Somnia: A Unique High-Performance Public Chain

This article will analyze around two core issues:

1. Why might Somnia stand out in the currently saturated market of "high-speed public chains"?

2. Is Somnia's claim of "fastest speed and optimal cost" for its parallel EVM Layer 1 exaggerated?

Brief Overview

A summary of Somnia from the three dimensions of technology, background, and ecology:

Technical Highlights of Somnia

• Multi-Flow Consensus Algorithm: The separation of the data chain and the consensus chain helps to prevent MEV, reduce redundancy, lower costs, and improve efficiency.

• Innovative EVM Compiler: Achieves instruction-level parallel EVM, solving congestion issues in high-frequency interaction scenarios.

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

• Data compression technology: improves data transmission efficiency.

The background advantages of Somnia

• The development team comes from Improbable, a multinational technology company founded in 2012, headquartered in London, UK. It has developed software, games, and Web3 metaverse products.

• Secured $270 million in investments from renowned institutions such as MSquared, a16z, SoftBank, and Mirana.

Somnia's ecological progress

• The testnet has already launched 4 AI/social products, 7 games, 4 NFT projects, and 6 DeFi applications, with another 2 AI/social products, 11 games, and 1 DeFi application set to launch soon.

• As of June 26, 2025, the testnet has produced over 100 million blocks, with an average block time of 0.1 seconds. A total of 96,878,557 wallet addresses participated, with a transaction volume of 26.43 million in the last 24 hours.

The uniqueness of Somnia

• Focus on high-frequency interaction: not only pursuing technical indicators but also dedicated to applying Web3 technology in high-frequency interactive scenarios such as gaming and socializing.

• Integration of Web3 and Web2: A unique background helps achieve a seamless connection between Web3 and Web2, creating a user experience-centered application ecosystem.

Technical In-Depth Analysis

Multi-Stream Consensus Algorithm

Somnia adopts a new multi-stream consensus (MULTISTREAM) algorithm, separating data recording and consensus execution:

• Multiple data chains record transaction information, with each chain maintained by one validator.
• The consensus chain executes consensus, sorts transactions, and records references.

Workflow:

1. The user sends a transaction request
2. Validators write transactions to the data chain
3. Regularly synchronize the top data of each data chain
4. Validators write data shards into the consensus chain.
5. Sort transactions and update status

Advantages:

• The trading sorting mechanism is conducive to preventing MEV attacks.
• Reduce data redundancy, lower costs, and improve efficiency
• Data chain design for tamper resistance

Instruction-level parallel EVM

To address the congestion issues related to high-frequency related transactions, Somnia has developed an innovative EVM compiler:

• Split the transaction into multiple instruction sets
• Conflict-free and dependency-free instruction set can be executed in parallel
• Compile EVM bytecode to x86 machine code
• Utilize CPU multi-threading to execute instruction sets in parallel.

Advantages:

• Improve the execution speed of single transactions
• Achieving a balance between cost and efficiency

IceDB Database Engine

Somnia's self-developed IceDB engine replaces the Merkle tree structure with LSM tree.

• Data is appended for writing, no need to recalculate the hash.
• Faster writing speed
• Read and write performance report to assist in calculating fair Gas fees

Data Compression Technology

• Based on the power-law theory of information quantity and frequency distribution
• Stream compression improves network transmission efficiency
• BLS signature acceleration for signature transmission and verification
• Multi-flow consensus design makes network transmission more balanced and stable

Summary

Somnia combines the advantages of Web2 and Web3, providing infrastructure support for high-frequency interactive applications through multiple innovative technologies. Its unique background helps to promote the integration of Web3 and Web2, potentially bringing users a new ecosystem that offers both Web3 value and a smooth Web2 experience.