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London, England
Joined September 2017
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Cryptovest retweeted
🚨 I audited Sparrow Wallet and found something that'll make you look at "✅ confirmed" differently.
In public-server mode, Sparrow never asks for a Merkle proof. It just trusts the server when it says your tx is confirmed.
@_craigraw @craigraw
Cryptovest retweeted
The Chairman of the Board at @binance just invested in STBL.
HOLY SHIT 🤯
This quoted post is unavailable.
🔬 TECHNICAL ANALYSIS:
I spent 72h auditing @monad_xyz ($225M raised)
With a potential airdrop approaching, I wanted to REALLY understand how this "10,000 TPS" blockchain works.
What I discovered will surprise you.
Technical thread 🧵👇
1/ 📋 CONTEXT & METHODOLOGY
Monad promises to be "Ethereum but 1000x faster". So I tested:
• 10,000+ automated RPC requests
• MonadBFT consensus analysis
• Gas and timestamp tests
• Reverse engineering of Quorum Certificates
Spoiler: it's technically fascinating.
2/ 🏗 MonadBFT ARCHITECTURE - A unique approach
Discovery #1:
All blocks show miner = 0x0000...0000
Why? MonadBFT uses Quorum Certificates:
• 99 validators sign with BLS
• 67+ signatures required (2/3 consensus)
• Signatures aggregated into 1 QC
• The "miner" becomes a placeholder
Ingenious but... opaque.
3/ 🎭 THE VALIDATOR MYSTERY
Current configuration:
• 99 validators total
• Top 150 only on mainnet (selection by stake)
• Hardware: 16 cores, 32GB RAM minimum
Interesting point: Individual votes are INVISIBLE.
Ethereum: each vote public ✅
Monad: cryptographic black box ⚫️
4/ 🚨 CRUCIAL REVELATION:
Who really controls Monad?
Of the 99 validators:
• 41 belong to Monad Labs (41.4%)
• 58 "external" but SELECTED by Monad
• 67 validators needed to validate a block
Concerning mathematics:
41 (Monad) + 26 allies = 67 = Possible total control
This is documented nowhere. I had to analyze voting patterns.
5/ ⛽️ SURPRISING DISCOVERY:
The gas system
Test on 1000 transactions:
Gas limit: 100,000
Gas used: 21,000
Charged: 100,000 (!)
Monad charges the LIMIT, not usage. Why?
→ Anti-DOS protection for asynchronous execution
→ Documented but... 5x more expensive for users
6/ ⏱️ STRANGE PHENOMENON:
Identical timestamps
On 10,000 blocks analyzed:
• 44% have the SAME timestamp
• Normal with 500ms blocks
• But risk for temporal oracles
I tried to exploit this. No success so far.
7/ 🔍 THE HIDDEN INNOVATION:
Asynchronous execution
Here it gets VERY interesting:
• Consensus and execution are decoupled
• Nodes vote BEFORE executing
• Allows massive parallelism
This is how they achieve 10k TPS. Technically brilliant.
8/ 💎 WHAT REALLY WORKS WELL
✅ Impeccable VM security (no overflow found)
✅ MonadDb: ultra-optimized custom database
✅ RaptorCast: innovative block propagation
✅ 1-second finality
✅ 100% EVM compatible
The tech is solid, undeniably.
9/ 🤔 CRITICAL QUESTIONS BEFORE THE AIRDROP
1. With 41% of validators, can Monad Labs censor transactions?
2. Are the other 58 validators truly independent?
3. Will gas-on-limit remain post-airdrop?
4. How to become a validator without Monad's approval?
The community deserves transparency.
10/ 🎯 FOR DEVELOPERS
Tested positive points:
• 100% compatible EVM bytecode
• Ethereum tools work
• Real 10k TPS (on testnet)
• Fast finality
• Very performant MonadDb
If you accept centralization for performance, it's impressive.
11/ 🏆 MY TECHNICAL VERDICT
Monad makes controversial BUT consistent choices:
Maximum performance → Assumed centralization (41% Monad Labs)
10k TPS → Asynchronous execution
DOS protection → Users pay 5x more
Innovation → Transparency sacrificed
Disguised private blockchain? You be the judge.
