Sonic Labs announced that their layer-1 blockchain, Sonic, will soon launch publicly after achieving Genesis — the first on-chain transaction block completed.
'Genesis has been achieved. Block zero. Infrastructure is being deployed. Public soon,' Sonic Labs announced in a post on X on December 2.
Sonic is an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible blockchain focused on speed and promises to deliver attractive incentives along with a robust infrastructure for creators.
It is seen as the successor to the current Fantom Opera network — with the rebranding to Sonic to improve network performance by reducing latency and transaction fees.
Sonic Labs also received support from the Fantom Foundation — a non-profit organization that has developed the decentralized financial ecosystem of Fantom since 2019.
The progress toward the public launch was accelerated just a few days after Sonic announced the 'testnet 2.0' upgrade named 'Blaze' on December 1.
Completed Snapshot for the S token airdrop.
That song, Sonic also announced that it has completed the 'Snapshot' for the distribution of the 'S' token airdrop on December 2.
About 200 million S tokens will be airdropped, which can be exchanged for Fantom (FTM) tokens at a 1:1 ratio. S airdrops can be earned through participation in Sonic's arcade games like Coinflip, Rock, Paper and Scissors, Plinko, and Mines.
However, these games have officially ceased operations as Sonic prepares for the public mainnet launch.
Sonic will operate on a proof-of-stake mechanism, allowing investors to stake their S tokens.
Sonic aims to become the fastest EVM chain.
The Sonic Blockchain achieved a transaction finality time — the time it takes for a transaction to become immutable — of 720 milliseconds during testing, which could help it compete with the fastest EVM chains like Solana and Base.
Sonic also aims to become the leading blockchain for developers as 90% of the transaction fees generated on the network will be returned to them, according to 'DeFi godfather' Andre Cronje, CTO of Sonic Labs, who previously held the position of Chairman and Technical Advisor of Fantom from 2018 to 2022.
In June, the Fantom Foundation announced the allocation of 120 million FTM to support Fantom developers in moving their projects to the Sonic network.
Just a month earlier, on May 23, the organization announced the launch of the Sonic Foundation.
The Sonic Foundation will be responsible for overseeing the governance of Sonic, managing the treasury, building partnerships, and developing a robust decentralized financial ecosystem.
