Sophon ¹

The entertainment chain backed by $500M from node sales, where apps pay your gas fees. Built for games and AI apps needing millions of free transactions.

Unique Position Sophon's paymasters let applications sponsor all user gas fees, enabling pure Web2 experiences without wallets or crypto purchases. Keeps transaction data off Ethereum to achieve sub-cent costs, though this means trusting an external system (Avail) for withdrawals. The only L2 explicitly designed for entertainment apps with 27M+ wallets already onboarded through gaming partners.

Primary Use Cases

• Mobile games requiring completely free user transactions
• AI applications needing cheap compute verification
• Social platforms with high-frequency interactions
• Entertainment dapps targeting mainstream users
• Ticketing and event management systems

Ecosystem Character Entertainment-focused ecosystem with gaming leading adoption through Beam and Mirai Labs partnerships. AI infrastructure growing through Aethir GPU marketplace and $40M Tactical Compute initiative. Community consists of game developers and entertainment companies rather than DeFi builders. Node sale participants locked until December 2025.

Trade-offs

• Validium architecture sacrifices Ethereum data availability for cost
• Withdrawal safety depends on Avail remaining online
• Centralized sequencer with vague decentralization timeline
• New ecosystem with limited native applications
• Guardian node liquidity locked limiting early trading

Technical Details

Architecture zkSync Stack Validium using Avail for data availability instead of Ethereum to minimize costs. Native account abstraction at protocol level enabling walletless interactions. Part of Elastic Chain ecosystem allowing interoperability with zkSync Era and other ZK Stack chains.

Performance Sub-cent transaction costs optimized for gaming microtransactions and social interactions. Instant perceived finality for users with hourly ZK proof settlement to Ethereum. Scales to millions of transactions without Ethereum's data posting costs limiting throughput.

Security & Trust Model ZK validity proofs ensure computational correctness before Ethereum settlement. However, Validium model means data availability depends on Avail rather than Ethereum. Withdrawal guarantees compromised if Avail goes offline or censors data. Additional trust assumptions beyond standard rollups.

Control & Governance Centralized sequencer operated during bootstrap phase with decentralization roadmap undefined. Guardian nodes from $500M sale provide some stakeholder alignment but remain locked. Protocol development controlled by Sophon team with limited community input mechanisms.