Sony, the well-known Japanese electronics company famous for the Betamax and Walkman, is diving into the world of blockchain. They just announced a new project called Soneium, which is a layer-2 network built on the Ethereum blockchain. This is a big step that shows mainstream companies are starting to embrace blockchain technology.
Soneium is set to launch on a test network soon. It will use something called optimistic rollup technology. This tech allows users to make transactions on Ethereum at lower costs. Soneium will be built using the OP Stack from the Optimism blockchain ecosystem. This toolkit lets developers create their own networks while easily connecting to others in the ecosystem through what they call the Superchain.
Other notable projects, like Coinbase’s Base and Worldcoin’s World Chain, have also chosen to use the OP Stack.
Startale Labs leads this initiative, headed by CEO Sota Watanabe. He’s also the director at Sony Block Solutions Labs and co-founded the Astar Network. Startale spun off from the Astar Foundation and has been key in maintaining the Astar zkEVM. This platform uses Polygon’s Chain Development Kit, which competes with OP Stack but employs Polygon’s zero-knowledge technology.
From now on, Startale will focus solely on Soneium, stepping away from Astar zkEVM. Watanabe shared this in an interview with CoinDesk, stating, “Astar zkEVM will integrate its assets and infrastructure with Soneium.”
Watanabe emphasized that the first year will be about attracting Web3 users. He noted it’s a bit early to engage the general public just yet, both in terms of technology and community. “In phase two, within two years, we plan to bring in Sony products, like Sony Bank, Sony Music, and Sony Pictures. We want to weave Web3 and blockchain into Sony’s offerings. In three years, our goal is to onboard not just Sony, but all enterprises and general dApps on this platform.”
“This is a general timeline. We aim to onboard as many enterprises as possible from the start,” Watanabe added.