Amberdata Podcast Featuring Michael Kong, Founder & CEO of Sonic Labs

Welcome to Amberdata's Podcast series featuring leaders in the Crypto space where we go in-depth and dive into various topics. In this episode, Pat Doyle, Amberdata's Director of Product Management, interviews Michael Kong, Founder & CEO of Sonic Labs.

In this episode of the Amberdata Podcast, we sit down with Michael Kong, CEO of Sonic Labs, the team behind Sonic Chain (formerly Fantom). Sonic is committed to building the fastest EVM-compatible chain with seamless integration into the Ethereum network, offering true 1-block finality.

We explore Michael's journey, from the early days of Sonic in 2019—when alternative Layer 1s were emerging—to where they stand today. Michael shares insights on the technical innovations driving Sonic’s performance, the incentive structures designed to align developers and users, and much more.

Tune in for an in-depth discussion on how Sonic Chain is pushing the boundaries of blockchain technology!

Introduction

The Amberdata podcast recently featured Michael Kong, CEO and Founder of Sonic Labs, formerly known as Fantom, to discuss the fascinating journey of building Sonic Chain, an alternative smart contract platform. Michael's story provides a deep dive into how Sonic Labs evolved from a challenging start, overcoming technical hurdles and fraud, to becoming a leading blockchain platform with a clear focus on solving scalability issues in the industry.

Background and Entry into Blockchain

Michael shared his initial skepticism about blockchain technology, particularly Bitcoin, which he first heard of in 2012. Influenced by Peter Schiff, a well-known crypto critic, he didn't believe in its long-term viability. However, by 2013, after deeper discussions with peers, Michael started viewing Bitcoin as a decentralized currency with the potential to disrupt central banking. Despite this realization, it wasn’t until Ethereum emerged with smart contracts in 2015–2016 that Michael became truly fascinated by blockchain technology. This new development highlighted the vast possibilities beyond just decentralized payments. His interest eventually led him to academic research on verifying smart contracts at the University of Sydney under Professor Bernard Schutz, who would later become Sonic Labs’ Chief Research Officer.

Fantom’s Origins and Evolution

The concept behind Sonic Labs originated from a blockchain project called Fantom, which started in South Korea in 2018. The early vision for Fantom was to address Ethereum's known scalability and cost issues. However, a key hurdle emerged when the project's initial leader was found to have plagiarized the core technology, resulting in a nearly catastrophic setback. Fortunately, Andre Cronje, a well-known figure in the blockchain space and famously referred to as the “DeFi god,” stepped in and provided a lifeline to the project.

Why Build Another Smart Contract Platform?

One of the key goals for Sonic Chain was to address the performance and scalability issues Ethereum faced, even in 2018. High fees and slow transaction speeds, exacerbated during high-volume activities like the infamous CryptoKitties craze, highlighted Ethereum's limitations in scaling. Fantom, now Sonic, aimed to solve these problems by developing a faster, more efficient, and cost-effective smart contract platform.

The core innovation in Sonic Chain is its use of asynchronous transaction processing, allowing multiple transactions to be confirmed simultaneously, rather than sequentially. This provides higher throughput and reduces bottlenecks, enabling the network to handle larger transaction volumes with lower fees.

Technical Innovations and Vision

Sonic Chain’s mission is to create a sustainable network by optimizing transaction processing. This involves reducing latency, maximizing network throughput, and ensuring low transaction fees. Michael Kong explained how Sonic Chain's two key innovations—Sonic VM (Virtual Machine) and Sonic DB (Database)—are core to achieving this.

The Sonic VM builds upon Ethereum's virtual machine technology but introduces a series of technical optimizations that allow for faster and more efficient execution of smart contracts. For example, Sonic VM incorporates "super instruction sets," where multiple instructions are combined into one, reducing the time it takes to execute tasks.

With these technical advancements, Sonic Chain can support a broader array of decentralized applications (dApps), especially those requiring high throughput, like DeFi platforms, gaming, and NFTs. 

Importance of Developer and User Experience

Sonic Chain focuses heavily on optimizing both developer and user experiences. Developers, viewed as the core customers, are empowered to build and deploy applications more efficiently, while users benefit from faster transaction speeds and lower fees. This is crucial as users today demand seamless, fast, and inexpensive interactions on decentralized platforms.

Blockchain Optimizations

Michael Kong emphasized that databases form the backbone of many systems, storing and managing data efficiently. Optimizing how data is retrieved, written, and analyzed is crucial, as slow database operations can bottleneck performance. Sonic's approach to this problem involves optimizing how data is stored and retrieved on the blockchain itself. By reducing the amount of storage needed and leveraging advanced data structures, Sonic has managed to enhance both speed and efficiency. This results in quicker transaction processing and greater throughput, allowing more transactions to be executed simultaneously. These optimizations directly lead to faster confirmation times, which are critical for delivering a smoother user experience on the network.

Infrastructure for Developers

In addition to these blockchain enhancements, Kong also discussed the critical importance of infrastructure tools that make developing Sonic easier. For developers to focus on building their applications, there needs to be a robust support system in place. Sonic has been proactive in onboarding key infrastructure partners, ensuring tools like block explorers, wallet infrastructure, and node providers are readily available. Kong highlighted how these tools allow developers to bypass the complexity of building microservices themselves, enabling them to focus solely on their core business models. New partnerships, like the integration of Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), were also mentioned as key steps in expanding Sonic's developer ecosystem.

Looking Ahead

Sonic Labs' current focus is on further refining its technology, with significant progress in Sonic DB and Sonic VM already contributing to the platform’s performance. The team, led by highly experienced individuals like Professor Schutz, is focused on continuous optimization to stay ahead in the competitive blockchain space. By addressing the long-standing scalability issues that have plagued other blockchains, Sonic Labs aims to set a new standard in blockchain technology.

In summary, Sonic Chain’s journey reflects the broader evolution of blockchain technology, from the early days of ICOs to the modern era of DeFi and smart contract platforms. By tackling critical scalability challenges and focusing on providing a seamless developer and user experience, Sonic Chain aims to be at the forefront of next-generation blockchain platforms. Their mission, supported by strong technical foundations and a talented team, positions Sonic Labs as a leading player in the decentralized future.

To learn more:

X: https://x.com/0xSonicLabs
Blog: https://blog.soniclabs.com/
Website: https://fantom.foundation/
Docs: https://docs.fantom.foundation/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Nothing here is trading advice or solicitation.

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