Michael Kong, CEO of the Fantom Foundation, said the project is preparing to introduce its next iteration, Sonic.
Sonic promises to process 2,000 transactions per second (TPS) with sub-second finality and is expected to launch in late summer or early fall of this year, according to Kong.
It is developed as the next step after the existing Opera version of Fantom, capable of facilitating 200 transactions per second. Sonic’s rollout includes plans to improve DeFi activities on Fantom through support for liquid staking tokens and expanding grant programs to fund development.
The team also plans to use Sonic as a “shared sequencer” for other layer 1 and 2 chains, Kong noted. A shared sequencer is a part or protocol that produces blocks for multiple rollups simultaneously. This is essentially a pool of sequencers that can be used by multiple rollups. Other examples of shared sequencers in development include Espresso, Astria and FairBlock. Last year the project noted exploring added optimistic rollups to connect to Ethereum.
“Sonic will be used to create a new best-in-class shared sequencer for the L1 and L2 chains, capable of processing over 180 million daily transactions with sub-second real-world confirmation times, and will serve as the basis for relaunching Fantom as a as an entirely new brand company focused on the community”, Kong said.
Fantom develops a new bridge
The launch of Sonic will be accompanied by proposed governance changes, including new staking mechanisms and a more decentralized and secure transition solution to allow users to link Ethereum funds. “We developed a Sonic rollup implementation, a first-class citizen in our set of validators, to completely decentralize the bridge while using the security of our existing network and inheriting the economic security of Ethereum,” Kong added.
With the deployment of Sonic, a new bridge will become a critical infrastructure component for the foundation, especially after last year’s hack of a cross-chain bridge with Ethereum called Multichain. The foundation lost a third of the total $210 million stolen in the July 2023 heist. recovery actions are currently in progress.
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