What Is a Monolithic Blockchain Crypto? Best way to Explain

A monolithic blockchain is a cryptocurrency platforms that aims to carry out all three core components of the blockchain (mentioned above) . And to do this, a monolithic blockchain optimizes its consensus, block space and execution capabilities subject to the objectives it fulfills wold wild.

How Does a Monolithic Blockchain Work?

A monolithic blockchain exécution according to the consensus protocol set down for the blockchain. To participate, you need to run a node aligning with the requirements set by the network or platforms. Let’s take the example of Ethereum. Any user wanting to run their own node first needs to identify which kind of node they want to run. After setting it up, they download the blockchain data from the network or platform. After this process, they start participating in the network following the protocol rules or condition. In the case of PoW, validators are required to put up their hardware (computational hardware) at stake to be selected to mine blocks on the network. In the case of PoS, their stake is utilized.

In both cases, it is the monetary premium that the network issues for miners/validators that makes them participate in the protocol.

Data Availability

If a blockchain or platform aims to have a high throughput, it will increase its blockspace and attempt to have more transactions in the same block. This will stress the node service providers as they will have to increase or add up their storage, and could result in them dropping out due to not having adequate resources (whether technical or financial issue on the network. This scenario will reduce security and decentralization of Blockchain.

Execution

As you can imagine, or think of , it is much easier to pass transactions rapidly through fewer nodes and have them all arrive at a consensus than pass them through a large number of nodes spread all across the world. The greater the number of validators on the network, the longer it takes for the network to validate transactions. If you want to increase the throughput (i.e., the number of transactions being processed per second), the network can reduce the number of nodes. But this, again, comes at the cost of decentralization and security.

Problems With a Monolithic Blockchain

The node is required to perform all three actions all at once. If, however, the blockchain were to compromise any of the above-mentioned aspects, then the blockchain trilemma comes in. It consists of scalability, decentralization and security. The reason it is a trilemma is that a blockchain – in the traditional sense – can only achieve two out of these three components.

Benefits of a Monolithic Blockchain

One of the biggest benefits of a monolithic blockchain is that if it focuses on keeping itself decentralized and secure, it becomes a trustless blockchain. This decentralization lowers the barrier to entry for all users who wish to utilize the blockchain to execute transactions. That is one of the biggest reasons why Bitcoin and Ethereum currently occupy the top spot when it comes to the market cap in crypto. They best follow the narrative of a truly permissionless and decentralized ecosystem that crypto has aimed to be.