In September last year, Sota Watanabe, CEO of Web3 company Startale Labs, announced on its social platform that Startale Labs and Sony have established a joint venture company, Sony Block Solutions Labs, to jointly develop Sony’s blockchain, Sony Chain. Sota Watanabe serves as the director of the joint venture company.

In an interview with BlockBeats, Sota Watanabe revealed that he has maintained a close cooperative relationship with Sony subsidiary Sony Network Communications, and an external director of Startale Labs has worked for the subsidiary and has been leading the Sony Chain project directly at Sony headquarters since April this year.

Related reading: “Interview with Astar founder: Sheng Tian is my idol, Sony could have made the iPhone”

Startale Labs CEO Sota Watanabe (Startale Labs), image source: coindesk

Today, Sony Block Solutions Labs officially announced the details of Sony Chain - Soneium, which will be launched as an L2 solution on the Ethereum network. It will leverage Optimism Rollup technology and utilize the OP Stack of the Optimism blockchain ecosystem. Soneium is expected to go live on the test network in the coming days and will later join Optimism’s superchain to expand the ecosystem.

According to the official introduction, Soneium’s partners include Astar Network, Optimism, chainlink, Alchemy, Circle, Circle.

The ‘ZK Team’ is creating OP Rollup for Sony

Sota Watanabe’s other identity is the founder of Astar Network, one of the first parachains to go live in the Polkadot ecosystem. In September last year, it officially announced a collaboration with Polygon Labs to create Astar zkEVM, which is developed using the second-layer protocol of the Polygon chain development kit (CDK). The Mainnet was launched earlier this year.

Astar Network’s progress in the ZK aspect has become a focus of attention in the market, with investor DFG expressing a strong interest in Astar Network as one of the two Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains about to be launched on Polkadot, highly appreciating the characteristics of Polkadot architecture and EVM compatibility, as well as the capabilities of Sota and the team.

Related reading: “Astar Network launches zkEVM testnet, promoting Cross-Chain Interaction progress”

As the founder of Astar Network, Sota Watanabe has been involved in the development of public blockchains since 2019. However, with the fading of Polkadot, Astar Network has also gradually lost attention in the domestic market. Now, with the official release of Soneium, Astar has announced the transition of Astar Layer 2 and the community to Soneium.

This move aims to further integrate Astar Network and Soneium, leveraging the strengths of both ecosystems to advance the realization of Soneium’s vision. Specifically, it is reflected in:

· Enhance the usability of ASTR: integrate ASTR as a key asset into the Soneium L2 ecosystem. Maintain its role in ecosystem projects and expand its utility.

· Use the Soneium ecosystem: place Soneium L2 at the core of innovative applications, driving adoption and participation.

· Community Empowerment: Create more opportunities for existing users to be early adopters of new projects and dApps. Make the community a key participant in the emerging initiatives within Soneium L2.

· Future Outlook: Positioning the potential advantages of ASTR in the expanding Soneium ecosystem. Prepare for the second phase of Astar Evolution to make future opportunities clearer.

「GM with Soneium」

Sony’s exploration in the Web3 industry is multi-faceted, covering the metaverse and the Non-fungible Token (NFT) space. However, Sota Watanabe has stated that Sony Chain will not only follow games or NFTs, but will serve all sectors, becoming a universal blockchain.

Soneium will be built on the existing Ethereum infrastructure, responsible for data processing, to solve the issues commonly associated with slow processing speed and high fees of L1 solutions. Soneium OP Stack and Superchain create a scalable, EVM-compatible, developer-friendly blockchain.

As an L2 of Ethereum, Soneium leverages Sony Group’s extensive global distribution network in the entertainment, financial, electronics, and gaming sectors to bridge the gap between Web3 innovation and everyday consumer applications, truly bringing blockchain technology into the mainstream, i.e., Go Mainstream with Soneium. By developing Web3 underlying infrastructure blockchains, Soneium may provide a comprehensive Web3 solution from infrastructure to the Application Layer.

To this end, Soneium is planning to be a comprehensive development ecosystem, and support advanced Smart Contract capabilities. Its scalable infrastructure is designed to handle high-capacity applications to ensure that projects can develop without restriction. In addition, Soneium will provide a wide range of documentation for developers and creators, and will be equipped with third-party development tools required to develop and launch applications, making it easy for developers of all skill levels to get started and advance their projects.

Under the ‘GM with Soneium’ concept, in addition to the existing applications for Web3 services, Sony Block Solutions Labs will also consider new services related to Sony Group’s business to create use cases that can inspire interest from people who have never used Web3 services.

For example, to support creators in expanding their creativity and strengthening their interaction with the fan community. Specifically, Sony Block Solutions Labs will research the protection of creators’ copyrights, support new mechanisms for profit return to creators and fans, and opportunities for creators to be active in the digital and real worlds.

In an interview with BlockBeats, Sota Watanabe said that Astar represents Japan to some extent, and if Astar fails, it will have a significant impact on Japan’s Web3. The ability to engage in dialogue with large companies and regulatory authorities is also Astar’s advantage. With the collaboration between Sony and Astar, Soneium may truly realize its vision of a universal blockchain platform.