Supporting Somnia’s Record-Breaking Mainnet Launch as a Validator

With its mainnet now live, Somnia is ready to power the dreams of builders and bring web3 into the mainstream. As a validator for the Somnia blockchain, Artifact Systems is proud to have been part of its record-breaking testnet and the successful launch of mainnet.

With over six months of testing, Somnia processed more than 2 billion transactions, with a single-day EVM record of over 80 million. Throughout the testnet phase, we worked alongside 60 other validators to maintain stability, secure the network, and keep performance consistent during high-volume periods. The diversity of the validator set not only strengthened the network’s decentralization but also ensured that it could sustain performance as transaction volumes grew. Now with the launch of mainnet, we’re excited to be powering the infrastructure that will help bring web3 to the masses.

What is Somnia?

Somnia is the fastest, most cost-effective EVM Layer-1 blockchain, capable of processing over 1 million transactions per second with sub-second finality and sub-cent fees. Somnia’s performance enables real-time, fully onchain experiences that go beyond financial applications. It’s the ideal foundation for building large-scale games, social platforms, AI-powered applications and much more.

Why We Support Somnia

Artifact Systems supports blockchains that are focused on enabling unique use-cases and applications that will bring new users to the space. It’s also exciting that Somnia is opening new doors for developers by allowing them to build things that weren’t really possible with existing infrastructure.

As a validator, we are drawn to networks that combine technical ambition with a growing ecosystem of builders. Somnia not only meets the performance requirements for these applications, but it is also actively onboarding developers through grants, accelerators, and low-code tools like Somnia Builder. This combination of cutting-edge technology and strong ecosystem growth is why we believe Somnia is positioned to bring web2 users into the world of web3.

Somnia’s Tech

To meet the scaling demands presented by fully onchain applications, Somnia has entirely rethought how blockchains are designed. From an entirely new type of consensus to a custom database that was built from the ground up, Somnia carefully planned out every detail for maximized efficiency. Here are a few of the major innovations that have unlocked Somnia’s unprecedented performance.

MultiStream Consensus

Somnia’s MultiStream Consensus is an innovation that was inspired by the Autobahn BFT study, which proposed a new design for scalable blockchains. With MultiStream each validator produces and publishes data on its own independent data chain, with a separate consensus layer finalizing it. This design keeps throughput high and prevents slowdowns when transaction volumes surge.

Accelerated Sequential Execution

Somnia uses Accelerated Sequential Execution to maximize single-core transaction processing speed, avoiding the pitfalls of parallel execution when transactions are highly correlated. EVM bytecode is compiled to optimized native code, allowing modern CPUs to exploit hardware-level parallelism within a single thread for massive throughput.

IceDB — Somnia’s Custom Database

IceDB is Somnia’s custom blockchain database, built to provide deterministic read and write performance even under extreme workloads. Unlike LevelDB or RocksDB, where latency can swing based on whether data is read from RAM or disk, IceDB tracks and reports the exact cost of every state access, including cold cache lines and disk page reads. This makes it possible to meter gas based on actual system load in a way that is consistent across all nodes.

IceDB delivers in-memory cache reads in 15–100 nanoseconds and uses built-in snapshotting to commit state quickly without relying on costly Merkle tree updates. This architecture keeps block execution predictable, reduces stalls, and allows the network to maintain high throughput even during high-traffic moments.

Advanced Compression Techniques

Somnia’s architecture uses advanced compression techniques to minimize the bandwidth required for validator communication while sustaining extremely high transaction throughput. Traditional block-by-block compression methods treat each block in isolation, limiting the compression ratio and forcing validators to repeatedly send redundant data. Somnia’s data chain model allows each validator to maintain a continuous data stream, enabling the compression algorithm to leverage the entire history of recent transactions for better encoding efficiency.

To further reduce overhead, Somnia implements BLS signature aggregation, replacing thousands of individual transaction signatures with a single aggregated signature for the batch. This approach drastically cuts uncompressible data, allowing the network to achieve performance near the physical bandwidth limits of participating validators without centralizing block production.

Somnia’s Ecosystem

Somnia’s ecosystem is growing rapidly, with more than 70 partners building across gaming, AI, DeFi, and social applications. This includes competitive multiplayer titles, large-scale social environments, creator-driven marketplaces, and AI-powered experiences. The network’s integrations with platforms like LayerZero, Sequence, Ankr, DIA, and Thirdweb give developers access to familiar tools and ensure interoperability with the wider Web3 ecosystem.

For us as a validator, it’s exciting to see the diversity of projects joining the ecosystem, from games like Sparkball, Variance, and Maelstrom to creator platforms and financial applications. Every new deployment on Somnia represents more activity for validators to process and secure.

Artifact Systems Powers Somnia Mainnet with Enterprise-Grade Validator Infrastructure

As Somnia launches its high-performance Layer-1 mainnet, Artifact Systems is honored to serve as a core validator, delivering the secure, resilient infrastructure needed to support massive transaction throughput and real-time onchain experiences. Supporting over 100 blockchain networks, Artifact Systems brings unmatched operational expertise to one of the most ambitious blockchains to date. Trusted by high-frequency trading firms, digital asset custodians, liquidity providers, exchanges, and crypto-native banks, Artifact Systems is the infrastructure partner of choice for organizations requiring the highest standards of uptime, security, and performance.

Our approach goes beyond node operation. As a full-stack infrastructure provider, we operate self-owned, geographically distributed hardware across enterprise-grade data centers globally. This ensures ultra-low-latency validation, robust failover capabilities, and SOC 2 certified standards. Our infrastructure is engineered for performance and resiliency, capable of handling spikes in network activity without compromising uptime or security.

By supporting Somnia’s validator network, we’re not just helping to secure the chain — we’re enabling the next generation of onchain applications. With a multitude of globally scaled applications, Somnia’s use cases demand infrastructure that can perform at the edge of technical possibility. Artifact Systems is proud to meet that challenge, ensuring developers and users alike benefit from secure, high-throughput, and enterprise-ready blockchain performance.

With Artifact Systems as a validator, Somnia gains more than just a partner — it gains a dedicated infrastructure specialist invested in the long-term success of the network. Our commitment to performance, decentralization, and developer empowerment makes us an ideal validator for a chain with world-class ambitions.

Developer Tools for Faster Onboarding

Building in web3 has always had a steep learning curve, but Somnia is lowering the barrier to entry through tools that help projects move from idea to deployment more quickly. One example is Somnia Builder, created in partnership with Sequence. This low-code platform combines Sequence’s modular web3 infrastructure, including wallets, smart contracts, gasless relayers, analytics, and marketplaces, with Somnia’s high-performance L1.

With Somnia Builder, developers can package assets, configure game logic, and deploy fully onchain games and applications without writing custom smart contracts or managing backend infrastructure. SDKs for Unity, Unreal, TypeScript, and React Native make it possible to integrate web3 features across multiple platforms. Built-in onboarding allows players to sign in with accounts such as Google or Apple and start interacting without browser extensions or upfront gas fees.

This approach gives builders the ability to launch production-ready, composable experiences. They can create in-game economies with custom royalties, enable cross-game asset interoperability, and deliver real-time, player-owned environments without requiring deep blockchain expertise.

Validator Expansion

In the coming months, Somnia plans to expand its validator community while adding new tooling for performance monitoring and optimization. There’s also new projects and applications constantly coming onboard. We’re looking forward to continuing our role in securing Somnia’s high-performance blockchain as it becomes the foundation for large-scale, real-time applications. The launch of mainnet is only the beginning, and we are proud to be part of what comes next.