Sony, the 78-year-old Japanese electronics large, is the most recent legacy megacorp to discover blockchain expertise. On Tuesday, the corporate introduced that it’s formally launching “Soneum,” a general-purpose blockchain platform.
The group behind Sony Block Options Labs (SBSL), a joint mission between Sony Group and Singapore-based Startale Labs, describes Soneuim — technically a layer-2 community atop Ethereum — as “a flexible general-purpose blockchain platform” constructed to assist a various ecosystem of gaming, finance and leisure apps. Based on 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 expertise corporations may once more be eager on blockchain’s skill to attach and commercialize the way forward for media. The chain is aimed in the direction of “bridging the hole between web2 and web3 audiences, particularly for the creators, followers and group,” SBSL mentioned in a press release shared with CoinDesk. “The platform prioritizes user-centric design, simplifying blockchain interactions and evolving web3 from a distinct segment pastime into an on a regular basis expertise.”
The group tapped Optimism’s OP Stack to construct out their community — a customizable framework that lets builders use optimistic rollup expertise to transact on Ethereum rapidly and at a low value.
Different corporations utilizing the OP Stack embrace the U.S. crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, which use the tech to energy their in style 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 corporations that agreed to make use of its tech. SBSL declined to touch upon what number of OP tokens they’d obtain as a part of this deal, although earlier reporting signifies that Optimism’s grants could be substantial.
In August 2023, Coinbase acquired up to 118 million OP tokens — price $182 million on the time, or $192 million at as we speak’s costs — to make use of OP Stack for Base chain. CoinDesk additionally reported that Kraken acquired as much as 25 million OP tokens, price roughly $100 million, when it agreed to make use of the OP Stack in January 2024 (now price $42 million).
Related grants are doled out by Optimism rivals like Polygon and Arbitrum, every of whom is dueling to construct its personal interconnected internet of blockchains.
Learn extra: Sony, Electronics Pioneer Behind Walkman, Begins Personal Blockchain ‘Soneium’