Key Points
- Sonic will be the first native integration for on-chain access, enabling developers to a $11 trillion market.
- The Sonic era is about to begin as the testnet goes live.
Sonic Labs, previously the Fantom team, has just announced via a post on X that Sonic will be the first native integration for on-chain access to wallet scoring, enabling developers access to a potential $11 trillion market.
This is a key shift in both technological and social evolution, opening the doors to the unsecured lending global market.
The founder of HyperChain Capital also highlighted a few hours ago via X that the Sonic era is about to begin and blockchain efficiency and speed will be defined before and after Sonic – the new standard.
The Sonic testnet went live on September 6, according to the team behind the project who also wrote that play-to-earn testnet games are next.
2024 marked the debut of the shift from the Fantom Opera network to the newly launched Sonic chain.
Fantom to Sonic Transition
The transition is not just a technological shift but it also reveals the key role that tokenomics plays in a project’s long-term viability.
Sonic Labs is the newly rebranded Fantom team is the transition involves introducing the Sonic chain and the S token that’s designed to replace FTM token on a 1:1 basis.
Sonic Network is an ultra-fast L1 blockchain and this transition began following an announcement in June 2024 which also included the launch of a $120 million fund allocated in FTM tokens to support developers and projects migrating to Sonic.
Sonic offers new features including the following:
- Validator rewards
- Improved staking mechanisms
- Airdrops for early users
The complete transition will unfold in the upcoming months.
What is the Sonic Upgrade?
The Sonic upgrade improves everything that Fantom brought to the crypto industry.
Here’s what this brings new:
1. Speed boost
The first novelty is the increase in throughput on the chain with speeds of over 2,000 TPS and single-second finality. This places Fantom on par with the likes of Solana, and considering the latter’s success this cycle, Fantom could be next.
The speed increase is achieved via the Fantom Virtual Machine.
2. FVM
The Fantom Virtual Machine replaces the old Ethereum Virtual Machine model that performs the following:
- Converting old EVM bytecode into a new virtual machine format
- Supporting super instructions
- Optimizing bundles of commonly occurring transaction types
3. Fantom Validators – More Efficiency and Speed
Fantom validators can execute smart contracts with more efficiency and speed of up to 65x compared to old EVM mechanics.
4. Reducing Storage Requirements
The Sonic upgrade also reduces storage requirements by 90%.
The new Carmen database storage tech uses a flat storage mechanism instead of a tree-like structure, allowing:
- Simplified data retrieving
- Live pruning
Live pruning is the ability of validators to discard historical data that is no longer required without disrupting the network, feeding up space, and decreasing storage requirements.
The new tech is in the testnet phase and we can expect the new Fantom Sonic network to replace the current Fantom Opera Network in Q4 2024.
Incentives and Airdrop
Fantom rolled out a strong strategy to bring the hoards of gamblers and builders back to the chain. They will be incentivizing builders with a blast airdrop to those who get accepted to build for Sonic on Sonic. This will increase the dApps.
Another incentive program is for the developers – the Gas Monetization Program.
Requirements for rewards:
- The dApp has to be live for longer than 1 month on the mainnet
- Developers have to generate river 15,000 transactions per contact
- Developers need an active multi-sig wallet address
The Gas Monetization strategy aims to replicate the ad-revenue share that Web2 creators have.
What is Fantom?
Fantom is an L1 blockchain created in 2018, and bringing fast and low-fee UX to the crypto industry. Fantom has been at the forefront of crypto tech and it was always backed by great developers.
By 2019, Fantom teamed up with Binance, and the EVM-compatible Fantom Opera was created.
By March 2022, Fantom became the second-largest chain for DeFi and TVL topped out at around $8 billion.
Behind its success were various community-driven apps and the DeFi mastermind known as Andre Cronje. He was behind some of the most high-tech DeFi apps including Yearn Finance and Solidly, the first Ve(3,3) style DEX.
Now, Cronje is back, TVL is on the rise again and applications in the ecosystem continue to build, while user bases are increasing.
