The What, Why and How of MonadBFT (pt. 1)

MonadBFT builds on the HotStuff consensus protocol to solve a critical flaw known as "tail-forking"—where valid blocks are abandoned despite supermajority approval, causing losses, MEV exploitation, and stalled network finality.

Key Ideas

MonadBFT introduces mandatory reproposal and the No-Endorsement Certificate (NEC) to guarantee that honest blocks aren't skipped without verifiable justification.
These mechanisms secure validator rewards, prevent block manipulation, and reinforce finality guarantees.
It also supports one-round speculative finality, letting clients treat transactions as final after a single vote. Optimistic responsiveness lets the protocol react instantly when quorum is reached, which minimizes latency and maximizing throughput.