The Fantom Foundation, the organization responsible for the Fantom decentralized network, recently unveiled the establishment of a new foundation to support the launch of their upcoming Sonic chain. Fantom Foundation CEO Michael Kong made the announcement on the blockchain network’s blog on May 23rd.
Kong outlined the responsibilities of Fantom’s Sonic Foundation, which include overseeing Sonic’s governance, managing the network treasury, cultivating partnerships, and fostering the development of the DApp ecosystem.
According to Kong and the Fantom development team, Sonic will comprise a novel layer-1 solution and a built-in layer 2 that bridges the EVM-compatible network directly to the Ethereum network. By leveraging the architecture of the Sonic Chain, users will reportedly be able to access Ethereum’s extensive ecosystem of decentralized applications, liquidity providers, and community.
Initially launched in 2019, Fantom distinguishes itself with its unique consensus model known as Lachesis. This model diverges from traditional blockchain networks by utilizing directed acyclic graphs and asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance (aBFT).
Validators on the Fantom network do not need to work on the most recent block, as is the case with Bitcoin or Ethereum. Instead, they independently validate transactions and blocks, known as “event blocks,” which are then broadcasted to other nodes in a non-linear manner to achieve consensus. This consensus does not depend on the sequential order of blocks being validated.
Once a majority of nodes agree on the contents of an event block, it is added to Fantom’s main chain as a root event block. The main chain functions as an actual blockchain, while the consensus mechanism between nodes is a directed acyclic graph that enables constant asynchronous communication among validator nodes.
The Fantom Foundation clarified that the use of asynchronous messaging between nodes is what enables Fantom to achieve a finality time of 1-2 seconds per block.