what's Category Labs?
Category Labs is the primary development entity behind the Monad blockchain, a high-performance Layer 1 network designed to enhance Ethereum's scalability while maintaining full EVM compatibility. Originally launched as Monad Labs, the company rebranded to Category Labs to separate its technical development efforts from ecosystem growth initiatives, including the establishment of the independent Monad Foundation. This structure supports decentralized governance and fosters innovation in blockchain infrastructure. Monad, powered by Category Labs' engineering, introduces parallel transaction execution, superscalar pipelining, and a custom state database to achieve up to 10,000 transactions per second with 1-second block times and sub-second finality. Its consensus mechanism, MonadBFT, ensures security and efficiency through pipelined processing and resistance to tail forks, enabling seamless deployment of existing Ethereum smart contracts without modifications. Category Labs continues to advance asynchronous execution and optimized components, positioning Monad as a foundational platform for DeFi, gaming, and other high-throughput applications.
Category Labs builds Monad's tech (80%+ validator upgrade) and launched Archive_Pod podcast.
Links
x.com/category_xyzCompleted a security audit with Code4rena that identified 4 high severity and 7 medium severity findings, with a $500,000 prize pool distributed to participants.
Upgraded Monad's v0.12.7 mainnet with over 80% validators, making architectural changes to address state access, the biggest bottleneck in L1 scaling.
Launched a new podcast called Archive_Pod on January 29, 2026, featuring founders and operators who have built crypto businesses and protocols, with the first episode focusing on Monad's founder.
Decentralized consensus engine now open-source while keeping execution engine proprietary, protecting competitive edge against centralized L2s.