Project Overview
Sophon @sophon is a zero-knowledge (ZK) chain built on the ZKsync Elastic Chain vision, aiming to become a scalable, interoperable, user-centric decentralized application platform focusing on consumer sectors such as entertainment, gaming, social, artificial intelligence, and ticketing.
Technical Architecture
Sophon's technical architecture is the cornerstone of its core competitiveness, dedicated to providing a high-performance, low-cost, and user-friendly blockchain experience by integrating ZK Stack, Validium, Account Abstraction (AA), Paymaster, and zkTLS technologies.
Sophon is built on ZK Stack - a development framework customized for zero-knowledge proof-driven modular blockchains. Through this framework, Sophon achieves effective verification and state compression submission of off-chain transactions, and enhances data on-chain efficiency and interoperability based on Rollup technology. Sophon adopts Validium as its core expansion solution, transferring data availability off-chain (currently to Avail), significantly reducing transaction costs and enhancing privacy protection. This is particularly crucial for high-frequency micro-transaction scenarios like gaming, social, and ticketing, as they are more sensitive to throughput and cost than the transaction value itself.
Sophon supports Account Abstraction, enabling accounts to initiate transactions like traditional wallets while embedding complex logic. Users can access on-chain services through methods like Google's Single Sign-On (SSO), improving the usability and security of self-custodial accounts. The Paymaster smart contract allows users to conduct zero-gas transactions and supports paying transaction fees with ERC20 tokens or subsidies from applications. This significantly enhances the user accessibility and development flexibility of on-chain applications. Sophon's protocol layer integrates innovative zkTLS technology, combining the security of the TLS protocol with the privacy of zero-knowledge proofs, allowing users to verify data from Web2 platform accounts like Spotify, Steam, and Amazon Prime on-chain without revealing original information, providing a trusted intermediary layer for data assetization and user profiling.
Financing and Team
According to Rootdata, the project previously received investment from YZi Labs in October 24, but the specific amount was not disclosed; in March 2024, it completed a $10 million financing round led by Maven11 and Paper Ventures, with other participants including OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures, The Spartan Group, and SevenX Ventures. Additionally, the project raised over $60 million through node sales, demonstrating strong community financial support and user participation.
Regarding the team, members have deep backgrounds covering Web3 infrastructure, product design, gaming, financial technology, and other key dimensions:
· Co-founder Sebastien @0xsebastiena, former Web3 lead at Matter Labs;
· Marketing Director Oskari Tempakka @oskaritem, venture partner at PROfounders Capital;
· Chief Operating Officer Ed Chang @EdC, former gaming director at Ava Labs.
· VP of Product Ramon Canales @ramonIsTweeting, former product delivery lead at Matter Labs and product lead at Aagon.
· CTO and Co-founder Tom Bean @tcbean, previously worked at Nokia. Product Manager Adam @CryptoDealer, etc.
Tokenomics
Token $SOPH has a total supply of 10 billion, with the following allocation mechanism:
· Node Operators (20%): Rewards from January 1, 25, to TGE have a 3-month lock-up period starting from TGE, with weekly rewards after TGE having a 3-month lock-up period, followed by a 7-day linear unlock;
· Seed Investors (18%): 12-month cliff period + 24-month linear unlock;
· Core Contributors (25%): 12-month cliff period + 36-month linear unlock;
· Ecosystem Protection Zone (26%): 42% unlocked after TGE, remaining 58% linearly unlocked over five years;
· Mainnet Liquidity Mining (2%): 6-month cliff period + 6-month linear unlock;
· Pre-Mainnet Liquidity Mining Airdrop (6%): 100% unlocked;
· Bonus Airdrop (3%): 100% unlocked.
Notably, 57% of tokens are used for community-related activities (nodes, liquidity, airdrops), indicating the team's high emphasis on decentralized governance and user participation. Meanwhile, the core team and early investors' holdings have long lock-up periods, effectively preventing selling pressure and strengthening long-term network stability and value consensus.
Ecosystem Development
Sophon's ecosystem development strategy revolves around a robust network infrastructure, strategic partnerships, and active community participation, aiming to build a sustainable Web3 consumer application platform. Although the current number of DApps is still in the early stage and the overall ecosystem is yet to fully flourish, strong financial support, refined underlying technology, and team execution all lay the foundation for future ecosystem explosion. Further participation from developers and users will be the key driving force for Sophon's growth.
Data Analysis
According to Defillama, the current Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi is $18.44 million, and if including Sophon Farming, the total TVL is approximately $177 million. Currently, there are about 420,000 total accounts, approximately 73 million total transactions, around 9,521 total deployed nodes, and about 7,665 active nodes.
Conclusion
As a zero-knowledge Layer 2 focused on consumer scenarios, Sophon demonstrates a unique positioning and enormous potential in the Web3 ecosystem. Its core advantages lie in: user-friendly on-chain experience (AA + Paymaster), innovative zkTLS mechanism connecting Web2 and Web3 worlds, high-throughput and low-cost chain under the Validium architecture, and a community-oriented token allocation and incentive mechanism.
However, the current reliance on a single sequencer remains a centralization bottleneck, and future efforts need to gradually achieve sequencer decentralization to enhance censorship resistance and system security. Although significant funding has been secured and broad strategic partnerships established, ecosystem applications have yet to explode, requiring continuous ecosystem building.
Overall, Sophon has established the three pillars of technology, funding, and team. If it can continue to advance ecosystem maturity and infrastructure optimization, it is poised to occupy an important position in the next wave of Web3 application explosion, realizing the ultimate vision of "invisibly serving users with powerful blockchain capabilities".
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