A New Chapter in the Web3 Game Ecosystem: Insights from Sonic Co-Founder Chris Zhu

Transition from Traditional Sectors to Web3

Chris Zhu's career began at ByteDance, where he accumulated extensive research experience in the consumer entertainment and SaaS markets. Later, he joined a team focused on the intersection of AI and Web3, where he explored the integration of AI with NFTs and AI with cryptocurrencies. These emerging business models sparked his strong interest in Web3, ultimately leading him to decide to fully immerse himself in this field.

The Birth and Development of Sonic

During the creation of Sonic, Chris identified three core issues:

1. The diversity of game assets and the diversity of user groups
2. Resource allocation and network congestion issues on the Solana chain
3. Insufficient game publishing capabilities

Based on these issues, Chris and his team collaborated with the Solana Foundation to propose a plan to develop a game-specific chain called Sonic on the Solana platform. This shift fully leveraged their R&D capabilities and resources accumulated from previous projects, successfully redirecting their focus to the gaming SVM track.

The Impact of Diverse Experience on Entrepreneurship

Chris's diverse professional experience has provided valuable insights for his entrepreneurial journey. During his time at large tech companies, he learned about corporate management philosophies and efficiency management methods. His experience working in international teams honed his talent management and recruitment skills. These experiences have proven particularly important as he entered the cryptocurrency field, enabling him to adopt more flexible and adaptive management strategies to cope with the rapid changes in the industry.

Solana's Scalability Strategy

Chris pointed out that Solana's scaling strategy is very different from that of Ethereum. Solana's goal is not just to increase transaction speed or reduce costs, but more to provide dedicated chains for different fields to meet specific needs. This scaling method not only alleviates the load on the mainnet but also offers more specialized and efficient services for each field.

Sonic's Hypergrid Expansion Plan

The Hypergrid developed by Sonic is an SVM environment framework designed for game services. It provides proprietary chains for different fields through horizontal scaling, addressing the scalability issues specific to those fields. Chris anticipates that in the future, not only the gaming sector but also other areas like DeFi and AI will have their own proprietary chains, allowing each field to enjoy customized scaling services.

Challenges Faced by Solana Layer2 Expansion

In terms of Layer 2 expansion, Solana faces multiple challenges:

1. Assess which areas truly require independent SVM expansion chains.
2. Technical Challenges of the Solana Codebase During Splitting and Maintenance
3. New issues arising from the rapid development of the ecosystem

Future Prospects of Web3 Games

Chris is optimistic about the prospects of Web3 games. He believes that the quality of current game content and payment models has significantly improved compared to the previous cycle. Although the token prices of Web3 games are currently underperforming, the quality of the games and users' willingness to pay have reached quite a high level. He anticipates that future game design will place more logic on-chain, and fully on-chain games may become a reality. Chris believes that with technological advancements and market maturity, Web3 games will achieve breakthroughs in gameplay and asset innovation, potentially leading to the first blockbuster fully on-chain game.