In December, layer one blockchain Fantom officially rebranded itself as Sonic, and as planned all Fantom tokens were converted to Sonic. The Fantom network was launched in December 2019 and proved incredibly popular among users during the bull market of 2020-2021, mostly due to its fast transactions per second and incredibly low fees. The Fantom network even reached a total value locked of $7,7 billion in March 2022, becoming the third-largest chain in digital assets. However, like most chains, the network experienced an exodus of capital and users as the industry entered the bear market. To make matters worse for Fantom, its founder and mastermind of the network announced on March 6th, 2022, that he would be leaving the development team, making the chain outlook bleak.
Over the following years, Fantom moved to the background and it didn’t seem that it would gain significant traction among users. Then on December 25th, 2023, Andre Cronje announced that he would return to the Fantom Foundation, providing some hope for the chain. Then on August 1st, 2024, Fantom announced that it would transition to Sonic.
With the migration of Fantom to Sonic complete, the new chain brings various advantages for users and developers. We have highlighted the biggest changes:
The speed of transactions and finality have become increasingly important over the years, as users wish to have their transactions executed quickly. This contrast is most evident when comparing older legacy chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to the latest chains being released. Although Fantom supports a maximum of 4,500 transactions per second and achieves transaction finality in 1 second—which is certainly impressive—the Sonic chain will be capable of executing up to 10,000 transactions per second and achieving transaction finality in under a second. This makes Sonic one of the fastest chains on the market.
In digital assets, validators of the network are required to have a copy of the blockchain in order to verify incoming transactions and blocks. As the blockchain grows, these nodes are required to have larger databases, making it less accessible for users to maintain a node. In Fantom, the chain uses traditional data storage methods.
To tackle this problem, Sonic has introduced its Carmen data storage solution, reducing network storage requirements by up to 90%, leading to faster node synchronization and lower operational costs.
The biggest and arguably most important difference between Fantom and Sonic is how transactions are monetized. In Fantom, and most traditional blockchains, when a user interacts with the network or a decentralized application, the miner who builds the block and includes the transaction receives all the rewards, also known as transaction fees. In this current system, it has become incredibly difficult for more projects to generate additional revenue.
With Sonic’s new fee monetization program, the chain rewards developers with up to 90% of the network fees generated by their apps, providing a sustainable income stream. This allows developers to focus on scaling their apps and growing their user base without the constant pressure of fundraising or securing additional financing.
Since its launch in December, Sonic has steadily grown in terms of total value locked. In just one month, the chain amassed $176 million, with $150 million in January alone. Besides capital, an increasing number of accounts are being created, reaching a total of over 770,000, with more than 460,000 daily transactions in a month.
The market has seen many layer 1 blockchains introduced, and sometimes it feels rather tiring as they all seem the same. Almost every time, it's the latest chain with the highest TPS and finality, but users hardly notice a difference or experience a significantly different user journey. Although Sonic is also following this route, its fee monetization model might be a real game changer for developers and the chain itself.
It provides a natural incentive for developers to build their applications on Sonic, as they can generate more revenue than on other chains. Furthermore, this also paves the way for these developers to create better applications, as they have more capital for research and development. In our opinion, there is a strong possibility that Sonic might attract serious applications and substantial capital in the coming months.