Sony, the 78-year-old Japanese electronics giant, is the latest legacy megacorporation to explore blockchain technology. On Tuesday, the company announced that it will officially launch “Soneum,” a general-purpose blockchain platform.
The team behind Sony Block Solutions Labs (SBSL), a joint project between Sony Group and Singapore-based Startale Labs, describes Soneuim (technically a Layer 2 network on top of Ethereum) as “a versatile general-purpose blockchain platform” built to support a diverse ecosystem of gaming, financial and entertainment applications. According to SBSL, the launch comes after a four-month testing period that involved 14 million wallets participating.
Sony’s network is further evidence that traditional technology companies could once again be interested in blockchain’s ability to connect and commercialize the future of media. The network aims to “bridge the gap between web2 and web3 audiences, especially for creators, fans and the community,” SBSL said in a statement shared with CoinDesk. “The platform prioritizes user-centered design, simplifying blockchain interactions and evolving web3 from a specialized hobby into an everyday experience.”
The team leveraged Optimism’s OP Stack to build their network, a customizable framework that allows developers to use optimistic rollup technology to transact on Ethereum quickly and at low cost.
Other companies using OP Stack include American crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, which use the technology to power their popular Base and Ink networks. Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange, and Worldcoin, the digital passport founded by Sam Altman, also use OP Stack to power their Layer 2 blockchain networks.
In many cases, the Optimism Foundation, which manages the development of OP Stack, has provided grants to companies that agreed to use its technology. SBSL declined to comment on how many OP tokens they would receive as part of this deal, although previous reports indicate that Optimism’s subsidies may be substantial.
In August 2023, Coinbase received up to 118 million OP tokens (worth $182 million at the time, or $192 million at current prices) to use the OP Stack for the Base chain. CoinDesk also reported that Kraken received up to 25 million OP tokens, worth approximately $100 million, when it agreed to use the OP Stack in January 2024 (now worth $42 million).
Similar grants are being awarded by Optimism’s competitors, such as Polygon and Arbitrum, each dueling to build their own interconnected network of blockchains.
Read more: Sony, electronics pioneer behind the Walkman, launches its own blockchain ‘Soneium’
