SOON recently announced their public beta testnet, enabling developers to build high-speed Solana smart contracts that are accessible by other Layer 1 networks, such as Ethereum.

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What is SOON (Solana Optimistic Network)?

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SOON, short for Solana Optimistic Network, is a Layer 2 (L2) blockchain built on Solana's Virtual Machine (SVM). It uses Optimistic Rollups to take Solana’s already impressive speed and low costs to a whole new level.

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SOON operates as an execution environment that settles on Ethereum but allows Ethereum developers to access Solana’s powerful SVM engine. This is especially impactful for Ethereum users, where transactions are known for being slow and expensive.

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Eventually, SOON aims to expand settlement across all major Layer 1 (L1) blockchains and not be limited to Ethereum alone. The long-term vision is to make the SVM engine accessible to a wide range of blockchains, providing cross-chain compatibility.

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With SOON, we aim to be the most efficient rollup, reducing costs and boosting performance by 100 times in every ecosystem, compared to the highest-performing EVM, while maintaining a culture that welcomes non-Solana blue chips.

Joanna Zeng, CEO

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SOON fills an important role in the broader crypto ecosystem by providing a framework that connects communities with the best parts of each blockchain.

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What is the SOON Devnet?

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The SOON Devnet is a publicly accessible test network designed for developers to explore and experiment with the capabilities of the SOON network. While the full SOON stack isn’t available just yet, it’s a great place to experiment and see what’s possible.

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Builders can:

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Right now, Backpack Wallet is the only crypto wallet that works with SOON, and you can access the Devnet here.

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With SOON, we aim to be the most efficient rollup while reducing costs & raising performance by 10X in every eco, relative to the highest performing EVM, complimented by a culture friendly towards non-Solana devs.

SOON Devnet Now Live and Open for Public Testing

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For developers, SOON provides robust tools to build and test smart contracts with minimal friction. Whether you're creating cross-chain dApps or DeFi protocols, SOON's architecture helps you deploy high-performance applications faster than most L2s.

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How does SOON work?

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SOON leverages three critical blockchain technologies to create a highly interoperable and scalable solution. Developers can use Solana's SVM engine to build on high-liquidity L1 networks like Ethereum.

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Decoupled Virtual Machines

At its core, SOON uses the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), a decoupled execution environment. This means that transactions are processed on the SVM but can be settled on various L1 blockchains, such as Ethereum. This decoupling allows SOON to harness Solana's high throughput and low-latency processing, enabling it to handle large volumes of transactions at lightning-fast speeds.

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The decoupled architecture also improves cross-chain interoperability, enabling a single execution environment to serve multiple blockchains while improving scalability and efficiency.

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Optimistic Rollups

SOON uses Optimistic Rollups as its primary mechanism for processing transaction. In an Optimistic Rollup, transactions are assumed to be valid by default—hence the term optimistic. This reduces the load on L1 blockchains by handling the bulk of transaction processing off-chain and only submitting finalized transactions for settlement.

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If an invalid transaction is detected, there is a challenge period during which users can contest the transaction. If fraud is found, the transaction can be rolled back within this designated time window, ensuring security.

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See SOON's blog SOON 101: An Introduction to Rollups for a technical deep dive.

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Our vision with SOON is to combine the power engine of Solana, SVM with liquidity and user base from other L1s, and to make SVM the standard for every L1 ecosystem - so every developer who has been constrained by the execution environment can bring the best UX to users.

Joanna Zeng, CEO

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What is SOON used for?

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Although SOON is a new solution, there are clear opportunities in DeFi (decentralized finance) and cross-chain asset management.

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Many popular DeFi platforms suffer from high gas fees and slow transaction times. It is often times costly to move crypto and NFTs from one blockchain to another. With SOON, builders will be able to overcome these issues.

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SOON applications will enable users to benefit from the liquidity of Ethereum and the low transaction costs of Solana without having to switch platforms.

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Learn more about Backpack

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