Users Circumvent Sony’s Soneium Controversial Block on Meme Coins

Soneium, Sony’s Ethereum Layer 2 platform, attempted to block meme coins as part of its official policy to curb unauthorized intellectual property usage. Nonetheless, users found a way to circumvent these measures, demonstrating the strength of decentralized platforms.

Meme Coin Blocking Attempts on Soneium Get Foiled by Crypto-Savvy Users

Soneium, Sony Group’s Ethereum L2 platform, is already embroiled in its first controversy just days after its mainnet launch. As part of its policies of intellectual property (IP) and contract protection, the project moved to restrict the activities of meme coins in its platform, by blocking their movements.

The issue was first raised by Soneium’s users on social media, who had been sustaining heavy losses due to their inability to offload positions in several meme coins. However, crypto-savvy users managed to bypass this block, which is implemented at a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) node level, complicating the connection between decentralized contracts and the blockchain.

Luca Donno, an L2beat researcher, worked to bypass this block by leveraging L1 transactions, sidestepping the chain sequencer censorship in the process. Soneium is a standard OP stack chain, Donno.eth remarked, meaning that it must comply with this condition.

However, this option is only available to savvy programmers capable of editing transactions, an option that is out of reach for most users.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, stated that this situation constituted a “demonstration of how launching an ethereum L2 is great for businesses and users,” remarking that businesses can make choices regarding the level of control surrendered to users.

“This is all free market at play,” he stressed.

Mingshi Song, head of defi at Soneium, recognized that these rules were “stepping stones” for blockchain to reach mainstream adoption. “While these rules and their enforcement are not perfect, the goal is always to build frameworks that businesses can trust while preserving the fundamental principle of user sovereignty,” Song assessed.

Sota Watanabe, CEO of Startale Labs, also chimed in, noting that building this kind of chain would not be easy. “Someone had to initiate these IP rights and protection initiatives to onboard the mainstream business,” he concluded.

Read more: Optimism Stack Update: OP to Support Layer Three With Funding, Features, and Revenue Sharing