Why did the SOON, invested by the chairman of the Solana Foundation and others, choose to build SVM Rollup?
SOON (Solana Optimistic Network) is a general-purpose Ethereum Layer 2 that is about to launch its mainnet. It is worth mentioning that SOON will incentivize new developers (especially those from the Asia-Pacific region) who develop on SVM through tokens.Original Title: Introducing SOON: the most efficient Rollup stack delivering top performance to every L1, powered by Decoupled SVM
Author: SoonSVM
Compiled by: Lyric, ChainCatcher
Current Issues: Most Rollups operate in a single-threaded manner, which can lead to network congestion, delays, and higher fees under high demand. Additionally, existing layer two solutions are limited, and there is a lack of high-quality decentralized applications and developers within the EVM ecosystem.
SOON's Solution: The SOON Stack utilizes the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) to achieve parallel transaction processing, thereby increasing throughput and reducing latency. SOON is not just a branch of the traditional SVM; it is specifically designed for Rollups, aiming to enhance security while reducing waste in data availability.
Upcoming Mainnet: A general layer two based on Ethereum, aiming to increase Ethereum's transaction capacity to approximately 5k to 600k TPS (after Firedancer). It can also serve as an incentive layer to attract quality developers, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
Modular Architecture: SOON will utilize different components (e.g., OP Stack, SVM, configurable DA) to optimize security, performance, and cost-effectiveness.
Future Plans: Integrate ZK proofs for faster withdrawal speeds, achieve interoperability between SOON Chains, and integrate the upcoming Firedancer validator client to further enhance throughput.
Current Status of SOON: SOON has garnered support from key industry figures and has extensive experience across various blockchain ecosystems. The Stack will be open-sourced upon release, allowing developers to deploy their own high-performance SVM Rollups on any L1.
The following will introduce the SOON Stack and SOON Mainnet (including the Decoupled SVM framework of SOON Stack).
Current Status
The current situation is that despite many Layer 2 solutions, the most commonly used Rollup stacks still operate in a single-threaded environment (processing one transaction at a time). When requests are frequent, the network becomes congested, leading to delays and higher transaction fees. Some applications, such as Hyperliquid, dYdX, and GMX, have opted for alternative solutions to avoid the impact of underperforming L2s. However, achieving true scalability for high-performance decentralized applications still requires a robust high-performance Rollup and accompanying technology stack.
Moreover, despite the numerous solutions addressing the performance limitations of L2s, the entire EVM ecosystem still lacks high-quality builders. Compared to decentralized applications in the Solana ecosystem, dApps in the EVM space exhibit a significant quality gap. Jupiter is a typical example, with its MAU (Monthly Active Users), FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation), product experience, and community engagement far surpassing other similar EVM products. The factors contributing to the differences between the EVM and SVM frameworks are as follows:
- Technical Limitations: The EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) cannot process multiple transactions in parallel. In contrast, the SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) account model separates data (e.g., user balances) for better organization and efficiency. Additionally, transactions on SVM must explicitly specify the data they will read and modify before execution.
- SVM Uses Rust as the Smart Contract Language: Rust is a general-purpose language designed for high-performance scalability and memory safety. Compared to Solidity, Rust reduces the likelihood of security issues (such as the most common reentrancy problems). In terms of memory safety, concurrency, type safety, low-level control, and the maturity of existing tools, Rust outperforms Solidity.
- EVM's Liquidity is Too Fragmented: Due to the excessive number of EVM chains, dApp builders deploy the same products across different EVM L2s, leading to a decline in product quality, a lack of community culture, and difficulties in attracting users. In contrast, SVM builders have developed more high-quality products on Solana, such as Raydium, Jupiter, and Pump.Fun.
SVM has been designed from the outset for high performance, and the quality of SVM builders has been continuously proven.
Enhancing performance in each ecosystem and fostering a strong builder culture is the foundation of building the SOON Stack and SOON Mainnet.
Team
SOON's co-founder and CEO Joanna Zeng has been active in the cryptocurrency industry since 2017, having led business development and partnerships at Coinbase, Optimism, and Aleo. Co-founder and CTO Andrew Zhou is renowned for smart contract development and building Layer 1, with five years of Rust and six years of Golang development experience. SOON's strategy aligns with Anza, a development company that has spun off from Solana Labs, whose SVM specifications in the Agave repository provide a reference for SOON's execution.
SOON recently successfully completed a funding round called the "Builder Round," with investors including Solana Labs co-founder and Solana Foundation chair Lily Liu, Coinbase Ventures head Jonathan King, and several co-founders and executives from companies like Celestia, AltLayer, Avail, and Manta Network. This funding round specifically targets builders and does not involve any venture capital firms.
Mission
The parallel execution architecture of SVM allows chains using the SOON Stack to achieve ultra-high throughput and responsiveness even during high demand, and SVM currently has high-quality builders. SOON also aims to further develop this high-quality builder community through funding, research, and collaboration.
SOON Stack --- One-Click Launch for Optimal Performance SVM Rollup
SOON Stack is a modular rollup framework that combines SVM and OP Stack, enabling SVM layer two to be deployed on any layer one, such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Cosmos. Chains deployed using SOON Stack will be referred to as SOON Chains. SOON SVM will serve as the execution layer of the SOON Stack. Future collaborations may occur with EVM RaaS (Rollup as a Service) providers like Caldera, AltLayer, and Conduit.
After the mainnet launch, SOON Stack will be open-sourced. Any project or developer can deploy their own SOON Chain on any L1 without permission.
Upcoming Mainnet --- Incentive Layer for SVM Builders
SOON's Modular Architecture
- Settlement ------ Ethereum / Bitcoin EVM / Cosmos EVM
Starting from the EVM base layer, SOON can use any base layer as its settlement layer, leveraging the established economic security and liquidity of the corresponding base layer.
- Data Availability --- Celestia / EigenDA / Avail
SOON allows for the configuration of DA layers between Celestia, EigenDA, and Avail.
- Derivatives
For L2, we implement derivative layers based on the OP Stack specifications. Anza's new SVM API separates SVM from the rest of the validator code to control the execution layer for derivatives.
- Execution ------ SOON SVM, Decoupled SVM
The Decoupled SVM framework will be used to decouple SVM to adapt to different Rollups. By decoupling the Transaction Processing Unit (TPU) and removing the original Solana consensus, the TPU will be controlled by Rollup nodes, supporting derivatives.
- Proofs and L1 Bridging --- OP Stack
SOON uses OP Stack as its fraud proof mechanism and L1 bridging. OP Stack leverages decentralized fraud proofs, allowing any user to challenge the state of L2 on L1. After the mainnet launch, ZK proofs will be implemented.
Roadmap
Interoperability:
Each SOON Chain will have a central messaging program to handle cross-chain messages, which will be integrated into the sequencer.
ZK Proofs:
The project team plans to adopt RISC Zero or SP1 technology to complete zero-knowledge proofs. Zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs will be used to shorten withdrawal periods.
Firedancer:
Firedancer is a new validator client for the Solana blockchain. It is currently in the process of introducing the Firedancer client to the Solana mainnet, expected to launch in 2025. Once stabilized, the Firedancer client will be integrated into the SOON Stack to further enhance the throughput of all SOON Chains.
Conclusion
SOON hopes to address the current limitations developers face due to infrastructure constraints through the Decoupled SVM. It aims to attract more talented developers, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, through its "Builder" program.
