Written by David C, Bankless

Compiled by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

MegaETH’s Soul NFT community fundraiser for Fluffles quickly became the hottest topic on crypto Twitter since its launch, but the much-hyped Vitalik-backed L2 has already attracted a lot of attention in recent months after it received $20 million in venture funding and an oversubscribed $10 million round on the Echo community fundraising platform.

While its community-centric approach to funding is a positive push over traditional venture capital backing models, MegaETH’s main selling point is delivering millisecond block confirmations without compromising security, enabling what it calls a “live” blockchain — an on-chain experience that feels like using a traditional web2 server.

Let’s take a look inside MegaETH and how early builders are able to do things at such a fast pace.

Who is behind MegaETH?

MegaETH's core development team, MegaLabs, must continue to push the boundaries in multiple aspects of blockchain R&D to achieve the goals of MegaETH. The project relies on specialized node setups, optimized block production, and other overall performance upgrades to build a next-generation system. What does all of this actually mean? Let's take a closer look.

Dedicated nodes

MegaETH uses four different node types, each with different hardware requirements, to achieve fast and efficient block production. First, a single sorter quickly organizes transactions and generates new blocks every 1-10 milliseconds, so confirmations are almost instant. Replica nodes only receive the results of these transactions, making their job easier and allowing them to run on simpler hardware. Full nodes recheck every transaction, providing people with strong security guarantees. Meanwhile, prover nodes process cryptographic proofs in the background, so the main network can continue to run quickly without the burden of the work required to complete these jobs.

Optimize blocks

As mentioned above, MegaETH targets block times in milliseconds. Additionally, it adjusts the number of transactions it can fit in each block based on how fast different nodes of the network are working. It also charges extra fees for operations that update the network state more frequently, which helps avoid slowdowns during peak usage—a problem that often plagues other EVM-based blockchains. By combining ultra-fast blocks, flexible gas management, and a two-step finality approach (Ethereum confirms everything in the background), MegaETH should theoretically be able to remain reliable and efficient even under heavy demand.

Improve performance across the board

MegaETH doesn’t just speed up one part of the EVM, it reinvents all of it. The chain offloads big data tasks to EigenDA, letting a single sorter focus on keeping things fast rather than dealing with storage limitations. It also uses methods like parallel indexing to manage tens of thousands of transactions per second. While many blockchains run into trouble if they optimize one part and ignore others, causing delays in data synchronization or transaction confirmations, MegaETH aims to keep the entire process live, an ambitious task that traders will soon be able to judge for themselves in a testnet.

improve

Finally, MegaETH organizes data in a novel way to process transactions at such a high speed. It keeps key information in memory rather than on slower disk storage, making it possible to read or write data almost instantly. After each batch of transactions, the sorter sends only the changes (rather than the full transaction history) to other nodes, so they don't have to redo all the work themselves. MegaETH has also improved the way it records account balances and other network details, avoiding the slowdowns that often occur when a blockchain updates its data structures too frequently. All in all, this enables MegaETH to achieve 100,000 transactions per second while still generating a block every few milliseconds.

Five projects based on MegaETH

The speed that MegaETH pursues will not only make the crypto applications we are familiar with smoother and enhance their usage experience, but also aims to open up a new design space for applications that require instant and scalable on-chain interactions. Here are five upcoming projects on MegaETH that demonstrate the advantages of the chain.

Euphoria

Euphoria intends to reimagine derivatives trading as something fun, social, and easy to understand.

Instead of forcing people to learn complex financial instruments, Euphoria launches "click trading" where users can predict price movements with just a quick click, and presents everything through a game-like user interface designed specifically for mobile devices. The experience is designed to be inherently social and gamified, with features such as chat, point systems, and rewards that can turn trading into a friendly competition. With the fast finality of MegaETH, Euphoria can provide real-time price updates, instant payments, and a fun, efficiency-driven atmosphere reminiscent of social media platforms such as TikTok.

We’re coming out of stealth—it’s time to get excited.

