Could the upcoming Sonic bring about a Fantom revival?

Author: Hamster, Source: Author's Blog

Background and Current Status of Fantom

Fantom is a highly scalable decentralized public chain designed to provide a fast and low-cost transaction environment for dApps. It was officially launched in December 2019. Its main feature is the use of the Lachesis consensus mechanism, Lachesis is an asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant (aBFT) algorithm, combined with a directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure, which allows nodes to process transactions independently and achieve fast confirmation.The key features of Lachesis include asynchronous processing, leaderless structure, and Byzantine fault tolerance, which can operate normally even when one-third of the nodes fail or are malicious. Transactions are confirmed within 1-2 seconds, and the system has good scalability without sacrificing performance due to increased decentralization. This makes Fantom an ideal platform for handling complex dApps and DeFi protocols. According to FTMScan data, Fantom has processed more than 615 million transactions to date, and the number of active addresses has exceeded 106 million. Nevertheless, Fantom Opera, as the main network of the Fantom network, provides reliable performance and compatibility with Ethereum, but still faces some challenges and defects: Scalability dilemma: Although the Fantom Opera network has improved throughput through the aBFT consensus algorithm, it still has scalability bottlenecks in high-load scenarios. This limits its application in areas such as DeFi.

Fantom New Chain Sonic: Technical Architecture and Advantages

On May 18, the Fantom Foundation announced detailed plans for the new blockchain network Sonic Network. Fantom's new chain Sonic is designed to overcome the limitations of the current Opera chain and provide strong support and excellent user experience for applications such as DeFi, high-frequency trading and games. Its innovative technical architecture combines Layer1 and Layer2 technologies and adopts technologies such as parallel execution to achieve higher performance, efficiency and security.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that Andre Cronje (AC) also actively participated in the construction of Sonic. AC joined Fantom as a DeFi architect in 2018 and later became an important member of the Fanton Foundation. Although in 2022, AC announced his departure from the Fantom Foundation and the DeFi field, he has actually continued to work for Fantom behind the scenes and returned publicly in early 2023.

Sonic core technology architecture

Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM): Sonic uses the new FVM,to achieve higher execution performance than previous EVM. FVM can seamlessly convert EVM bytecode to a new format, support super instructions, and reduce virtual machine instruction execution time.

• Carmen Database Storage: The newly introduced Carmen database system is divided into two parts, LiveDB and ArchiveDB, which implements live pruning, significantly reduces node storage requirements, and improves performance.

• Efficient consensus mechanism: Sonic's consensus mechanism has been optimized to achieve higher transaction processing capabilities and security, enabling it to achieve high throughput without the need for sharding or additional layers.

• Sonic Bridge: This is Sonic's native Layer2 cross-chain bridge that seamlessly connects the Ethereum ecosystem. Advantages include: interconnection with other blockchain networks (such as Ethereum), improving cross-chain liquidity and asset composability, using Ethereum as a root of trust, obtaining higher security and reliability, and inheriting the advantages of Layer2's high throughput and low fees.

• Parallelized Execution EVM: This design enables Sonic to achieve sub-second transaction confirmation speeds and process more than 2,000 transactions per second, improving the overall performance of the network. Parallelized virtual machines can execute multiple smart contracts simultaneously, enhancing concurrency and throughput. By sharding the state data and sharding the smart contract execution, the computing load is distributed to multiple nodes. The introduction of a lock-free state access mechanism avoids performance bottlenecks in traditional EVMs and makes transaction processing more efficient.

In general, Sonic's technical architecture combines the advantages of Layer1 and Layer2 to provide a better experience for DApps and users.

FTM Swap Details

The Fantom to Sonic Token Swap Mechanismis designed to facilitate the migration of native FTM tokens from the Fantom Opera mainnet to native S tokens on the new Sonic blockchain. The swap process is designed to provide a seamless and efficient way for FTM token holders to participate in the launch of the Sonic blockchain and leverage the capabilities of the new network.

Key to the FTM to S Swap:

• Supply Alignment: At the launch of the Sonic chain, the supply of S will be aligned with the supply of FTM to enable a seamless swap process.Initially, it is expected that this swap process will be bi-directional, allowing users to switch back and forth between FTM and S. After a transition period, it will be converted to a one-way exchange from FTM to S.

• Voluntary participation:FTM token holders are not required to participate in the exchange. If they prefer to stay on the Fantom Opera mainnet, they can choose to keep their FTM tokens. For those who choose not to switch to the new chain, the Opera network will continue to operate, and the Fantom Foundation promises to continue to provide validator support for the Opera network, but Fantom officials hope that the Opera ecosystem will be fully migrated to the Sonic chain because of its superior performance.

Highlights of the S Governance Proposal:

Migration Rewards: Limit inflation by migrating Opera block rewards to Sonic.Sonic has an annualized yield target of 3.5%, and plans to transfer the remaining FTM block rewards to the Sonic network in the first four years of Sonic as a benefit to validators and holders. At the same time, Opera's remaining FTM block rewards will gradually decrease to 0%, and no new tokens will be generated in the first four years of Sonic network deployment to ensure value for all FTM and S holders, and to ensure that Sonic does not require new inflationary block rewards at genesis.

• Increase ecosystem rewards: The Sonic network proposes a GasM model to support network applications by using part of the block reward to burn tokens and increase builders' fees. Non-GasM participants: 50% of the transaction fee will be destroyed, and the rest will be prompted to the validator. GasM participants: Up to 90% of the rewards will be allocated to some exclusive dApps, and the remaining amount will be sent to the validator as fees.

Summary

The Sonic chain hopes to improve the performance and security of the network through an improved virtual machine (FVM), Carmen database storage system, and optimized consensus mechanism. At the same time, Sonic's hybrid architecture and parallel execution technology enable it to have higher throughput and low latency, and can better support application scenarios such as DeFi, high-frequency trading, and games. In addition, the Fantom to Sonic token conversion mechanism ensures that FTM holders can seamlessly migrate to the new network and enjoy the many advantages brought by the Sonic network.