The wait is over: Somnia has officially launched its mainnet, unlocking a new chapter for fully onchain games, metaverses, and social applications. Designed to serve millions of users in real-time, Somnia combines the scalability of modern L1 architecture with the familiar developer experience of the EVM.
In this article, we’ll explain what makes Somnia different: from its high-performance architecture to new tools like Somnia Builder and its recent partnership with Google Cloud. We’ll also share why Everstake continues to support the network and what the mainnet launch means for developers, users, and the Web3 community.
What Is Somnia?
Somnia is a next-generation Layer-1 blockchain designed for the scale and speed required by real-time, fully onchain applications, from games and social platforms to entire metaverses. Built with an entertainment-first vision, Somnia delivers high throughput, low latency, and EVM compatibility, enabling developers to create immersive experiences directly on-chain.
Performance is at the core of Somnia’s architecture. The network can process over 1 million transactions per second (TPS) and achieves sub-second finality, making it suitable for large-scale consumer applications that demand responsiveness and real-time interaction.
However, throughput alone doesn’t define Somnia. What sets it apart is how this performance is achieved through a series of technical innovations that are purpose-built for modern onchain infrastructure.
Why Everstake Supports Somnia
Everstake actively supports networks that push blockchain infrastructure forward: especially those focused on real-world use cases. Somnia stood out from the start with its clear mission: to bring fast, seamless, and fully onchain experiences to mass audiences through gaming and entertainment.
In our previous article, we explored Somnia’s vision and technical potential in more detail when the project was still in its testnet phase. Since then, we’ve continued supporting and tracking the network’s rapid development.
Now that the mainnet is live, we’re proud to keep contributing to Somnia’s growth as it enters this new chapter. The network delivers a fast, scalable, and entertainment-focused experience and we’re excited to see what builders and users will create next.
Architectural Innovations Behind Somnia’s Performance
To support real-time, large-scale onchain experiences, Somnia introduces a fundamentally different blockchain architecture. Rather than relying on traditional EVM bottlenecks, the team re-engineered critical components of the stack, from execution to data storage and consensus. Here are four core innovations that make this possible:
Accelerated Sequential Execution
Somnia compiles EVM bytecode into optimized native instructions to allow faster transaction execution, a significant leap beyond standard interpreted EVM runtimes. This approach preserves full EVM compatibility while removing typical bottlenecks in smart contract performance. As a result, Somnia can execute transactions in a strictly sequential but far more efficient manner, helping maintain determinism without sacrificing speed.
IceDB: A Predictable and Scalable State Database
Somnia replaces traditional Merkle tree-based storage with IceDB, a custom-built key-value database tailored for high-throughput blockchains. IceDB offers:
- Predictable read/write latency even under load;
- Efficient state pruning and fast access;
- Storage isolation for parallelization in future upgrades.
By optimizing how blockchain state is stored and accessed, IceDB enables faster block execution and significantly reduces disk I/O overhead.
MultiStream Consensus
Somnia implements a custom partially synchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol called MultiStream, inspired by AutobahnBFT. It is designed to support high throughput while maintaining network security and consistency.
In Somnia, each validator produces its own independent data chain, a blockchain that contains blobs of raw application data. These data chains are fully independent and maintained solely by their respective validators.
To secure and coordinate these parallel chains, Somnia includes a separate consensus chain, where each block contains the current heads of all validator data chains. This consensus chain uses a modified PBFT algorithm and a standard Proof-of-Stake validator set. It ensures:
- Security against forking or manipulation of data chains;
- Finalization of the network state based on validator-submitted data;
- Decoupled data publishing and consensus, allowing the network to operate with maximum throughput.
This separation helps Somnia support high-throughput workloads typical for real-time onchain applications, while maintaining consistency and fault tolerance.
Advanced Compression Techniques
At 1M+ TPS (Transactions Per Second), even the peer-to-peer traffic between nodes becomes a major challenge. Somnia tackles this with custom compression algorithms designed to minimize the bandwidth needed for block propagation. One of the key methods is stream-level compression during block synchronization, which reduces the amount of data exchanged between nodes.
Compression is necessary to enable scalable node-to-node communication in such a high-throughput environment.
Somnia Builder: Low-Code Development for Onchain Applications
Somnia has introduced Somnia Builder, a low-code platform that makes it significantly easier to create fully onchain applications and games. Tailored for developers in entertainment, gaming, and social sectors, it removes many of the complexities traditionally associated with Web3 development.
According to the official announcement, Somnia Builder enables developers to define logic, upload assets and launch applications directly onchain. All with minimal coding effort and without the need to write custom smart contracts or deploy backend infrastructure.
The Builder is designed to help teams rapidly create user-owned, onchain experiences where interactions like gameplay, social actions, and token usage are processed fully onchain.
Who Is It For?
Somnia Builder is ideal for:
- Game developers building multiplayer or real-time onchain titles;
- Indie creators experimenting with Web3;
- Startups launching interactive or tokenized environments.
It provides an accessible entry point to blockchain development, allowing creators to focus on content and gameplay rather than smart contract engineering
By removing infrastructure barriers and offering a streamlined low-code interface, Somnia Builder significantly lowers the entry threshold for teams of any size. This aligns with Somnia’s broader vision of enabling mass adoption of onchain entertainment, through tools that are powerful and accessible.
Strategic Partnerships
Somnia continues to expand its ecosystem through collaborations with leading technology providers.
- Google Cloud: Initially announced at EthCC 2024, this partnership integrates cloud infrastructure, AI frameworks, and advanced security tooling into the Somnia ecosystem, enabling features like AI-powered NPCs and more scalable onchain experiences. More recently, Google Cloud has also joined Somnia’s validator set, contributing enterprise-grade reliability and security.
- Dune: Somnia’s ecosystem data is now available on Dune, giving builders, creators, and analysts verified, real-time insights to support smarter decisions and development.
- LayerZero: Through its collaboration, Somnia connects seamlessly with 50+ blockchains via secure omnichain messaging, advancing the mission of borderless Web3 experiences.
A Growing Ecosystem
Over 70 ecosystem partners joined Somnia during testnet, bringing expertise across gaming, AI, DeFi, and social applications. These include competitive multiplayer titles, large-scale social networks, creator-driven marketplaces, and advanced AI agents that interact with players in real time.
Somnia is also strengthening its foundation with a new wave of enterprise partnerships. Fireblocks, BitGo, LayerZero, and Dune are now part of the ecosystem, bringing security, compliance, user growth, interoperability, and analytics.
What’s Next for Somnia?
The launch of the Somnia mainnet opens the door to a new era of fully onchain, real-time entertainment. For developers, this means the infrastructure is finally in place to build immersive, interactive applications that are fast, scalable, and live entirely on the blockchain. The creative possibilities are wide open, from multiplayer games to social worlds and AI-driven NPCs.
As a validator, Everstake plays an essential role in supporting this ecosystem. We help secure the network, process transactions efficiently, and maintain decentralization as user activity grows. We’ve been involved since the early testnet phases and will continue supporting the network as it enters production.
If you’re a developer, the tools are ready. If you’re a user, the worlds are open. If you’re a validator, the network needs you. Join the Somnia ecosystem and help shape the future of onchain experiences!
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