On December 2, developers of the L1 blockchain Sonic Labs announced the launch of the mainnet and the processing of the first transaction block.
Genesis achieved.
Block zero.
Infrastructure deploying.
Public soon.
— Sonic Labs (prev. Fantom) ? (@0xSonicLabs) December 2, 2024
According to them, the system is already being deployed and will be available to users “soon.”
The new network will include technology for simultaneous block processing in multiple rollups and a cross-chain bridge with Ethereum called Sonic Gateway.
According to project co-founder Andre Cronje, the infrastructure will be launched in the coming days, followed by decentralized applications.
Just the start. Bridge and infra going live over next few days. Then the real fun begins. Will launch my dapps in stages; bringing ICOs, fairlaunches, and retroative airdrops back to show what Sonic can really do. https://t.co/LcbXvbPiEC pic.twitter.com/ZZBDrwULI8
— Andre Cronje (@AndreCronjeTech) December 2, 2024
To celebrate the mainnet launch, developers plan to conduct an airdrop of the network’s native coin, Sonic, with the ticker S. It is planned to distribute 190.5 million S among project users (approximately $232 million at a price of $1.2).
The claim amount will depend on the number of points that could be earned for developing applications for Sonic and participating in mini-games.
As a reward for completing tasks, users were also given special NFTs — “shards.” Those who managed to collect six such tokens will receive additional points.
On December 1, the Sonic team took a network snapshot to record the number of points and shards for subsequent reward distribution.
? Snapshot complete.
Wallets that held all six Shards on Dec 1 at noon UTC are now whitelisted for the NFT mint on the #Sonic mainnet.@SellekArt and @Froyd_Art are teaming up to design the exclusive NFT!
— Sonic Labs (prev. Fantom) ? (@0xSonicLabs) December 2, 2024
The distribution timeline has not yet been announced.
On November 30, ahead of the launch, Sonic Labs presented the Blaze test network — the project’s new main testnet with enhanced performance.
In preparation for the #Sonic mainnet, we’re excited to release our upgraded, default testnet 2.0.
Introducing Blaze, the new Sonic testnet with incredible performance enhancements.
? https://t.co/2aMwx9lEqg pic.twitter.com/hO8zPRS9Yw
— Sonic Labs (prev. Fantom) ? (@0xSonicLabs) November 30, 2024
Sonic is an EVM-compatible first-layer blockchain focused on performance. The platform’s claimed throughput is about 10,000 TPS, with a confirmation time of up to one second.
The project is a reincarnation of the Opera network from Fantom, launched in 2019.
After the Sonic mainnet launch, S coins will be exchanged for FTM — Fantom tokens — at a 1:1 rate.
Back in October, Cronje described L2 appchains as “illogical” for developers.