Sony Debuts Soneium Mainnet, Advancing Ethereum Layer 2 for Entertainment

Sony has formally launched its Ethereum Layer 2 platform, Soneium, following a testing interval that lasted 4 months and drew in over 14 million customers, the corporate introduced Monday.

Developed by subsidiary Sony Block Options Labs (Sony BSL), the platform is designed to simplify blockchain interactions for creators and their audiences by means of instruments like NFT-based fan engagement programs and an incubator program known as Soneium Spark.

Its testnet phase started in August final 12 months and processed some 47 million transactions, in response to figures from Blockscout.

“Soneium is for everybody,” Sony BSL Director Sota Watanabe advised Decrypt in an interview. The plan, Watanabe claims, is to “onboard abnormal folks” and have them use the tech with out essentially “realizing Web3.”

Watanabe speaks to the idea of chain abstraction—the place blockchain tech features unnoticed and with out human intervention—as key to growing crypto person adoption.

“I imagine that creativity transcends a variety of the boundaries,” Watanabe mentioned, talking about how the platform helps onboard creators to an on-chain economic system.

There’s a must “make an leisure layer” on prime of Web3 because the “finance layer,” Watanabe argues, claiming leisure has the facility to attach folks.

Constructed on Ethereum layer-2 expertise from the Optimism Basis, Soneium leverages the OP Stack and Superchain structure to ship what it describes as a “blockchain that evokes emotion and empowers creativity,” an announcement from the mission shared with Decrypt reads.

The platform’s improvement factors to a shift in how main leisure firms method Web3.

Moderately than focusing solely on NFTs or digital collectibles, Sony BSL says it’s constructing infrastructure to assist broader creator economies and is poised to leverage the Soneium platform throughout its subsidiaries for movies, music, and video games.

The Soneium Spark incubation program demonstrated this method, deciding on 32 functions from over 1,700 candidates. 

Whereas not all initiatives will debut instantly, the choice course of revealed sturdy developer curiosity in constructing on entertainment-focused blockchains.

Wanting forward, Sony BSL plans to discover new frameworks for shielding creator rights and mechanisms for equitable worth distribution between creators and followers. The corporate goals to bridge Web2 and Web3 by means of user-centric design and real-world functions.

Sony BSL emerged as a three way partnership between Sony Group Company and Startale Group Pte. Ltd., established in Singapore in 2023. The corporate, initially named Sony Community Communications Labs Pte. Ltd., rebranded to Sony Block Options Labs in August 2024.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair