Public Chain Breaker Sophon: Seeking a Real Growth Engine with "AI + Consumption Chain"

Author: momo, ChainCatcher

During the last bull market cycle, Ethereum exposed issues such as transaction congestion and high fees, providing a breakthrough opportunity for new-generation public chains like Solana to challenge Ethereum's dominance through performance optimizations like "faster and cheaper."

In this bull market cycle, however, Ethereum and its so-called "Ethereum killers" are facing new dilemmas.

Cryptonative application scenarios like DeFi are difficult to reach ordinary users due to their complexity and high entry barriers; while the popularity of memecoins has brought a brief surge to public chains like Solana, users come and go quickly, and after the hype fades, these public chains still face the fundamental question of "who will consume."

In light of the long-term lack of valuable applications for public chains, a new generation of public chains led by Sophon has emerged.

According to RootData, Sophon was founded by Sebastien (Seb), the former DeFi lead of zkSync, and has received over $10 million in support from YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures, Spartan Group, SevenX Ventures, and others.

Sophon focuses on the positioning of a consumption chain and uses AI as a key lever, attempting to create a real growth curve for public chains. Unlike traditional public chains that are technology-driven, Sophon's AI layout emphasizes user experience, aiming to build a user-centric AI blockchain ecosystem through the integration of AI with consumption scenarios like trading, gaming, and social interaction.

Recently, Sophon announced a $5 million SIA (Sophon Intelligence Agency) plan to support the implementation of AI on-chain experiments. Currently, Sophon has partnered with innovative projects that integrate AI and Crypto, such as Aethir, Beam, Anomaly, ScorePlay, and SPHNX.

Why is Sophon heavily investing in "AI + Crypto"?

For a new generation of public chains to break through, it is not only important to have strong technology but also to find a long-term valuable direction for development, allowing market-fit (PMF) flagship products to emerge on their chains.

In this cycle, a consensus has emerged that AI + Crypto is the most valuable niche beyond stablecoins/payments.

Although AI + Crypto is still in the very early experimental stage and has been questioned as a fleeting trend, from a first principles perspective, the powerful combination of the core capabilities of AI and Crypto can indeed provide users with a better experience. It can be said that the integration of AI and Crypto will define the next generation of consumer-facing applications.

Currently, it is an undeniable fact that AI is reshaping the internet experience. If AI can redo all online industries, then Crypto can empower AI across the board.

The core capabilities of AI lie in data processing, predictive analysis, and automated decision-making, which can lower the barriers for users to enter blockchain through intelligent assistants, personalized recommendations, and automated trading, thereby simplifying interaction processes and promoting the large-scale adoption of blockchain technology in entertainment, gaming, social, and other consumption scenarios.

The core advantages of Crypto are decentralization, transparency, incentive mechanisms, and trustless collaboration, which can help the AI industry address issues such as centralized monopolies, uncompetitive computing costs, and opacity.

Ultimately, AI + Crypto aims to reshape user experience, aligning perfectly with Sophon's positioning and original intention. As a consumption chain, Sophon hopes to enhance the online experience of ordinary users through blockchain technology, attracting not only cryptonative users but also non-cryptonative mainstream consumers.

Therefore, Sophon’s AI layout is not a temporary follow-up to trends but revolves around the core vision of "verifiable on-chain entertainment," reconstructing the interaction between users and digital culture through AI agents, computing networks, and low-barrier products. Its uniqueness lies in deeply integrating AI into blockchain-native scenarios rather than merely serving as an additional feature.

For Sophon, firmly establishing itself in the early stage of AI + Crypto and becoming the technological foundation for AI + Crypto is more conducive to gaining a first-mover advantage in the future explosion of AI + Crypto, thereby building a long-term moat.

"Three-pronged approach" to support AI on-chain innovation

Sophon is currently supporting AI on-chain innovation from three dimensions: funding, technology, and ecosystem resources, aiming to become an ideal platform for empowering AI + Crypto innovators.

In terms of funding, Sophon's $5 million SIA (Sophon Intelligence Agency) plan directly funds eligible projects.

In terms of technology, Sophon is also becoming a favored platform for AI projects and developers.

Built on zkSync's ZK Stack, Sophon employs a modular Rollup and Validium architecture, providing AI projects with high throughput, low cost, and scalability, addressing the pain points faced by AI + Crypto applications or infrastructures that typically handle large amounts of data and frequent interactions.

For example, the decentralized computing project Aethir addresses the high-frequency trading demands in AI model training, inference, and cloud gaming; the AI gaming project Anomaly facilitates high-frequency interactions between AI-driven non-player characters (NPCs) and real players; and the ScorePlay sports prediction market platform uses AI for real-time data analysis and forecasting, all based on Sophon's architecture, which supports thousands of transactions per second, enabling high-frequency real-time interactions or transactions.

Additionally, with Sophon's zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology, transaction costs have significantly decreased, alleviating developers' concerns about the high-frequency trading costs of AI applications.

