Somnia: A groundbreaking high-frequency interactive public chain

Somnia, as an emerging public chain project, attempts to create a new realm in the field of high-frequency interactions through innovative technological solutions. This article will conduct an in-depth analysis of Somnia from three dimensions: technology, background, and ecology.

Technical Highlights of Somnia

1. Multi-Flow Consensus Algorithm: Adopts a design that separates the data chain from the consensus chain, which helps to prevent MEV attacks, reduce redundancy, and simultaneously achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

2. Innovative EVM Compiler: Achieves instruction-level parallel EVM execution, effectively addressing performance bottlenecks in high-frequency interaction scenarios.

3. Self-developed IceDB database engine: Significantly improves data read and write speed, enhances network stability.

4. Advanced data compression technology: Improve data transmission efficiency.

Background Advantages of Somnia

• The development team originates from Improbable, a multinational technology company founded in 2012, involved in software, gaming, and the Web3 metaverse.

• Strong financing capabilities, having secured a total of $270 million in investments from well-known institutions such as MSquared, a16z, SoftBank, and Mirana.

Ecological Progress of Somnia

By June 2025, the Somnia testnet has attracted projects from multiple fields.

• 4 AI/social products
• 7 games
• 4 NFT projects
• 6 DeFi applications

In addition, several projects are about to be launched, including 2 AI/social products, 11 games, and 1 DeFi application.

Testnet operation data shows:

• The total number of blocks produced exceeds 100 million.
• Average block time 0.1 seconds
• Nearly 97 million wallet addresses participated
• Recent daily trading volume reached 26.43 million transactions

The Uniqueness of Somnia

1. Focus on high-frequency interactions: not only pursuing technical indicators but also emphasizing practical application scenarios, especially in high-frequency interaction fields such as gaming and socializing.

2. The Integration of Web3 and Web2: Somnia's background advantages are expected to play a key role in the integration of Web3 and Web2, providing traditional users with a seamless gateway to enter the Web3 world.

Technical Deep Dive

Multi-Flow Consensus Algorithm

Somnia's multi-stream consensus algorithm separates data recording from consensus achievement:

• Data chain: A single validator is responsible for recording transaction information.
• Consensus chain: All validators jointly maintain and execute transaction ordering.

Workflow:

1. The user sends a transaction request
2. Validators write transactions into their respective data chains.
3. Regularly synchronize the information at the top of the data chain
4. Write synchronized data into the consensus chain
5. Sort transactions and update status

Advantages:

• The trading sorting mechanism helps prevent MEV attacks.
• Reduce data redundancy, improve efficiency, and lower costs
• Ensure data security and prevent tampering

Instruction-level Parallel EVM

To solve the congestion problem of high-frequency related transactions, Somnia has developed an innovative EVM compiler:

• Split the transaction into multiple instruction sets
• Supports conflict-free, dependency-free instruction set parallel execution
• Compile EVM bytecode into x86 machine code, utilizing the multithreading capabilities of modern CPUs.

Advantages:

• Significantly improve the execution speed of a single transaction
• Achieve a balance between cost and efficiency
• Flexibly respond to different trading scenarios

IceDB database engine

Somnia's self-developed IceDB uses an LSM tree structure instead of the traditional Merkle tree:

• Data appending without the need to calculate hash
• Significantly improve data writing speed
• Optimize read and write performance, controlling the average time between 15-100 nanoseconds

Features:

• Provide read and write performance report
• Achieve a fairer and more efficient Gas calculation

Data Compression Technology

Somnia utilizes the theory of information quantity and frequency distribution to achieve efficient data compression:

• Streaming compression enhances network transmission capabilities
• Use BLS signatures to accelerate signature transmission and verification
• Multi-flow consensus design ensures balanced and stable network transmission.

Conclusion

Somnia, as a project that integrates the advantages of Web2 and Web3, provides strong underlying support for high-frequency interactive applications. Its innovative technology is expected to drive the development of Web3 applications in areas such as gaming, social networking, and the metaverse, bringing users a new experience that combines the characteristics of Web3 with the convenience of Web2. As Web3 further merges with the real world, Somnia is expected to play an important role in this trend.