According to BlockBeats, on August 23, Coindesk reported that Japanese conglomerate Sony Group and Singapore-based Startale Labs have announced their joint project, Sony Block Solutions Labs, will launch a new Layer 2 network named Soneium on the Ethereum blockchain. The network is expected to go live on the testnet in the coming days. Soneium will utilize Optimism Rollup technology and will be built using the OP Stack from the Optimism blockchain ecosystem.

Startale Labs' CEO, Sota Watanabe, who also serves as the head of Sony Block Solutions Labs and is a co-founder of Astar Network, is leading this initiative. The collaboration aims to leverage advanced blockchain technology to enhance scalability and efficiency on the Ethereum network.