoid unnecessary cold precompile calls — ecPairing is 5x more expensive than Ethereum
5. Design for parallel execution — per-user mappings over global counters where possible
6. No blob transactions — use calldata for data availability

Parallel Execution

Monad executes transactions concurrently with optimistic conflict detection. No Solidity changes needed.

1. Multiple virtual executors process transactions simultaneously
2. Each generates "pending results" (inputs: SLOADs, outputs: SSTOREs)
3. Serial commitment validates each result's inputs remain valid
4. Conflict detected -> re-execute the affected transaction
5. Results committed in original transaction order

Every transaction executes at most twice. Most transactions don't conflict, achieving near-linear speedup.

Parallel-Friendly Contract Design

Staking Precompile

Address: 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000001000

Only standard CALL is allowed. STATICCALL, DELEGATECALL, and CALLCODE are not permitted.

Core Functions

Delegate (Solidity)

address constant STAKING = 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000001000;
 
function delegateToValidator(uint64 validatorId) external payable {
    (bool success,) = STAKING.call{value: msg.value}(
        abi.encodeWithSelector(0x84994fec, validatorId)
    );
    require(success, "Delegation failed");
}

Delegate (viem)

import { encodeFunctionData } from "viem";
 
const STAKING_ADDRESS = "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000001000";
 
const hash = await walletClient.sendTransaction({
  to: STAKING_ADDRESS,
  value: parseEther("100"),
  data: encodeFunctionData({
    abi: [{ name: "delegate", type: "function", inputs: [{ name: "validatorId", type: "uint64" }], outputs: [] }],
    functionName: "delegate",
    args: [1n],
  }),
});

EIP-7702 on Monad

Allows EOAs to gain smart contract capabilities via code delegation.

import { walletClient } from "./client";
 
const authorization = await walletClient.signAuthorization({
  account,
  contractAddress: "0xFBA3912Ca04dd458c843e2EE08967fC04f3579c2",
});
 
const hash = await walletClient.sendTransaction({
  authorizationList: [authorization],
  data: "0xdeadbeef",
  to: walletClient.account.address,
});

WebSocket Subscriptions

Standard eth_subscribe plus Monad-specific extensions:

newHeads        — standard new block headers
logs            — standard log filtering
monadNewHeads   — Monad-specific block headers with extra fields
monadLogs       — Monad-specific log events

Execution Events (Advanced)

For ultra-low-latency data consumption, Monad exposes execution events via shared-memory ring buffers. Consumer runs on same host as node. ~1 microsecond latency. Supported in C, C++, and Rust only.

Use execution events when JSON-RPC can't keep up with 10,000 TPS throughput. For most dApps, standard WebSocket subscriptions are sufficient.

Canonical Contracts

Supported Transaction Types

Smart Contract Tips

• Gas optimization still matters — even with cheap gas, optimize for users
• Same security model — all Solidity best practices (CEI, reentrancy guards) apply
• Parallel-friendly design — contracts with per-user mappings parallelize better than global counters
• 128 KB contract limit — larger contracts are possible but still optimize for gas
• No code changes needed for parallelism — it's at the runtime level
• block.timestamp — 2-3 blocks may share the same second; don't rely on sub-second granularity
• No blob transactions — EIP-4844 type 3 txns are not supported

Required Tooling Versions

Pre-Deployment Checklist

• Using Monad Foundry fork or Hardhat with evmVersion: "prague"
• Correct chain ID (143 mainnet / 10143 testnet)
• Account funded with MON (remember ~10 MON reserve)
• Gas limit set explicitly for predictable cost (gas limit is charged, not gas used)
• Private key in env var, not hardcoded
• Contract size under 128 KB
• No EIP-4844 blob transactions (type 3 not supported)
• Verified on at least one explorer after deploy

Additional Reference