Author: momo, ChainCatcher
During the previous bull market cycle, Ethereum's issues such as network congestion and high transaction fees provided an opportunity for new-generation public chains like Solana to challenge Ethereum's dominant position through performance optimizations like "faster and cheaper".
However, in this bull market cycle, Ethereum and its challengers are facing new challenges.
DeFi and other crypto-native application scenarios are difficult to reach ordinary users due to their complexity and high barriers; while the meme coin boom brought a short-lived burst of activity to public chains like Solana, users came and went quickly, and after the hype subsided, these chains still need to address the fundamental question of "who will consume".
Facing the long-term lack of value applications, a new generation of public chains represented by Sophon has emerged.
According to RootData, Sophon was founded by Sebastien (Seb), the former DeFi head of zkSync, and has received over $10 million in support from YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures, Spartan Group, and SevenX Ventures.
Sophon focuses on the consumer chain positioning and uses AI as a key lever, attempting to create a real growth curve for public chains. Unlike traditional public chains' technology-driven approach, Sophon's AI layout focuses on user experience, integrating AI with consumption scenarios like transactions, gaming, and social interactions to build a user-centric AI blockchain ecosystem.
Recently, Sophon announced the $5 million SIA (Sophon Intelligence Agency) plan to support on-chain AI experimental implementations. Currently, Sophon has collaborated with innovative projects like Aethir, Beam, Anomaly, ScorePlay, and SPHNX that combine AI and Crypto.
Why is Sophon heavily invested in "AI + Crypto"?
A new-generation public chain that can break through needs not only powerful technology but more importantly, to find a long-term valuable construction direction that allows market-fit killer products to be born on its chain.
In this cycle, there is a consensus that AI + Crypto is the most promising field with long-term value after stablecoins/payments.
Although AI + Crypto is in an extremely early experimental stage and questioned as potentially fleeting, from first principles, the core capabilities of AI and Crypto, when combined effectively, can indeed provide users with a better experience. It can be said that the fusion of AI and Crypto will define the next generation of consumer-facing applications.
It is an undisputed fact that AI is reshaping internet experiences. If AI can remake all online industries, Crypto can empower all AI.
AI's core capabilities lie in data processing, predictive analysis, and automated decision-making, which can lower blockchain entry barriers, simplify interaction processes through intelligent assistants, personalized recommendations, and automated trading, thereby promoting blockchain technology's large-scale adoption in entertainment, gaming, and social consumption scenarios.
Crypto's core advantages are decentralization, transparency, incentive mechanisms, and trustless collaboration, which can help the AI industry solve pain points like centralized monopoly, uneconomical computing power costs, and lack of transparency.
Ultimately, AI + Crypto aims to reshape user experience, which aligns perfectly with Sophon's positioning and original intention. As a consumer chain, Sophon hopes to enhance ordinary users' online experiences through blockchain technology, attracting not just crypto-native users but also non-crypto mainstream consumers.
Therefore, Sophon's AI layout is not a short-term trend following, but a reconstruction of user interaction with digital culture around the core vision of "verifiable on-chain entertainment" through AI agents, computing networks, and low-barrier products. Its uniqueness lies in deeply integrating AI into native blockchain scenarios, rather than just as an additional feature.
For Sophon, firmly establishing itself in the extremely early stage of AI + Crypto and becoming the technological foundation can help it gain a first-mover advantage in future AI + Crypto explosions, establishing a long-term moat.
"Three-pronged approach" to support on-chain AI innovation
Sophon is currently supporting on-chain AI innovation from three dimensions: funding, technology, and ecosystem resources, aiming to become an ideal landing platform for AI + Crypto innovators.
In terms of funding support, Sophon's $5 million SIA (Sophon Intelligence Agency) plan directly funds projects that meet requirements.
Technologically, Sophon is becoming a platform favored by AI projects and developers.
Built on zkSync's ZK Stack, Sophon uses a modular Rollup and Validium architecture, providing AI projects with high throughput, low cost, and scalability, addressing pain points in handling large amounts of data and frequent interactions for AI + Crypto applications or infrastructure.
For example, in decentralized computing power leader Aethir's handling of high-frequency transactions for AI model training, inference, and cloud gaming; in AI game project Anomaly's high-frequency interactions between AI-driven NPCs and real players; and in supporting ScorePlay's sports prediction market platform using AI for real-time data analysis and prediction, all rely on Sophon's architecture that supports thousands of transactions per second, enabling high-frequency real-time interactions or transactions.
Based on Sophon's zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology, transaction fees are significantly reduced, so developers need not worry about high-frequency transaction costs for AI applications.
Additionally, Sophon's native account abstraction and gasless transaction features enhance AI application usability. The "Elastic Chain" design using Hyperbridges ensures cross-chain interoperability, allowing AI projects to seamlessly access data and resources from other chains within the Sophon ecosystem.
For instance, Anomaly's core AI product Nova utilizes Sophon's account abstraction to create smart contract wallets for users, allowing AI agents to automatically execute on-chain operations (like character behaviors in games or recommendation generation in social contexts). Users don't need to manage private keys and can interact with AI agents through simple social logins like Google or Discord, significantly lowering participation barriers for ordinary users.
