Michael Kong Reveals Sonic’s Launch and Future Plans: Part 1

Fantom’s Sonic Technology: Revolutionizing Blockchain Scalability and Security

Introduction to Opera Network

On December 27, 2019, the first version of the current Opera network was released, based on concepts that Andre Cronje had meticulously studied, including Concurrent Common Knowledge (CCK), Lamport Timestamps, and more. This marked an impressive achievement by Andre and the technical team — introducing the first permissionless DAG-based protocol that significantly enhanced scalability and time to finality.

Opera achieved a maximum transactions per second (TPS) approaching 200 and a time to finality of under 600 milliseconds. This was a considerable improvement compared to Ethereum’s 12 TPS and over 60-second finality at that time.

Growth and Challenges of Opera Network

The Opera network expanded from zero users to become one of the most recognized and utilized networks, reaching over $10 billion in total value locked (TVL) by 2022. Despite its success, the network faced challenges, particularly during periods of high demand, leading to congestion and a decline in user experience.

Introducing Sonic: The Next Evolution

In response to these challenges, the Fantom team has dedicated the past two years to developing Sonic, a groundbreaking blockchain technology designed to be the most scalable and secure solution to date. Sonic’s capability to process 2,000 TPS with sub-second finality marks a significant upgrade from Opera’s 200 TPS. The team is enthusiastic about this advancement.

Future Plans for Sonic

With Sonic’s impressive technical capabilities, Fantom is poised for further evolution and innovation. Sonic will be employed to:

• Create a top-tier shared sequencer for Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2) chains.
• Process over 180 million daily transactions with real, sub-second confirmation times.
• Serve as the foundation for relaunching Fantom with a new community-centric brand.

The team is diligently working through the details and logistics, with the anticipated launch of the new chain expected in late summer or early fall of this year.

Governance Proposal Highlights

We plan to propose several key initiatives:

• Bridging and Security: With the blockchain landscape evolving, Sonic will feature a secure, trust-minimized bridge with native Ethereum access. This includes a Sonic rollup implementation to decentralize the bridge while leveraging both our network and Ethereum’s security.
• Simplified Staking and Liquid Staking Support: We will simplify staking by introducing a fixed 14-day unbonding period, unlocking over $1 billion in liquid staking tokens (LSTs) and boosting DeFi activity and TVL. Multiple LSTs will be supported to ensure network security.
• Grant Programs: Our Sonic Labs grant program will be significantly expanded to support developers creating valuable applications and public goods in gaming, DeFi, social media, streaming, and distributed AI.
• Rewards Campaign: An extensive rewards campaign will be launched for both the existing Opera network users and the new chain.
• Superset Introduction: Supersets will be enabled through a soft-fork upgrade towards the end of 2024, enhancing FVM performance.
• Parallel FVM: Our Chief Research Officer, Professor Bernhard Scholz, and his team are exploring parallelization to boost Sonic’s performance. This will be a focus in the next evolution of Sonic.
• ZK Execution Scaling: Andre Cronje will continue researching off-chain execution with on-chain verification. Initial proofs of concept using zk-SNARKs have shown promise, although verification costs are still higher than execution costs for simple transactions. This will be expanded with pre-compiles in the FVM.
• Canonical Stablecoin: A canonical stablecoin is essential for both the current Opera network and the new Sonic stack, with expectations for its implementation in the near future.

Looking Ahead

We are excited to share more details in the coming weeks, including news about new partners, VC/angel funding, targeted industries and use cases, and audience engagement programs. With the support of the largest token holders, stakers, and projects on Fantom, we are committed to this evolution. Stay tuned for more updates!