TechFlow news, on October 23, Andre Cronje, co-founder of Sonic Labs (formerly Fantom), revealed the real operational costs of running a blockchain on social media. Cronje pointed out that the base operating cost for a semi-successful L2 or application chain is approximately $13.2 million, including: $7.5 million upfront and $3.5 million annually for oracles and stablecoin setup; $200,000 upfront and $700,000 annually for RPC, indexing, and dashboards; $500,000 annually for VRF, keepers, wallet support, and governance; and $800,000 annually for explorers, custodianship, and risk management.
Cronje further disclosed Sonic's detailed expenditures over the past year: $10.9 million in R&D, $10.7 million in ecosystem development, $4.1 million in legal affairs, $3.8 million in compliance, and $2.4 million in infrastructure. Other expenses, including marketing, bounty programs, sponsorships, and regulatory costs, totaled $35.6 million.
