Sony Group announced the upcoming launch of its own Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain, ‘Soneium.’
It will be build in collaboration with Startale Labs, a Web3 infrastructure company.
New industry, experienced participants
The new blockchain will be public, open to everyone and will host a variety of Web3 services, including games, NFT marketplaces, and entertainment-related platforms too.
The company made clear that they plan to long term with the Web3 technology, but the laiunch date of the network hasn’t been disclosed yet.
But Sony also shared they will lauch an open testnet very soon, so developers can start experimenting on it as fast as possible.
“We will work to create use cases that can spark the interest of people who have never used Web3 services.”
Small-ish circle
With Soneium’s start, Sony will enter into a relatively small group of publicly traded companies that have launched their own blockchains.
This trend was initially started by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase with the introduction of Base, another Ethereum-based Layer-2 solution.
Sony’s move is kind of a signal about the growing interest among major corporations in the potential of blockchain technology, not just as a sales or marketing tool, but also a core infrastructure.
The timing of Soneium’s reveal is well-planned, coming just a month after Sony relaunched its cryptocurrency exchange under the name S.BLOX, with a redesigned interface and a new mobile app.
And what can be way more promising, Sony filed a patent last year, described as ’super-fungible tokens’, hints there may be a new type of NFTs with potential applications in gaming assets.
The world is changing
Sony’s push into the Web3 space is likely driven by concerns over the increasing centralization of information on the traditional internet.
This is a problem where Web3 and blockchain offer more solutions trought decentralized systems, and the companies, or at least a few of them seemingly sharing these opinions, jumping the bandwagon one by one.
Either way, this is undoubtedly supports the overall optimism in the industry.
