Fantom is about to launch the sub-second trading network Sonic. How will it affect the current Layer 2 landscape?

In the current cryptocurrency market, FTM has once again attracted the attention of investors. In March, FTM's price soared by 150%, and in the past week, it has risen by 30% against the trend. Such astonishing performance not only excites investors but also deepens the market's focus on FTM's potential.

There are several reasons for the resurgence of FTM. First, the strong promotion by Andre Cronje, a director of the Fantom Foundation, has injected new vitality and confidence into Fantom. Secondly, the market has positive expectations for the upcoming Fantom Sonic. Cronje stated that Sonic will surpass "parallel EVM," triggering a disruptive revolution, which further enhances investor confidence. This wave of FTM's price increase may just be the beginning.

The veteran public chain Fantom rises again

Fantom was founded in January 2018, aiming to overcome the limitations of the previous generation of blockchains and achieve a balance among the three core features of scalability, security, and decentralization.

In September 2018, Andre Cronje joined Fantom as a DeFi architect and later became a board member of the foundation. Cronje's involvement made significant contributions to Fantom's technological breakthroughs, particularly achieving remarkable success in promoting multi-chain operations. Fantom utilizes an advanced aBFT consensus mechanism called Lachesis, which is an improved version based on DAG, allowing different blockchains to exist asynchronously without slowing down the mainnet. Lachesis enables transactions to be completed almost instantly and resists malicious actions from one-third of participants. This makes Fantom faster, cheaper, and more secure than previous technologies, addressing the blockchain trilemma of Layer 1.

In 2019, Fantom launched the first generation of the EVM-compatible Opera mainnet, providing full smart contract support through Solidity and EVM, allowing Ethereum-based DApps to seamlessly migrate to Fantom. With its modular architecture, Fantom can also offer customized blockchains for digital assets. After the launch of Opera, Fantom attracted widespread attention in the market, being considered a "Ethereum killer."

In March 2022, rumors circulated that Andre Cronje would leave the DeFi industry. Although it was later clarified that Cronje did not completely exit, this event had a huge impact on the FTM token. Coupled with the entire cryptocurrency industry entering a bear market, the price of FTM once fell from $3.0 to $0.19, lingering below $0.6 for a long time. It wasn't until early this year when Cronje frequently published updates on Fantom's ecosystem that investor enthusiasm was reignited.

FTM has risen nearly 200% since the beginning of the year. In addition to Cronje's active promotion, Fantom has also made significant breakthroughs in the technical field. The Fantom Foundation announced the launch of its latest technology upgrade, Fantom Sonic, which Cronje has high hopes for, claiming it has the potential to surpass the existing "parallel EVM" and trigger a disruptive revolution.

What is Fantom Sonic?

Fantom Sonic is the latest technological upgrade of the Fantom network, aimed at enhancing the scalability and efficiency of the network. In October 2023, the Fantom Foundation announced the launch of the Fantom Sonic initiative, which has garnered widespread attention as an important technological advancement and is regarded as a long-awaited milestone for the Fantom community and the DeFi ecosystem.

Fantom Sonic introduces a series of innovative technologies and optimization solutions:

1. Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM): The new virtual machine provides a more efficient environment for smart contract execution, accelerating the deployment and execution speed of contracts.

2. Carmen Database: The new data storage solution reduces storage requirements by 90%, significantly lowering the amount of data that needs to be recorded by validation nodes and archival nodes.

3. Lachesis Consensus Mechanism: An optimized leaderless asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus mechanism that accelerates transaction confirmation and improves network throughput and performance.

4. High throughput and low latency: The theoretical trading limit exceeds 2,000 transactions per second, with an average finalization time of just 1 second.

5. Smooth Upgrade: Fully compatible with existing smart contracts, services, and tools on Fantom Opera, with no major modifications needed.

The launch of Sonic marks a new chapter for Fantom. After the upgrade, Fantom features no-fork upgrades, true parallel transactions, top-tier TPS, and finality, making it an advanced platform that distinguishes itself from other Layer 1 chains.

Currently, Fantom's market capitalization is only 3 billion USD, but with the development of Sonic, its future value is worth looking forward to. The Fantom ecosystem's DeFi occupies half of the market, and Sonic is expected to help it reach new heights.

Although some community members hope to achieve ecological explosion through the Meme coin boom, promoting the development of the Meme ecosystem may not be suitable for the current Fantom ecosystem. The explosion of Meme coins often represents the result of ecological prosperity, while the activity level of the Fantom ecosystem still lags behind that of public chains like Ethereum and Solana. Therefore, Fantom needs to find a development method that suits its own needs.

The Fantom Foundation has high hopes for Sonic's development in the DeFi space. Plans will be launched in the future to support liquid staking tokens, new staking mechanisms, and more decentralized and secure cross-chain solutions to enhance DeFi activities on Fantom.

Overview of Fantom Sonic Ecosystem Projects

To attract more high-quality projects, the Fantom Foundation has established the Sonic Labs incubator. The recently announced Sonic Labs startup accelerator program showcases the appeal and vitality of the Fantom ecosystem, covering innovations in multiple fields:

1. Perpetual DEX project Lynx: First, enter a centralized perpetual exchange, allowing for the convenient listing of tokens as collateral assets.

2. Social Protocol Thunder Dome: A full-stack social finance service built on Fantom, enabling community interaction through tradable social tokens.

3. P2P Lending Platform Debita: A no-Oracle lending protocol on Fantom that offers decentralized lending solutions.

4. Green technology startup KiriCoin: Focused on tracking and rewarding individual sustainable behaviors to combat climate change.

5. RPG Chain Game Froqorion: An innovative game based on Fantom, integrating frog civilization background and team-based RPG elements.

Summary

After the Cancun upgrade, the market focus has shifted to addressing blockchain scalability issues through Layer 2 solutions. The emergence of Sonic has provided new ideas, as its performance has surpassed most Layer 2-based solutions. This indicates that Layer 1 public chains can also enhance scalability through technological innovation, without necessarily relying on Layer 2.

In this bull market, Fantom may not be the most eye-catching project, but it is undoubtedly the most anticipated. With Cronje's return, the Sonic upgrade, and the revival of the DeFi ecosystem, Fantom is expected to rise again in this bull market.