Sony enters the Ethereum ecosystem

On May 29, in the article "The Impact of the Approval of the Ethereum Spot ETF on the Crypto Ecosystem (Part II)," I speculated:

"I believe that traditional Wall Street institutions like BlackRock will soon personally engage in two areas: one is the infrastructure of the blockchain sector; the other is application projects on blockchain platforms. I think the blockchain infrastructure with the highest potential is Ethereum's second-layer scaling."

I didn't expect that so soon, a traditional institution would personally engage in the layout of Ethereum's second-layer scaling. However, this traditional institution is not a Wall Street financial giant like BlackRock, but rather the entertainment and electronics giant Sony.

According to an official announcement from Sony's website on August 23, Sony's subsidiary, Sony Block Solution Labs Pte. Ltd, headquartered in Singapore, will officially launch the Ethereum-based second-layer scaling system called Soneium.

This system relies on Ethereum as the first-layer system (L1) and is built on the Optimism OP Stack framework.

Anyone can participate in this system without permission, which is why the official also refers to Soneium as a public blockchain.

The official hopes to build Web 3 applications on this chain that users can use daily, covering various applications such as games, NFTs, and IP.

This news somewhat surprised me. What was unexpected was that a Japanese company, which I have always perceived as "slow" and "lagging," made such a significant move into Ethereum's second-layer scaling. Even more surprising was that quiet Sony entered the Ethereum ecosystem faster than the Wall Street giants who have been making a lot of noise in the media.

If we consider Sony's previous series of actions, such as wallet development, acquiring exchanges, and now developing its own blockchain, Sony's determination to venture into Web 3 is well-known.

The official announcement pointed out a major dilemma in the current Web 3 ecosystem: existing Web 3 applications cannot be widely popularized and promoted to mainstream users.

In this regard, I have always believed that teams capable of developing widely adopted Web 3 applications are more likely to come from non-traditional application backgrounds.

For example, the development teams/leading figures behind well-known Web 3 applications like Ethereum, Uniswap, YFI, CryptoPunks, and Bored Apes do not have prominent Web 2 backgrounds.

Why is that?

Because Web 3 applications have their own unique logic, and teams that have been immersed in the traditional Web 2 ecosystem for too long, with so-called glamorous backgrounds, are more likely to be constrained by Web 2 thinking, resulting in products that are neither here nor there.

However, now that traditional giants like Sony are willing to explore this field, if they can bring substantial human, material, and financial resources into this ecosystem for experimentation, they might find new breakthroughs from different perspectives.

More importantly, with Sony's demonstration effect, I believe that more and more traditional enterprises will genuinely engage in the construction of the Ethereum ecosystem.

This holds great significance for the Ethereum ecosystem.

From the perspective of the Ethereum ecosystem's architecture, Ethereum, as a settlement layer, only undertakes the critical settlement functions, leaving the execution tasks to the second-layer scaling. This architecture itself provides ample space for innovation within the ecosystem.

Relying on this architecture, application developers do not need to worry about the security of the blockchain; they can focus on building their own ecosystems, which greatly lowers the threshold for ecosystem builders and gives them maximum freedom.

In the June 12 article "Where is the Future Breakthrough Point of Ethereum," I speculated:

"The next innovation in the Ethereum ecosystem will be nurtured in countless sub-chains based on second-layer scaling—this kind of explosion will no longer be the emergence of individual application scenarios, but rather an explosion based on chain ecosystems. The explosion of chain ecosystems will resonate around a specific theme or culture, meaning that once a chain (second-layer scaling) ecosystem explodes due to a certain theme or culture, all applications on that chain (including DeFi, NFTs, etc.) will explode together. As for what specific culture or theme it will be, I cannot imagine it yet."

Frankly speaking, over the past few months, I have only seen second-layer systems continuously emerging, but I have not seen any potential for these ecosystems to explode.

However, Sony's entry has brought fresh perspectives and strength to this ecosystem, making me see a glimmer of new hope.