What Is a Monolithic Blockchain? A monolithic blockchain is a form of blockchain architecture that aims to do everything itself - the opposite of a modular blockchain. Execution, consensus and data availability are all performed by the same chain with none of the layers being outsourced to other service providers. All of the nodes of a chain have to execute and verify the state of the chain along with its history. There is no specialization in any part of the stack. Monolithic chains try to optimize each component of the trilemma, only to realize that optimizing one part results in weakening another. For example, ethereum has optimized for security and decentralization resulting in high fees when the chain is congested. Solana has optimized for fast transactions which is why the costs to run a node are very high. Having fewer nodes translates to poorer decentralization properties, which is part of the trade-off solana has made. Moving forward, as different projects are able to specialize in different components of the trilemma instead of competing in all three, we can alleviate the trilemma entirely.
Modular Blockchains
Modular Blockchains
Modular Blockchains
What Is a Monolithic Blockchain? A monolithic blockchain is a form of blockchain architecture that aims to do everything itself - the opposite of a modular blockchain. Execution, consensus and data availability are all performed by the same chain with none of the layers being outsourced to other service providers. All of the nodes of a chain have to execute and verify the state of the chain along with its history. There is no specialization in any part of the stack. Monolithic chains try to optimize each component of the trilemma, only to realize that optimizing one part results in weakening another. For example, ethereum has optimized for security and decentralization resulting in high fees when the chain is congested. Solana has optimized for fast transactions which is why the costs to run a node are very high. Having fewer nodes translates to poorer decentralization properties, which is part of the trade-off solana has made. Moving forward, as different projects are able to specialize in different components of the trilemma instead of competing in all three, we can alleviate the trilemma entirely.