Building from Scratch: Launching the Fantom Sonic Builders Testnet

Building from Scratch: Launching the Fantom Sonic Builders Testnet

Picture this: bouncing your go-to-market strategies around with Andre Cronje, filling your treasury with grant funding, and pushing your dApp to its limits with the breaking edge of L1 technology.

This is not a dream — this is the near future for up to 5 teams partaking in our Sonic Labs program.

In the past year, the Fantom Foundation’s focus on hackathons and its network vault has sparked the beginning of new dApps on Fantom. But once we started comprehending the potential of Sonic’s technological leap, we had to rethink our approach.

Sonic Labs is specifically designed to discover and support visionaries and builders. If you’re ready to build out new verticals and fresh ideas, this program is designed to push you to success with the backing of the Fantom Foundation and our partners.

What is Sonic Labs?

Sonic Labs is an incubator for developers to build innovative dApps with unprecedented performance, preparing for the Sonic mainnet. Up to 5 teams participating will receive:

• An equal share of 1,000,000 FTM
• Direct mentorship from Andre Cronje
• Guidance from Marc Tillement from Pyth
• Compliance and payroll support from Request Finance
• Company structuring and legal guidance from Fantom Foundation’s Eli Bernstein
• The opportunity to be part of the official Sonic mainnet launch in early 2024
• Access to private capital from our venture capital partners

The Sonic Labs program is open to all developers and teams bringing fresh ideas. We invite you to rally your friends, find your co-founder, meet with your existing team, or venture solo to develop and showcase a minimum viable product (MVP), which will need to be deployed on the upcoming Sonic builders testnet.

This is your chance to shine with your innovative work! The Foundation leadership will assess your submission based on the following:

• Vision: What is your product-market fit and what will it take you to succeed?
• Utilizing Sonic’s technology: How far can you push the limit?
• Identified target user base: Who is your target market?
• Uniqueness: Is this a new approach?
• Positive effect on the broader Fantom network and users: Are you bringing value to the ecosystem?
• Brand: How will you appeal to your users?

Please note that while the application is open currently, applicants will not be able to launch their MVP until the builders testnet launches on December 15. Until then, use the form to prepare your application, and remember the builders testnet will be Solidity and Vyper compatible. Finally, don’t forget to join other Fantom builders on Telegram and Discord!

By submitting the form, you are representing that you have read and agreed to our terms and conditions. There will be a KYC requirement to provide the FTM funding to participating projects.

Timeline

Now – December 14

Applicants should begin organizing their teams, brainstorming ideas, and building out their smart contracts.

December 15

Builders testnet documentation, tooling, and endpoints will be available to unleash the power of Sonic’s technology.

December 15 – February 6

We encourage everyone to submit their MVP and ideas by filling out the Sonic Labs application.

February 12

Participating projects will be selected internally, and they will begin working with the Foundation to improve their MVP. Prizes will start to be awarded.

February 22 and onward

Participating projects will be announced publicly. Dedicated support will be available for these projects until the end of August 2024, including VC introductions and strategic planning ahead.

Builders Testnet

In October, we launched the Sonic testnet environment, which consists of two separate testnets: a closed testnet to showcase the maximum theoretical limits of Sonic and an open testnet to allow the public to interact with Sonic directly by performing swaps.

On December 15, we’ll launch the third Sonic testnet, dubbed the builders testnet, which will allow developers to build and launch dApps on Sonic technology and experience its incredible performance in preparation for its mainnet release. On this date, full technical documentation and builders testnet RPC endpoints will also be available.

The builders testnet:

• Is 100% compatible with EVM
• Is 100% compatible with current Opera
• Requires no hard fork while upgrading Opera
• Has native live pruning for validators and significantly reduces their operating costs and risk
• Has full MPT trie and supports witness proofs
• Significantly reduces archive node operating costs
• Has RPC API that supports both TX and debug tracing
• Will be launched with available The Graph Node (run by the Foundation)
• Will be launched with Sonic Safe service

Developers participating in Sonic Labs will use the builders testnet to launch their dApps.