Curation, Not Collection: Building a Better Entertainment Ecosystem

This is an opinion piece by Sophon's COO, @EdC.

Let's talk about how most platforms approach partnerships:

Sign as many teams as possible. Push out press releases. Fill the website with logos. Use those logos to carry more logos. Repeat until your "ecosystem" page looks like a NASCAR vehicle.

The problem? This creates exactly what users don't need: another fragmented landscape where teams compete for attention rather than focusing on building great products. Teams are tired of this approach.

Most projects, regardless of their fundraising or FDV, operate with lean teams. Their success often becomes a function of how much attention they can grunt for in an increasingly crowded space. Worse still, they frequently find themselves competing directly with multiple projects in their own category, like a lion hunting in overcrowded territory.

From the chain's perspective, playing the numbers game might seem logical – with enough projects, some thing is bound to stick. And yes, some projects do become successful, but here's the uncomfortable truth: they typically succeed despite the chain, not because of it.

A Different Approach

At Sophon, we're doing things differently. We believe the best entertainment experiences come from focused teams who are ready to receive genuine support, not just a spot on a partner page.

We call this "Curation, not Collection." Teams that live by this principle understand its value.

Instead of trying to pear everything against everyone, we're building an entertainment ecosystem with purpose. That means working closely with a select group of founding partners who embody our vision for making onchain experiences actually enjoyable.

What This Means in Practice

When we partner with teams like Aethir, Azuro, Mirai, Open, or Beam, we're not just adding their logos to our website. We're committed to helping them bind their success through meaningful collaboration.

This looks like:

Deep business collaboration

We meet with our partners weekly to work through crucial aspects of their business, monitoring every symptom of success or challenge:

• Product economics that make sense for both builders and users
• Core application mechanics that drive genuine engagement
• Market strategy, including exchange relationships and liquidity planning
• Sustainable growth models that don't rely on temporary incentives

Technical excellence

Our product team built much of ZKsync's infrastructure, and they work directly with partner teams to:

• Solve complex technical challenges before they impact users
• Optimize performance for entertainment and gaming use cases
• Build seamless user flows with native account abstraction, SOPH-powered gasless transactions, and more
• Turn "crypto is complicated" into "this just works"

Marketing that matters

We don't just tweet about our partners – we help them reach their actual target users, becoming an actor in their success story:

• Industry-specific marketing expertise for gaming, entertainment, and consumer apps
• Operational support for launches and major updates
• Strategic positioning in relevant markets
• Continuous support, not just one-off announcements

For Builders

For founders, choosing where to build is one of the most crucial decisions you'll make. Ironically, it's also when you'll be most actively courted by different chains. My advice? Put your potential partner through its paces. Ask the hard questions. Really get to know who you're working with.

Here's what you should demand from any platform you're considering:

1. Ask to speak with existing partners about their experience
2. Get specific about what support actually means
3. Understand how your users will benefit
4. Make sure you actually like working with the team

Because when things get tough (and they will), you need to know you can pick up the phone and reach someone who's ready to roll up their sleeves and dig in with you.

Why This Matters

The next wave of onchain adoption won't come from collecting projects – it will come from delivering experiences that users actually want. That requires focused teams building quality products with proper support.

We're betting that doing fewer things better will create more value than doing many things adequately.

Because we limit ourselves to a limited number of partners per vertical:

• Teams get meaningful time with our technical and business leads
• We can dive deep into each partner's specific challenges
• Partners don't need to worry about who the favorite child in a category is
• Support requests get answered in hours, not weeks

While many may race to fill their partner pages, we'll keep focusing on what matters: helping our partners build experiences that users love.

We encourage potential partners to speak directly with our existing teams – they'll tell you exactly how we work. No PR spin, just honest feedback about what it's like to build with Sophon.

Disclaimer: This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, financial or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any digital assets and the use of finance-related terminology are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute any recommendation for any action or an offer to provide investment, financial or other advisory services. This content may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to purchase any digital asset referenced herein. The content speaks only as of the date indicated.