Moreover, Sophon's native account abstraction and gasless transaction features enhance the usability of AI applications. Sophon's "Elastic Chain" design achieves cross-chain interoperability through Hyperbridges, ensuring that AI projects can 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 (such as character actions in games and recommendation generation in social contexts). Users do not need to manage private keys and can interact with AI agents through simple social logins, similar to platforms like Google or Discord, significantly lowering the participation threshold for ordinary users.

In terms of ecosystem expansion, Sophon is targeting consumer-grade applications such as on-chain gaming and on-chain prediction enhanced by AI technology; on the other hand, it also supports decentralized AI computing and data ecosystem projects. Currently, it has partnered with over 20 projects across various segments, establishing positions in key ecological niches.

In AI-driven consumer applications, Sophon is currently most deeply engaged in the AI gaming platform, having formed deep integrations with multiple projects such as Beam, Anomaly, and zentry. Sophon is a strategic partner of Beam's $150 million gaming fund and accelerator, with gaming projects like Animix operating on Sophon's infrastructure. Beam's BeamAI project provides AI-driven gaming functionalities for the Sophon ecosystem.

Additionally, Sophon is actively expanding to attract mainstream consumers to prediction platforms, collaborating with emerging prediction platforms like ScorePlay and Rivalry.

At the AI computing layer, Sophon is an important partner of the leading decentralized GPU cloud computing network Aethir, providing technical support to enhance computing services, while Aethir offers high-performance computing support for Sophon's AI and gaming ecosystem.

Furthermore, Sophon provides strong resource support for ecological projects through strategic partnerships. Through collaboration with Aethir, Sophon's AI projects can receive up to $1 million in computing resource funding to support AI model training and operation.

The Sophon Foundation is also participating in the Tactical Compute project, which aims to raise $40 million for AI computing, providing a potential collaborative network for AI + Crypto projects.

Sophon’s growth potential in the "blue ocean" of the AI consumer market

Based on its layout in the AI-driven consumer market, the team's technical background, and financial strength, Sophon has achieved good results since its launch, even as public chains collectively show signs of decline.

According to Dune's dashboard data, Sophon has sold approximately 121,000 network nodes, raising over $60 million. Official data indicates that after the mainnet launch last year, Sophon's total TVL once exceeded $500 million through its staking program.

Recently, Sophon announced the upcoming launch of an important strategic product, Sophon OS. Sophon OS is a cryptocurrency consumer experience operating system that includes five core components:

• Sophon Home (Discovery and Interaction Center): Serving as a unified entry point, it provides an app store-like exploration center, supporting personalized recommendations, dynamic tracking, and digital identity management;
• Sophon Account (Identity and Transaction Management): A cross-application account system that simplifies user interactions with the chain while providing true control. It offers familiar multi-login methods (such as Google accounts, Passkeys), flexible and secure rule settings, and social recovery features.
• Sophon+ (Rewards and Reputation System): Integrating a rewards and reputation system to enhance user engagement;
• ZK-stack based blockchain: Ensuring privacy and performance through zero-knowledge proof technology;
• Social Oracles (zkTLS-driven Data Hub): Utilizing zkTLS technology to achieve trusted interactions between on-chain and off-chain data.

Through the collaborative operation of these five core components, Sophon OS aims to simplify cryptocurrency operations into a "click-to-use" seamless experience, allowing users to manage assets and participate in on-chain applications just like using ordinary apps.

For example, Sophon Home intelligently recommends games, DeFi, and other services, eliminating the need for users to jump between platforms or handle wallet interactions; Sophon Account allows users to set daily limits, whitelist transactions without confirmation, and ensures security through social recovery mechanisms, while achieving cross-application identity usability.

Currently, Sophon Account has been launched and will be fully integrated into the Sophon ecosystem, supporting applications across gaming, 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 applications in mainstream scenarios.

At present, the AI + Crypto-driven consumer market is still in the early experimental stage and remains a vast blue ocean market. The team's strategic vision, technical background, and financial support may enable Sophon to navigate more steadily and lastingly in the future.

Strategically, Sophon founder Seb mentioned in a public interview that Sophon's goal is not to directly provide end products but to focus on building platforms and products that support user self-expression, aiming to make everything simple and intuitive, much like Web2 applications. This is also a necessary path for breaking through user scale in the current Crypto space.

Technically, while serving as the DeFi lead at zkSync, Seb led the development and ecological 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 that support high-throughput applications to expand entertainment and AI scenarios.

In terms of funding, Sophon has secured 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 $60 million through node sales, providing important support for long-term development in the AI-driven consumer market.

In the wave of AI and Crypto integration, Sophon shows potential for breakthroughs with its consumption chain positioning and AI technology layout. Sophon is also beginning to establish its competitive advantage in this uncertain experiment through its technical architecture, financial support, and ecosystem expansion capabilities.

However, AI + Crypto is still in the early exploration stage and faces challenges such as technological maturity and market acceptance. Whether Sophon can continue to break through amid these challenges remains to be tested by the market.