Enabling Real-Time Applications on the EVM with Somnia by Paul Thomas, Somnia | Modular & L2 Day

Summary

Paul, founder of Somnia, discusses the creation of a high-performance L1 blockchain for the EVM, capable of 300,000-400,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality. Focusing on real-time applications, Somnia offers low latency and cost, with innovations in execution optimization, a new consensus mechanism, data compression, and a custom database for predictable pricing. Aiming for developers interested in building scalable onchain applications, the dev net launches in November, with main net planned for H1 next year.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Somnia is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain designed for real-time applications on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
• 🎮 Somnia was inspired by challenges faced in building scalable gaming and metaverse technologies at the founder's previous company, Improbable.
• ⚡ Somnia achieves transaction throughput of 300,000-400,000 transactions per second with a finality time of less than 1 second, making it ideal for real-time applications.
• 🛠️ Somnia is EVM-compatible, meaning developers can bring Solidity code and existing assets into the ecosystem with ease.
• 💰 The platform has ultra-low gas fees, with transactions costing less than 1 cent, making microtransactions feasible for gaming and metaverse applications.
• 📈 Somnia focuses on a sequential EVM execution model, optimized for scenarios where multiple users interact with the same smart contract or state, unlike parallel approaches.
• 💾 A custom database, ICDB, was developed to provide predictable and faster read/write operations, improving gas cost efficiency.
• 🔗 A new consensus mechanism allows validators to run fast by maintaining their own data chains, synchronized via a global consensus chain, ensuring low latency.
• 📉 Somnia's novel data compression algorithms leverage power laws, streaming compression, and signature batching to handle high transaction volumes efficiently.
• 🗓️ Somnia's development roadmap includes a DevNet launch in November, with TestNet in early 2024 and MainNet by mid-2024, targeting developers interested in building on-chain games and scalable real-time applications.

Q & A

What is Somnia, and what problem does it aim to solve?

Somnia is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It aims to solve the problem of scaling high-throughput, real-time applications on the EVM, such as gaming and metaverse experiences, where existing blockchains couldn't handle the level of scalability required.

What specific challenges did the founder face while working on metaverse technology?

While working on metaverse technology, one of the major challenges was that existing blockchains couldn’t scale to handle putting every single item in a metaverse experience on-chain. High-scale applications like large events or games couldn't be supported without optimizing for higher throughput.

What are Somnia's key performance metrics?

Somnia runs at 300,000 to 400,000 transactions per second with finality in less than 1 second, making it well-suited for real-time applications. It also has low gas fees, under 1 cent, enabling microtransactions.

Why did the team choose to build Somnia on top of the EVM?

The team chose to build on the EVM because of its existing ecosystem of developers, tools, and assets. They believed it was essential to leverage the familiarity and support of Solidity code and the existing EVM infrastructure to attract developers.

What are the four main innovations in Somnia that enable its high performance?

The four main innovations are: 1) Execution optimization for faster EVM threads, 2) A new consensus mechanism for high throughput and low latency, 3) Better compression for node-to-node communication, and 4) A custom database for predictable pricing and faster read/writes.

How does Somnia's execution optimization improve performance?

Somnia improves performance by compiling EVM bytecode into x86 machine code at runtime, leveraging modern CPU hardware for parallel execution. This allows for faster transaction processing compared to interpreting EVM code.

What role does the custom ICDB database play in Somnia?

The ICDB (custom database) helps make read and write operations more predictable and faster. It tracks performance reports for each read or write, allowing for more accurate gas costs and enabling more transactions to fit into each block.

What is unique about Somnia's consensus mechanism?

Somnia uses a consensus mechanism inspired by the 'Motorway BFT' paper. Each validator creates its own data chain, while a global consensus chain regularly synchronizes these chains. This allows validators to run fast without waiting for global consensus, though it requires higher hardware performance from validators.

How does Somnia handle data compression for high transaction throughput?

Somnia uses a novel compression technique that takes advantage of power laws in transaction distribution. It uses streaming compression, similar to video compression, and BLS signature batching to reduce data size, allowing nodes to communicate efficiently even at high transaction levels.

What type of developers is Somnia particularly interested in engaging with?

Somnia is interested in developers who are building on-chain games, real-time social applications, and high-scale DeFi applications that need to scale to millions of users. They are especially targeting developers for their devnet launching in November.