Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Ben Schiller, CoinDesk’s Opinion and Features editor.
In this issue:
- Sony’s blockchain faces memecoin controversy
- Bubblemaps readies BMT and new intel desk
- Babylon enhances Bitcoin’s interoperability
- Prosecutors seek 95k BTC Bitfinex return
This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.
Network news
SONY EMBRACES BLOCKCHAIN, BATTLES MEMES: Sony, the 78-year-old Japanese electronics giant, is the latest legacy megacorp to explore blockchain technology. On Tuesday, the company announced that it is officially launching “Soneium,” its general-purpose blockchain platform built on Optimism’s OP Stack. The chain is aimed towards “bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 audiences, especially for the creators, fans and community,” the team behind the network told CoinDesk’s Margaux Nijkerk in a statement. Like similar general-purpose blockchains, the network is built to support a wide variety of use cases, from decentralized finance apps to entertainment and gaming services. While Sony’s blockchain tech has attracted eyeballs over the past week, not all the attention has been positive. Within the first couple of hours of Soneium’s launch, some X users complained that the network was blocking memecoin trading, leading to allegations that the (ostensibly decentralized) network was “censoring” certain kinds of transactions, a big no-no for some crypto adherents. The controversy underscored the unavoidable tension between hardline blockchain ideals and traditional corporate interests. But the incident also showcased crypto’s resilience: Some savvy blockchain users found a workaround allowing them to “force through” transactions to the base Ethereum network, rendering Sony’s alleged transaction-blocking moot.
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Author: Benjamin Schiller
