Sonic Mainnet Launches With 10,000 TPS at Sub-Second Finality

What Is Sonic?

Sonic is a Layer 1 EVM blockchain that offers users a smoother and faster experience through features like the Sonic Gateway, while providing developers with incentives like Fee Monetization, where they can receive up to 90% of fees generated by their app.

Key Takeaways

• Fantom transitioned to Sonic in August 2024 as part of an upgrade to adjust the project to a new set of performance and user experience goals.

• The Sonic network offers improved speed, faster transaction finality, and a developer support system that rewards builders on the network.

• As part of the transition, the FTM token is upgradable to the Sonic token (S). FTM holders can upgrade their tokens to S through a dedicated online portal.

• Sonic users will also be rewarded through a ~$200 million S airdrop.

This article is brought to you by Sonic.

With the Fantom Opera chain, the Fantom team developed a high-performance Layer 1 network with competitive cost-effectiveness for decentralized applications and other transactions. At its peak, the Fantom Opera chain reached a TVL of over $9 billion with notable apps launching on the network. The Opera chain grew into a top blockchain network with millions of active addresses and thousands of daily transactions.

However, the team is taking this to the next level by creating an even more efficient network. Fantom rebranded to Sonic in August 2024 and the Sonic network was launched in December 2024.

Introducing Sonic

Sonic is a Layer 1 EVM blockchain that offers developers attractive incentives through Fee Monetization and the Innovator Fund, along with powerful infrastructure, designed for speed, agility, and interoperability. 

The Sonic network will be able to process over 800 million transactions daily with a sub-one-second finality. Sonic network’s projected transaction processing speed is 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). This is about fifty times the speed recorded on the Opera chain (200 TPS) and over 500 times the 20 TPS speed recorded on the Ethereum network. 

On Sonic, users can easily interact with the Sonic chain through the MySonic online portal.

MySonic: The Sonic Network Portal

MySonic is the official Sonic network portal that allows users to easily manage their interactions with the Sonic chain. After connecting their supported web3 wallet, users can:

• Stake their tokens with network validators and claim their staking rewards.

• Migrate their FTM tokens to S.

• Submit and vote on governance proposals.

Users can also easily explore the Sonic ecosystem through a directory that lists every app on the chain and what they offer.

MySonic will also host a catalog of applications in the Sonic ecosystem, serving as a directory for users.

A Developer-Focused Network

The Sonic network is developer-focused and designed to simplify the process of building and deploying applications on the network. As an EVM-compatible network, developers will be able to deploy their pre-existing EVM decentralized applications to Sonic without needing to make significant changes to the original code. 

Sonic’s virtual machine (VM) will replace the EVM, increasing the speed of execution on Sonic by using dynamic translation, where the code will be translated into a more efficient instruction format in the client, allowing for more efficient execution of the smart contract. This new VM will be fully EVM compatible, allowing developers to use the same development tools,

Sonic also features programs that incentivize developers to build on the network. The Sonic team has also dedicated up to 200 million S to its Innovator Fund to secure the best infrastructure and application integrations for Sonic across on-chain tooling, compliance, native assets, cross-chain technology, wallets, and more.

A key part of Sonic’s development focus is its Fee Monetization (FeeM) program that offers developers up to 90% of the fees their apps generate to attract developers and existing apps to the Sonic network.

Earn on Sonic With Fee Monetization

Apps that are approved to participate in Fee Monetization can receive up to 90% of the fees generated, providing them with sustainable income to retain creators while supporting network infrastructure. 

Here’s a quick look at the difference in transaction fee distribution between an app that doesn’t participate in Fee Monetization and one that does.

As seen above, apps that don’t participate in Fee Monetization will have 50% of their transaction fee burned, and the rest tipped to validators and the Ecosystem Vault. On the other hand, for apps that participate in Fee Monetization, they can receive up to 90% of transaction fees, with the remaining 10% tipped to validators. 

The reward is determined by tracking gas consumption within the virtual machine, where it is split based on the gas each sub-operation in a transaction consumes. 

Alongside Fee Monetization, the token burn program (for non-FeeM applications) also manages the S token supply with over $9 million worth of S projected to be burnt annually.

Sonic Gateway: Bridge From Ethereum to Sonic

To create an efficient communication path with the Ethereum blockchain to ensure the smooth transfer of assets across networks, Sonic has developed an advanced token bridge platform – the Sonic Gateway. Sonic Gateway allows free and secure movement of tokens between the Ethereum and Sonic. According to the project, Sonic Gateway is built for flexibility, speed, cost-efficiency, and security. Sonic Gateway’s security is built on the (Sonic) network validators. Validators on the Sonic network will run the network’s client alongside Ethereum’s Light Client to validate bridging transactions and secure the gateway.

Two innovative features contribute to the Sonic Gateway’s security and cost-efficiency. 