Trading has long been designed to feel serious, complicated, and intense. But it isn’t.

Today, things have changed.

Introducing Euphoria - Making trading an experience.

— Euphoria (@Euphoria_fi) January 13, 2025

Sweep

Sweep transforms live entertainment into an interactive experience where viewers can make real-time predictions about streamers and live events.

Whether betting on who will “win the map” or how many kills a streamer might get, the platform supports instant real-time predictions, allowing users to place and settle bets within minutes, increasing engagement during live streams. Due to the fast pace of play, fast settlement is required to make these predictions a reality. This is where MegaETH’s millisecond block times come into play, improving upon the current Web 2 rails that currently power Sweep.

The future of entertainment isn’t just about watching—it’s about living it.

That’s why we built Sweep, a way to win money by predicting your favorite streams and live events in real time. No longer do you just passively watch the stream, you become a part of it…

— Sweep (@trysweep) January 9, 2025

Noise

Noise hopes to capture and trade the value of attention by creating a real-time market for trending topics.

Rather than dealing with traditional supply and demand dynamics, Noise intends to use a continuous stream of data to show whether a trend is gaining or losing popularity. While few people share these trends beyond their original post, they can transcend crypto narratives and enter real life, potentially leaving you short on energy drinks, for example. By focusing on what the world cares about most, Noise hopes to reinvent how culture is discovered, shared, and rewarded — moving us from “paying attention” to “getting paid for it.”

Unexpected use cases for cryptocurrencies have been attracting attention.

The only currency that truly matters is how we spend our time.

Introducing Noise: a platform for trading trends.

— Noise (@noise_xyz) December 3, 2024

Lemonade

Lemonade hopes to create a comprehensive community platform for event management, token utility, and AI-driven automation, providing organizers with a single endpoint to coordinate all stages of the community lifecycle.

By allowing event planners to tokenize check-ins, tickets, or other loyalty features using simple, no-code tools, Lemonade hopes to make it easier than ever to reward or engage attendees. In addition, to manage outreach, the platform incorporates AI agents to automate tasks such as marketing, logistics, or event coordination.

Lemonade redefines the way creators and communities interact, and is fully on-chain. Lemonade Stands on MegaETH- Lemonade redefines the way creators and communities connect, providing a one-stop platform for your store, events, and community center.

— Lemonade (@lemonade_events) January 29, 2025

Pump Party

Pump Party hopes to bring cryptocurrency to a mainstream audience through a live, interactive game show that blends a generous prize pool, mobile gaming, and social events.

Drawing on popular phenomena like Mr. Beast’s massive giveaway videos, Pump Party hopes to engage the masses, welcoming people outside of the crypto space to join and compete for big prizes in real time. Players will be able to chat, stream, and participate simultaneously, making each game a shared community event. The entire structure is focused on entertainment first, while using the cryptocurrency rails to support behind-the-scenes efforts like payments fairly and instantly.

The average person knows nothing about cryptocurrencies.

We live in a small bubble compared to the general population.

Introducing Pump Party: the first app designed to put cryptocurrency into the hands of millions of new people.

— Pump Party (@pumppartyapp) December 10, 2024

Summarize

MegaETH’s vision of a “live” blockchain appears to offer hope for Ethereum’s future, while potentially opening up a new design space for cryptocurrency builders.

By relying on dedicated nodes, smart gas adjustments, and a memory-based state solution, the chain's fully revamped EVM brings an exciting upgrade to the dominant execution environment for cryptocurrencies, hoping to make the blockchain experience comparable to modern web services. In addition, MegaETH's community focus, through Echo fundraising and Fluffle minting, provides a new perspective on the old, fully VC-backed model, building a broader supporter base for MegaETH from the beginning.

The chain’s novel launch and design approach appear to be influencing the projects it’s attracted early on, with early builders leaning heavily toward SocialFi and DeFi. The early diversity of applications bodes well for an eventful public testnet launch in MegaETH’s future, which early backers hope will also inject new capital and some much-needed better vibes into the entire Ethereum ecosystem.