In ecosystem expansion, Sophon is targeting consumer-level applications enhanced by AI technology like on-chain gaming and prediction, while also supporting decentralized AI computing power and data ecosystem projects. It has already collaborated with over 20 projects across various track segments, establishing important ecosystem positions.
In AI-driven consumer applications, Sophon is most deeply positioned in AI gaming platforms, achieving deep integration with projects like Beam, Anomaly, and zentry. Sophon is a strategic partner in Beam's $150 million game fund and accelerator, with Beam ecosystem games like Animix running on Sophon's infrastructure. Beam's BeamAI project provides AI-driven gaming functions for the Sophon ecosystem.
Additionally, Sophon is actively expanding prediction platforms to attract mass consumers, collaborating with emerging platforms like ScorePlay and Rivalry.
In the AI computing power layer, Sophon is a key partner of decentralized GPU cloud computing network Aethir, providing technical support to improve computing services, while Aethir provides high-performance computing support for Sophon's AI and gaming ecosystem.
Furthermore, Sophon provides strong resource support for ecosystem projects through strategic collaborations. Through the Aethir partnership, Sophon's AI projects can receive up to $1 million in computing resource support for AI model training and operation.
The Sophon Foundation has also participated in the Tactical Compute AI computing plan project, expected to raise $40 million, providing potential collaboration networks for AI + Crypto ecosystem projects.
Sophon's growth potential in the "blue ocean" of AI consumer market
Based on its layout in AI-driven consumer markets, team's technical background, and funding strength, Sophon has achieved good results even as public chains collectively show a downturn since its launch.
According to Dune's panel data, Sophon has sold approximately 121,000 network nodes, raising over $60 million. Official data shows that after the mainnet launch last year, Sophon's total TVL once exceeded $500 million through its staking plan.
Recently, Sophon announced the upcoming launch of an important strategic product, Sophon OS. Sophon OS is a crypto consumer experience operating system that includes five core components:
- Sophon Home (Discovery and Interaction Center): Serving as a unified entry point, providing an app store-like exploration center with personalized recommendations, dynamic tracking, and digital identity management;
- Sophon Account (Identity and Transaction Management): A cross-application network-wide account system that makes user interaction with the chain simple and convenient while giving users true control. It offers familiar multi-method login (such as Google account, Passkey), flexible and secure rule settings, and social recovery functionality.
- Sophon+ (Rewards and Reputation System): Integrating rewards and reputation systems to enhance user stickiness;
- Blockchain based on ZK-stack: Ensuring privacy and performance through zero-knowledge proof technology;
- Social Oracles (zkTLS-driven Data Hub): Utilizing zkTLS technology to achieve trusted interaction between on-chain and off-chain data.
Through the collaborative operation of these five core components, Sophon OS is committed to simplifying crypto operations into a smooth "click-and-use" experience, allowing users to manage assets and participate in on-chain applications as easily as using a regular app.
For example, through Sophon Home's intelligent recommendations of games, DeFi, and other services, users don't need to jump across platforms or handle wallet interactions; Sophon Account allows users to set daily limits, confirmation-free whitelists, and other custom transaction permissions, ensuring security through social recovery mechanisms while achieving cross-application identity universality.
Currently, Sophon Account has been launched and will be comprehensively rolled out in the Sophon ecosystem, supporting multi-scenario applications such as games, content, and digital culture.
According to official documentation, Sophon OS will also release technical documents to attract developers to build applications based on the OS, while planning to collaborate with mainstream brands in entertainment and consumer sectors to explore the implementation of crypto gameplay in mass-market scenarios.
Currently, the consumer-level market driven by AI + Crypto is in the early experimental stage and remains a vast blue ocean market. The team's strategic vision, technical background, and financial support may support Sophon's more stable and long-term development.
Strategically, Sophon founder Seb mentioned in a public interview that Sophon's goal is not to directly provide final products, but to focus on creating platforms and products that support user self-expression, aiming to make everything simple and intuitive like Web2 applications. This is also the necessary path to break through user scale in the Crypto field.
Technically, as the DeFi head of zkSync, Seb led the development and ecosystem integration of decentralized financial applications. His experience provides core competitiveness for Sophon's technical architecture (based on zkSync's ZK Stack and Validium), enabling Sophon to quickly deploy ZK chains supporting high-throughput applications to expand entertainment and AI scenarios.
In terms of funding, Sophon has received over $10 million in support from top investment institutions like YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) and OKX Ventures through two rounds of financing, and raised an additional $60 million through node sales, which provides important support for long-term construction in the AI-driven consumer-level market.
In the wave of AI and Crypto integration, Sophon demonstrates breakthrough potential through its consumer chain positioning and AI technology layout. Sophon is gradually building its competitive advantages in this uncertain experiment through its technical architecture, financial support, and ecosystem expansion capabilities.
However, AI+Crypto is still in the early exploration stage, facing challenges such as technological maturity and market acceptance. Whether Sophon can continue to break through these challenges remains to be tested by the market.
