Can Fantom make a comeback?

Author: The DeFi Investor Source: thedefinvestor Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance

At the end of 2021, Fantom (recently renamed Sonic) was one of the most popular L1 blockchains and the top choice for degens.

Despite this, the project was hit pretty hard during the bear market.

Fantom L1's TVL was once close to $15 billion, but has now dropped to about $153 million.

However, in an effort to reinvigorate blockchain activity, its team has spent the past few years developing Sonic — the project’s biggest upgrade ever

This looks to be one of the biggest DeFi catalysts coming in Q4, so I thought it would be interesting to cover it in depth in today’s article.

Here’s everything you need to know about Sonic Upgrade:

1. Network Upgrade

First, let’s talk about the changes Sonic will bring in terms of technology:

• Higher scalability – Sonic L1 will purportedly enable the network to process 10,000 real transactions per second and finalize transactions in under 1 second

• 90% reduction in storage requirements for validators

This will be achieved through the introduction of a novel storage system and a new EVM-compatible virtual machine called the Fantom virtual machine.

• Native Bridge to Ethereum

Sonic Gateway is a trustless bridge that enables transfers from Ethereum to Sonic L1 up to 10 minutes, and from Sonic to Ethereum up to 1 hour.

Interestingly, Gateway will be fully decentralized and controlled by network validators, which is not the case with most crypto bridges.

2. New Token Release

The project's current token $FTM will be converted to $S tokens after the Sonic mainnet upgrade is launched.

Like FTM, S will be used to participate in governance and pay gas fees.

But in addition to this, $S tokens will also be used to validate its new native bridge and collect all bridge fees it generates.

3. New Incentive/Airdrop Program

As part of a new airdrop campaign, Sonic will distribute approximately $130 million to its community.

To receive these rewards, you must use certain dApps on the Sonic testnet and mainnet after launch. (Sonic mainnet launch is scheduled for December)

Currently the only way to participate is to:

• Go to airdrop.soniclabs.com

• Enter your registration code (e.g. s8sjft)

• Click on 'Sonic Arcade' and play one of the games available on the Sonic testnet

In addition to this, the project has also launched Sonic Boom - a grant program that will provide a portion of the Sonic airdrop to up to 30 winning projects.

4. Andre Cronje's Upcoming DeFi Primitives

If you've been in the crypto space for a while, you've probably heard of Yearn Finance and Aerodrome at least once, two of the most successful DeFi projects.

Both protocols are based on smart contract code written by Andre Cronje - a key member of the Sonic team and a very well-known web3 developer

Andre Cronje said a while ago that he has 4 DeFi primitives that have not yet been released.

He may release them exclusively on Sonic L1.

Given the huge success of his previous projects, the launch of these projects may bring a lot of attention to the Sonic ecosystem.

5. Gas monetization plan

Another interesting feature of Sonic Upgrade is the Gas monetization plan. (GasM Program)

This program will reward developers using a revenue sharing model similar to web2:

A certain percentage of the gas fees paid by users of dApps that apply to join the GasM program will be paid to the developers of the application, rather than the validators.

The more successful a certain dApp is, the higher this percentage will be.

Up to 90% of the gas fees will be shared with the developers of the top dApps on the network.

In this way, the GasM program may encourage new developers to build their projects on Sonic.

Here is all the key information you need to know about the upcoming Sonic upgrade.

All in all, I believe this is a catalyst worth paying attention to.

Sonic (or Fantom) has a very strong community, so I expect to see a lot of discussion about this catalyst on Crypto Twitter in the coming months.