MegaETH: Real-Time Blockchain Redefining Ethereum Scaling

MegaETH Project Overview

Founders and Team

• Yilong Li: Co-founder and CEO, PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, former senior software engineer at formal verification company Runtime Verification.
• Lei Yang: Co-founder and CTO, PhD in Computer Science from MIT, member of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research focuses on efficient consensus and synchronization in distributed systems, which is central to building high-performance blockchains.
• Shuyao Kong: Co-founder and Chief Business Officer, better known in the Chinese community as "Bing Ge". Before joining MegaLabs, he served as Head of Global Business Development at ConsenSys and had deep understanding and extensive connections in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Technical Architecture: How to Achieve a "Real-Time" Blockchain?

1. Heterogeneous Node Architecture and Specialized Division of Labor

• Sequencer: There is only one active sequencer node across the entire network. It receives, orders, and executes transactions in a streaming manner and produces a new block approximately every 10 milliseconds. This centralized block production model completely eliminates latency caused by multi-node consensus and is key to achieving millisecond-level block times. Its hardware requirements are extremely high, targeting 5-10 times the performance of a typical Solana validator node.
• Provers: Asynchronously generate cryptographic proofs (such as validity proofs) to verify the correctness of the sequencer's execution results without needing access to the full state.
• Full Nodes: Re-execute all transactions like traditional nodes, providing the highest level of security verification. Usually run by institutions requiring strong security (e.g., cross-chain bridges, market makers).
• Replica Nodes: A major innovation of MegaETH. Replica nodes do not execute transactions from scratch but directly receive and apply "state diffs" from the sequencer, enabling them to sync to the latest network state quickly with very low hardware costs (comparable to running an Ethereum L1 node). This ensures network decentralization and accessibility.

2. Ultra-Optimized Execution Environment: Memory Computing and JIT Compilation

• In-Memory Computing: The sequencer keeps the entire EVM world state and state tree completely in RAM instead of disk. This makes state access 1,000 times faster than SSD-based systems, completely solving the problem of disk I/O being the main performance bottleneck.
• Just-In-Time Compilation: MegaETH uses JIT compilation to dynamically compile smart contract bytecode into native machine code before execution, bypassing the inefficient interpretation process of traditional EVM interpreters. For compute-intensive applications, this can improve performance by up to 100 times.
• Efficient State Tree and Sync Protocol: The project designed a brand-new state tree structure to replace the traditional Merkle Patricia Trie, minimizing disk I/O. At the same time, an efficient P2P state synchronization protocol ensures all nodes stay in sync even at 100,000 TPS.

Core Advantages of MegaETH

• Sub-millisecond latency and ultra-high throughput: 10 ms block time and theoretical performance exceeding 100,000 TPS are its biggest selling points.
• Full EVM compatibility: Developers can seamlessly migrate or deploy applications using familiar Solidity, Hardhat, and other Ethereum tools without learning new paradigms, greatly reducing ecosystem migration costs.
• Inherits Ethereum security: As a Layer 2, MegaETH anchors settlement and data availability on Ethereum mainnet and plans to integrate decentralized DA layers like EigenDA, achieving security and decentralization by relying on Ethereum while pursuing extreme performance.
• Differentiated cost structure: By specializing nodes, expensive computing costs are concentrated on a few sequencers, while allowing a large number of replica nodes to run at low cost, achieving a clever balance between performance and decentralization.

Mechanism and Philosophy Behind MegaETH

Fundraising and Capital Raising: Community-Driven Frenzy

1. Seed Round (June 2024): $20 million led by Dragonfly, post-money valuation reaching nine figures (at least $100 million).
2. Community Round (December 2024): Raised $10 million in just 3 minutes via the Echo platform created by KOL Cobie, with over 3,200 participants from 94 countries.
3. NFT Round (February 2025): Launched non-transferable soul-bound NFT "The Fluffle." The first phase raised approximately $13.29 million, implying a project valuation of about $540 million.
4. Public Sale (October 2025): Conducted via English auction on Echo's Sonar platform. The sale was unprecedentedly successful but also exposed operational challenges. Total commitments reached $1.39 billion, oversubscribed 27.8 times, with over 50,000 investors participating. However, due to KYC configuration errors and operational mistakes, deposits temporarily went out of control (reaching $500 million), forcing the team to pause the sale and promise refunds for excess funds.

MegaETH Token Economics: KPI-Driven Innovative Model

• KPI Reward Pool: ~53%, the core of the model. These tokens will be gradually released based on achieving specific key performance indicators (TVL, transaction volume, active addresses, etc.), deeply tying token emission to ecosystem success.
• Investors and Early Rounds: ~24.7% total, including institutional investors, Echo round, Fluffle NFT buyers, and Sonar reward pool.
• Team and Advisors: 9.5%, with 1-year cliff and 3-year linear vesting thereafter.
• Foundation and Ecosystem Reserve: 7.5%, for ecosystem development.
• Public Sale: 5%.

• Gas fees on MegaETH
• Staking for sequencer or validator nodes
• Governance and ecosystem incentives

Comparison with Other High-Performance L2s

• Monad: An independent EVM-compatible Layer 1 focused on parallel execution and software optimization. Targets ~10,000 TPS and ~400 ms block time. Monad emphasizes decentralized improvements via superscalar pipelining and parallel processing, while MegaETH relies on massive hardware scale and heterogeneous architecture.
• zkSync Era: zk-rollup with strong security and decentralization advantages but higher latency. Focuses on low cost and usability.
• Base: Coinbase's OP Stack-based L2, prioritizing user experience and regulatory friendliness rather than extreme TPS.
• Blast: Optimistic rollup with native yield mechanics, more focused on passive income than raw performance.
• Zircuit: AI-assisted zk-rollup emphasizing security through on-chain transaction monitoring.

Market Adoption and Narrative: Early Ecosystem Growth

• Advanced DeFi (perpetual DEXs like Valhalla, CLOB lending like Avon)
• SocialFi and prediction markets (NOISE, Sweep)
• Fully on-chain games and interactive applications (Euphoria, Pump Party)

Future Outlook: Opportunities and Challenges

1. Technical execution risk under long-term real-world conditions
2. Ecosystem cold-start and need for killer applications
3. Centralization and trust risks from single sequencer
4. Intense competition from both L2s and high-performance L1s like Solana
5. Operational and governance maturity (as exposed by public sale issues)

Conclusion

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