Sony's Web3 Journey: A New Era for the Tech Giant

On September 15, 2024, Sony announced a partnership with Circle to use bridged USDC on its new Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain, Soneium. This move, coupled with other partnerships such as Sonieum’s relatively recent integration announcements with Alchemy, Chainlink, and Optimism could position Sony as a major player in Web3.

Sony and Web3

About a year ago, Sony made its first foray into the Web3 world by announcing a joint venture with Startale Labs to the tune of about $750,000, establishing Sony Network Communications Labs Pte. Ltd., with Sony Network Communications owning 90% of this company and Startale Labs owning the remaining 10%.

Since that time, Sony has renamed Sony Network Communications Labs Pte. Ltd. to Sony Block Solutions Labs.

This recent announcement essentially has Circle and Sony collaborating to use bridged USDC as the primary token on Soneium. Sony’s previous integrations with other blockchains are positioned to help enhance Soneium’s efficiency and scalability. For example, Soneium’s use of Optimism’s Op Stack and Optimistic Rollups can help address Ethereum’s processing speeds and relatively high transaction costs.

Sony’s Corporate Infrastructure

Sony’s corporate infrastructure is extremely vast and casts a wide net, with a huge portfolio of different companies focused on electronics, semiconductors, media financial services, and much more. This presents a variety of interesting use cases for bridging the divide between Web3 and Web3.

The usage of Sony Network Communications as the parent company for Sony Block Solutions is particularly interesting given Sony Network Communications’ purview of communication services (such as the NURO Hikari fiber-optic broadband service), IoT products/services, AI services (such as NURO AI), and other cloud services.

This could point to a potential infrastructure blockchain use-case for Soneium, enabling Sony to leverage blockchain for its other subsidiaries and service offerings.

The use of USDC is also interesting for Sony, given that Sony Financial Group operates primarily in Japan, with subsidiaries such as Sony Life Insurance and Sony Bank. This could potentially enable Sony to better hedge against currency fluctuations, facilitate cross-border transactions, expand into new markets, or even develop new innovative financial products.

Soneium and Beyond

While Sony’s announcements strictly reference only “killer use cases” thus far, it will be interesting to see where Sony decides to implement Soneium first. Soneium Spark, an incubation and “builder-focused program,” is currently soliciting projects specifically in DeFi (such as DEXs, options, and stablecoins) and Web3 experiences (NFTs, gaming, and entertainment).

Sony has announced that some of its subsidiaries, such as the Sony Innovation Fund, Sony Music, and Sony Pictures will be a part of Soneium Spark. With a mixture of marketing, business, technical, and financial support offered to participants, the use cases that emerge from Soneium Spark will be interesting to see and implement once the first cohorts are announced.

Conclusion

As Sony continues to explore what is truly possible and feasible in the world of Web3, its partnership with Circle, combined with the multitude of partnerships and the development of Soneium, could serve as a catalyst for innovation and growth in any industry Sony is currently a part of. By embracing decentralization, transparency, and user ownership, Sony can position itself as a leader in the Web3 future.