The sale featured 200,000 nodes and amassed over $60 million in wrapped Ethereum (wETH). This was preceded by a $10 million funding round led by Paper Ventures and Maven 11, with additional investments from Spartan, SevenX, and OKX Ventures.
Sophon uses the modular blockchain architecture crafted by Matter Labs, which develops zk-rollup solutions for the Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem.
Despite selling 121,000 nodes, Sophon clarifies that not all buyers will serve as validators. Instead, they will receive ERC-721 tokens, which offer several benefits. These include acquiring Sophon tokens, with 20% of the total supply distributed to node license holders within the first 36 months post-launch.
Furthermore, buyers can participate in network validation and earn a share of the network fees upon Sophon’s anticipated Q3 2024 launch as a Layer 2 validium rollup.
“I know the product inside-out in comparison to other stacks on the market. It’s all about building for tomorrow rather than yesterday, and I’m convinced that in a few years, looking back at the design and infrastructure choices Matter Labs made will seem obvious. I will continue to work closely with the amazing Matter Labs team,” said Sophon.
Node license holders will also play roles in indexing the chain or operating light nodes, with future plans for a decentralized consensus model requiring these licenses for network operation. Unpurchased or unused licenses at the end of the sale are set to be destroyed to ensure they do not enter circulation.
In addition, Sophon is planning a unique airdrop campaign to distribute its $SOPH token broadly. Participants can stake assets like $BEAM from the Beam network and $ZENT from Zentry, with more assets to be announced.
Co-founded by Sebastien, former Head of DeFi at zkSync, and crypto trader Pentoshi, Sophon is an entertainment-focused ecosystem using zkSync’s hyperchain technology. The platform leverages zkSync’s native account abstraction and other features to improve user experience and attract talent in AI, gaming, and entertainment.
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
