Sony, the 78-year-old Japanese electronics large, is the most recent legacy megacorp to discover blockchain know-how. On Tuesday, the corporate introduced that it’s formally launching “Soneium,” a general-purpose blockchain platform.
The staff behind Sony Block Options Labs (SBSL), a joint challenge between Sony Group and Singapore-based Startale Labs, describes Soneium — technically a layer-2 community atop Ethereum — as “a versatile general-purpose blockchain platform” constructed to help a various ecosystem of gaming, finance and leisure apps. In accordance with SBSL, the launch comes after a 4 month-long take a look at interval that concerned participation from 14 million wallets.
Sony’s community is but extra proof that conventional know-how firms would possibly once more be eager on blockchain’s skill to attach and commercialize the way forward for media. The chain is aimed in direction of “bridging the hole between web2 and web3 audiences, particularly for the creators, followers and neighborhood,” SBSL mentioned in an announcement shared with CoinDesk. “The platform prioritizes user-centric design, simplifying blockchain interactions and evolving web3 from a niche hobby into an everyday experience.”
The staff tapped Optimism’s OP Stack to construct out their community — a customizable framework that lets builders use optimistic rollup know-how to transact on Ethereum rapidly and at a low price.
Different firms utilizing the OP Stack embody the U.S. crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, which use the tech to energy their well-liked Base and Ink networks. Uniswap, the main decentralized alternate, and Worldcoin, the Sam Altman-founded digital passport, additionally use OP Stack to energy their layer-2 blockchain networks.
In lots of instances, the Optimism Basis, which stewards the event of the OP Stack, has awarded grants to firms that agreed to make use of its tech. SBSL declined to touch upon what number of OP tokens they might obtain as a part of this deal, although earlier reporting signifies that Optimism’s grants could be substantial.
In August 2023, Coinbase obtained as much as 118 million OP tokens — value $182 million on the time, or $192 million at immediately’s costs — to make use of OP Stack for Base chain. CoinDesk additionally reported that Kraken obtained as much as 25 million OP tokens, value roughly $100 million, when it agreed to make use of the OP Stack in January 2024 (now value $42 million).
Related grants are doled out by Optimism rivals like Polygon and Arbitrum, every of whom is dueling to construct its personal interconnected net of blockchains.
Learn extra: Sony, Electronics Pioneer Behind Walkman, Begins Personal Blockchain ‘Soneium’