12/ 💰 IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AIRDROP
If there's an airdrop, keep in mind:
• 41% controlled = manipulation risks
• Gas fees 5x higher than expected
• Centralization = possible regulation
• Real performance = institutional adoption?
• Impossible to be a validator without permission
DYOR and measure the risks.
13/ 🚀 CONCLUSION
Monad is NOT a decentralized blockchain. It's a high-performance system with 41% centralized control, perfect for institutional trading.
My complete report: cryptovest.com/education/mon…
RT to alert the community.
Follow for more analyses BEFORE airdrops.
Which "blockchain" to dissect next? 👇
#Monad #Airdrop #Blockchain #Decentralization
🧵 THREAD TECHNIQUE: Keeta Network ($KTA) - Hybrid DAG blockchain or disguised database?
1/ After 48h of deep analysis of @KeetaNetwork testnet, here are my technical findings on this "blockchain" architecture claiming 10M TPS. I tested everything: double-spending, data corruption, wallet creation. Spoiler: it's more complex than it looks 🔍
2/ First, the context: Keeta Network presents itself as a "Hybrid DAG" with Delegated Proof of Stake (dPoS). Each account has ITS OWN blockchain, creating a virtual directed acyclic graph. Mainnet planned for summer 2025. Architecture:
Account A: Block1→Block2→Block3
Account B: BlockX→BlockY
Account C: BlockZ
3/ First test: Wallet creation and transactions ✅
Generated wallet: keeta_aab6gesqzex3mp7to33zknlqrnxg3n76qedude2yd6xfvravdfqdpmc22x5jvkq
Received 10 tokens from faucet
Successfully sent to other addresses
Everything works, UX is smooth
4/ Double-spending test 💰 I tried sending the same tokens 2x simultaneously:
Promise.all([
send(address1, 1 token),
send(address2, 1 token)
])
Result: 1 passes, 1 fails. Basic but functional protection.
5/ Corruption test: Attempted to modify history 🔨 Result: IMPOSSIBLE. Old blocks remain intact. I even tried to:
Modify hashes
Inject fake blocks
Manipulate timestamps Everything rejected. Immutability holds.
6/ Consensus analysis: 4 representatives, 4 votes per staple ✅ BUT... all 4 votes have the SAME signature (!!)
Unique signatures: 1/4
Unique issuers: 1/4
Normal for a team-managed testnet, but raises questions for mainnet.
7/ "Client-Directed" Architecture - The most controversial point:
Client directs its own validation
No global mempool
"Presumed not to be conflicting" I tried to exploit this. No success yet, but it's a potential attack surface.
8/ Cryptographic tests ✅
SHA256 hash: 64 characters
ED25519 + ECDSA signatures
Vote staples with consensus
Unable to forge signatures Crypto is solid.
9/ Testnet performance:
Transactions: ~1-2 seconds
Finality: Near-instantaneous
10M TPS? Not tested (limited testnet) Whitepaper admits it's with 1 local validator. Reality check needed on mainnet.
10/ Fascinating technical points discovered:
ASN.1 DER encoding (extensible)
Native multi-token support (I created my token!)
On-chain permissions (tested SEND_ON_BEHALF)
Votes encoded in X.509 (!!)
Functional storage accounts
11/ TECHNICAL VERDICT: ⚖️ ✅ IT IS a real DLT system (DAG type):
Unbreakable cryptography
Functional consensus
Proven immutability
Impossible to corrupt (in my tests)
❌ BUT:
Centralized testnet (normal)
Questionable "client-directed" architecture
True decentralization to be proven on mainnet
12/ My take: Keeta Network is technically solid. The testnet works, impossible to break despite my attempts. BUT everything will depend on mainnet: how many independent validators? Open or permissioned?
13/ For devs:
Excellent TypeScript SDK
Generous faucet for testing
Decent documentation
If you're looking for a high-performance alternative to Ethereum, keep an eye on mainnet this summer
14/ Questions for @KeetaNetwork team:
How to become a validator on mainnet?
Real decentralization planned?
Will "client-directed" remain?
Post-mainnet roadmap?
Like and retweet to support our work. (Cryptovest.com reconstruction in progress) #Blockchain #Web3 #DAG #KeetaNetwork #CryptoForensics #TestnetAnalysis
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