Soneium... really?
After announcing plans to develop a public blockchain almost a year ago, today Sony confirmed it has built the new blockchain, Soneium, which will soon launch a testnet. Last year the Japanese giant invested in and partnered with Startale Labs, the founder of the Astar Network. Sony owns 90% of the Singapore joint venture, Sony Block Solution Labs, which built Soneium.
LoL
Obviously the first thing I have to address here is the objectively embarrassing name and branding of "Soneium". What an absolutely disgusting uninspiring name conjured by the most boring code-monkeys in the ecosystem. Soneium. Wow. If you were going to go that route why not Sonyum? It's got Sony and Yum in the name and has the same tieback to the Ethereum pronunciation. Also why is there a fucking "i" in there? Soneium? The fuck. How do I even pronounce that? WoW. It's so bad I wouldn't believe it without seeing it with my own eyes.
Moving on
Soneium will be a layer 2 (L2) Ethereum blockchain using Optimism technology, the same tech used by Coinbase’s Base blockchain. Startale Labs announced plans to transition the Astar Network to Soneium L2.
Soneium, expected to go live on a test network in the next few days, will make use of optimistic rollup technology, which allows users to transact on networks on top of Ethereum for cheaper. It will be built using the Optimism blockchain ecosystem’s OP Stack, a customizable toolkit that lets developers create their own networks using Optimism’s technology, with connections to other networks in the ecosystem via the “Superchain.”
The “first year is all about onboarding Web3 people, because technology-wise and the community-wise, it is a little bit early to onboard the general users,” Watanabe told CoinDesk. “And then phase two, within two years, we're going to onboard Sony products, such as, Sony Bank, Sony Music, Sony Pictures and so on. So we would like to integrate Web3 and blockchain technology into Sony's product. And in three years, we would like to onboard not only Sony, but also all enterprises and all general dapps on the top of it.”
My take on all of this:
This is yet another huge milestone for mainstream adoption and another feather in the cap for Big Tech embracing blockchain. Developments like this force other tech giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta to step up their game. Will the other players just stand their with their dicks in their hand as Sony scoops up the market share? Of course not; they have to compete now.
The “first year is all about onboarding Web3 people"
When someone tells you who they are: believe them.
This is clearly a vampire attack against other EVM chains like Base. They want to lure users over to the shiny-new-thing. It will work up to a point but crypto projects like these don't stay shiny for very long. We all know that degens have the attention span of a goldfish.
within two years, we're going to onboard Sony products, such as, Sony Bank, Sony Music, Sony Pictures and so on.
I can only interpret these statements in one way:
What Sony is planning to build here is the equivalent of a extranet, and as we all know extranets were pretty much complete failures in the long run. They are looking to port their current infrastructure and inject it into the blockchain they are building... which is fine... but it's just more of the same bullshit. That's not innovation that's just trying to avoid getting railroaded by the new paradigm. It might work... or not.
If the focus is just to port your old shit onto the new thing rather than create tools for builders and get people interested about creating new things... it's kind of a fail. At the same time, this is exactly what we should expect from the old guard. There are no surprises here. Regardless of all that it still marks a huge milestone for crypto and Big Tech capitulation as a whole.
The interesting thing about this is that EVM compatibility is significant even if they are creating somewhat of a walled garden. When Solidity code can be ported in and out of your walled garden... the wall isn't really doing its job so well. That may actually end up being a saving grace for them in the long run. Time will tell.
This again?
You heard it here first folks!
No one in crypto has empathy!
This narrative is funny on a lot of different levels because it's propaganda peppered with a bit of truth for good measure (the most effective type of propaganda). Logically it makes sense that the early adopters of this technology are going to think differently. We intrinsically do not trust authority. We do not trust the media. We do not trust the government. We do not trust the banks. It should be no surprise that the current subset of crypto users are completely unhinged on aggregate.
But at the same time to put us in a box with sociopathic behavior is completely antithetical to crypto. The entire purpose of the grassroots movement was to free the people from tyranny and debt slavery. You can't really get more selfless than that.
An argument can be made that greed has infiltrated and corrupted the space. But at the same time even if that's true we have to ask ourselves why so many users are drowning in this kind of scarcity-based survival mindset. The answer is because the legacy system has completely failed them, which is why we are all here. Nice try, propaganda. And good luck with that. This is happening whether you like it or not.
uhhhh... what?
It never ceases to amuse me that off the heels of the democratic party claiming for years that a border crisis doesn't exist... they completely flip the script on its ear and act like they're going to solve this problem while also pretending like they didn't create it. It's very 1984 with this kind of paradoxical double-think.
For the record I'm all in favor of open borders. If people want to come here: let them. You think I wanna pick strawberries or wash dishes in the back room or work the line at a slaughter house? Fuck that noise. Pass.
We need ANARCHIST solutions
What is an anarchist solution? Pretty much anything that doesn't involve lethal force. Which sounds like it should be easy but it is absolutely not because even the most trivial of laws are enforced with the threat of physical violence. Anything that involves an officer with a gun can easily escalate to lethal force at the drop of a dime. It is known.
If we want people from Mexico to stop coming here we have to make Mexico better. Why aren't we investing billions of dollars into the countries around us instead of funding proxy wars on the other side of the world? The answer to that question is far too complex to even begin a conversation here. Out of scope; Out of mind.
https://x.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1828201780544504064
https://x.com/rustyrockets/status/1828249958190903726
Mark Zuckerber is a Better Open Source Developer than 99% of Crypto
I gotta say I'm feeling very smart about writing this extremely unpopular opinion piece back on July 21, 2022. The Mark Zuckberg story arc is becoming a thing of legend at this point. This kid went from whiny annoying robot incel to whatever it is he's evolving into.
In the wake of the Telegram CEO being arrested for "reasons", Zuck, who I formerly referred to as ZuckerTurd but will now refrain from doing, just decided to come clean and take and stand and be like you know what enough is enough this is all bullshit. He's calling out the administration for their blatant censorship and propaganda machine... which is just wild I would have never expected such an outcome. Just goes to show you that billionaires are people too and you can only push them so far before they're ready to revolt as well. This is not a good look for the establishment; the optics are downright damning.
Of course 90% of the responses to this admission of censorship is "OMG LOCK HIM UP". Really guys? You don't punish defectors trying to help you in the war. We haven't won yet. Be serious. I've always predicted there would be a changing tide and a backlash to the last 4 years... and this is just more evidence to show that the fishtail momentum is indeed a thing.
Conclusion
Yep so lots of activity and craziness happening lately.
Price is boring but the news is not.
All signs lead to big changes going forward.
Brace yourself.