The Fail-Safe Mechanism

The fail-safe mechanism is activated if the Sonic Gateway stays non-functional for over 14 days. When the mechanism is activated, users who bridged assets from Ethereum to Sonic can recover their assets on the Ethereum network. As the fail-safe mechanism is immutable, it ensures that users bridging to the network via the Sonic Gateway retain custody of their bridged funds on the original chain.

The Fast Lane

Assets bridged through the Sonic Gateway are processed in intervals called ‘heartbeats’, by bundling bridging transactions together and validating them at once. Heartbeats occur every 10 minutes when bridging from Ethereum to Sonic bridge and every hour when bridging from Sonic to Ethereum. Every transaction within this period is processed at once and at the cost of one transaction. This saves fees for gateway users but could introduce a delay period equivalent to the heartbeat. 

Here’s where the Fast Lane comes in. For users who want their assets bridged immediately, they can use Fast Lane, which allows users to bypass the wait and have their bridge transaction processed immediately by paying a small fee. It works by adding an additional heartbeat to Gateway, where all other queued assets waiting to be bridged are also processed immediately, accelerating the entire network. Users who opt for Fast Lane will also contribute to the entire ecosystem’s efficiency by providing faster bridging for everyone involved. 

How to Use the Sonic Gateway

To bridge assets between Ethereum and Sonic network via the Sonic Gateway;

1. Visit the gateway here: http://gateway.soniclabs.com

2. Click Connect Wallet from the platform’s interface

3. Set the direction of your bridge (S to ETH or ETH to S). 

4. Enter the amount of assets you wish to bridge and click Confirm to continue.

5. Follow the prompt on your wallet to complete.

Sonic vs. Other Chains

Sonic offers a more secure option for bridging assets, as asset transfers are not subject to any challenge period, while also offering a faster alternative, compared to the usual 7-day challenge period required by optimistic rollups like Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism. 

Migrate FTM to S Token

As mentioned earlier, the FTM token will be rebranded to S as part of the Sonic upgrade. Existing FTM holders are free to migrate their tokens to S at a ratio of 1:1 through the MySonic portal. In the first 90 days after the migration process starts, users will be able to freely swap between FTM and S tokens. After this period, users will only be able to swap from FTM to S.

Liquidity providers on decentralized exchanges can remove their liquidity and migrate the FTM token to S. According to the Sonic team, migration for FTM tokens held on a centralized exchange will be dependent on the specific exchange; however, many centralized exchanges are expected to support the migration process on behalf of their users. Other projects in the Fantom ecosystem are also expected to run token migration for their native tokens.

Considering the expected event of foul players attempting to lure users with malicious links, it is advised that you look out for potentially harmful links masked as the migrating portal. The official portal for FTM to S upgrade is http://my.soniclabs.com/upgrade

To migrate to S

1. Go to http://my.soniclabs.com/upgrade to start.

2. Connect your wallet to the platform.

3. Enter the amount of FTM you wish to migrate and confirm if you are receiving the same amount of S.

4. Click Confirm and follow the prompt from your wallet to complete the procedure. 

~200 Million S Airdrop

As part of the upgrade to Sonic and with the goal of rewarding existing Fantom Opera chain users and users on the new Sonic chain, 190,500,000 S tokens will be distributed in the Sonic airdrop. 

Airdrop points will be allocated to users who interact (bridge, trade, or transfer) approved assets or use approved apps. Applications that drive user adoption will receive gems which will be converted to S token airdrops like the Sonic points.

Airdrop tokens will be claimable over a period of 270 days. 25% of claimable tokens are liquid and can be claimed instantly, with the remaining 75% subject to a linear decay mechanism, where recipients will forfeit a portion of their remaining tokens if they decide to claim the full share of their airdrop at once.

 For instance, beneficiaries will lose about 75% of their allocation if they claim all airdrops at once, however, if they decide to claim their tokens over a longer period of time, they will receive more tokens. All unclaimed and forfeited tokens will be burnt. This mechanism is meant to prevent all airdropped tokens from being liquid on distribution.

Beneficiaries who are unable to wait through the claim period can also trade their airdrop NFT allocation on a dedicated marketplace that will be built by PaintSwap.

Final Thoughts

With the new Sonic network, the Sonic Labs team prioritizes user and developer experience. Users can explore fast, secure, and cost-efficient platforms for DeFi, GameFi, NFT, and other activities, while developers enjoy incentives like Fee Monetization, which will in turn drive positive developments on the network and scale mass adoption.

As the FTM token is migrating to S, it is important for users to stay up to date with official information and look out for malicious migration and airdrop links. The Sonic Labs team will release official announcements around both events. 

This article is only for informational purposes and should not be taken as financial advice. Always do your own research before investing in any cryptocurrency or connecting your web3 wallet to any protocol or platform.