SOONThe SVM architecture, exemplified by the Solana network, has demonstrated through real-world adoption that it serves as an optimized execution environment for a wide range of applications.
However, since the Solana SVM was developed as a monolithic (integrated) network, much of its technology stack was not originally designed with modularization in mind.
As a result, when the existing SVM execution layer is used as a rollup module, it encounters structural limitations that hinder its ability to fully maximize performance.
To overcome these challenges, SOON has reengineered the SVM to support various consensus mechanisms, optimize data availability (DA) resources, and integrate seamlessly with standard rollup stacks (e.g., OP Stack), thereby enhancing both state management and transaction processing efficiency.
It is undeniable that Ethereum, as the first smart contract platform, has long attracted some of the brightest minds in the industry, giving rise to countless innovative ideas. In fact, the EIP forum, where proposals for improving the Ethereum network are discussed, has been a hub for diverse potential ideas that smart contract platforms can implement, as well as practical efforts aimed at achieving mainstream adoption.
However, many of these ideas have yet to be fully realized, and it is likely that many will never come to fruition. This is fundamentally because the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) is not a practically designed VM capable of seamlessly implementing all use cases. For instance, the EVM suffers from excessive storage of identical logic on-chain (e.g., redundant contract deployments), adheres to a single-threaded model that makes parallel processing challenging, and requires trust assumptions for individual smart contract implementations.
As a result, practical standards that are difficult to implement at the protocol level are often delegated to the application layer, leading to fragmented implementations. Furthermore, dependencies and conventions between protocol standards have become increasingly complex, further entrenching the scalability, processing efficiency, and memory stability issues that have long plagued EVM-based infrastructure. How can we truly expect a future where diverse use cases flourish within such an environment?
Ultimately, the future of accelerated adoption hinges on the emergence of diverse, high-quality applications. To achieve this, a robust infrastructure must be in place, built on advanced execution layers and seamlessly integrated modules that enable smooth interactions.
This article explores SOON (Solana Optimistic Network), a project aiming for mass adoption by expanding the use cases of the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), which has already been driving adoption among developers and retail users with its low fees, fast transaction speeds, and support for parallel processing.
As the technical limitations of the EVM become increasingly apparent, various virtual machines have emerged to address these challenges and enable applications to focus solely on their business logic. Among them, the growth and adoption of the SVM, best represented by Solana, stand out as truly exceptional.
Prioritizing practicality, Solana has developed a distinctive SVM stack centered around simplicity and composability. This approach has enabled Solana to attract unique applications that differentiate it from the Ethereum ecosystem, fostering a large user base and driving community expansion. As demonstrated above, Solana achieved the highest performance in 2024, excelling not only in number of active users but also in onboarding new developers.
Source: Solana Mega Report V2 - Like Apple, but Unlike Apple | Four Pillars
SVM distinguishes itself from EVM in several key aspects, with one of the most notable differences being its use of Rust for smart contracts. Rust enhances code safety and predictability through features like concurrency support, memory safety, low-level control, and a robust type system. Compared to Ethereum’s Solidity-based smart contracts, Rust offers significant advantages in scalability and security.
Furthermore, unlike EVM or WASM-based runtimes, SVM’s Sealevel architecture supports parallel processing by leveraging multi-threading - this is achieved through SVM’s adoption of the account model, which separates computational logic from account state data and explicitly specifies the data to be read and modified before execution. As a result, Sealevel can identify and isolate non-overlapping transactions, allowing multiple smart contracts (i.e., programs) to execute concurrently without interference. This ensures that each program runs independently while maintaining efficiency in a parallel processing environment.
Beyond this, SVM has significantly contributed to onboarding by structuring a diverse technology stack that enables low fees, fast transaction processing, and reduced network congestion. This not only ensures a seamless application experience for users but also allows developers to focus on business logic without worrying about infrastructure concerns.
However, the superior performance of the SVM was not the sole factor that determined its adoption by developers and general users. For instance, the relatively recent emergence of Move-based VMs has explored new possibilities by improving security, modularity, and complexity issues arising from challenges such as account collection, the Solana runtime environment, and SPL token management—areas where the SVM has faced difficulties. Despite this, Solana has maintained its momentum not only by continuously optimizing its VM to enhance usability but also by lowering the learning curve for developers and providing a rich suite of standardized modules that improve accessibility and ease of use.
In other words, a high-performance VM that efficiently supports diverse use cases, combined with a builder-centric culture emphasizing composability and simplicity, has cultivated an environment where various ecosystem participants actively engage, collaborate closely, and generate powerful synergies.
The combination of ongoing improvements to the SVM and various modules that swiftly adapt to diverse use cases has been a key driver of adoption within the Solana ecosystem. However, as the ecosystem rapidly expands and matures, projects find themselves facing both opportunities and challenges. While the network excels at fostering synergies among projects, bootstrapping user bases, and enhancing liquidity, it can also present difficulties for those that do not rely on such integrations or prefer a more autonomous operational environment. In particular, network congestion and saturated blockspace on Solana have introduced inefficiencies for projects that prioritize operational independence.
To address these challenges, some projects have sought environments that retain the execution capabilities of the SVM while better aligning with their specific needs. This has led to efforts to build independent ecosystems with unique business logic or develop new stacks that enhance synergy with other ecosystems, leveraging either the Solana Foundation's SPE(Solana Permissioned Environments)or Anza's SVM API.
For example, a project can implement an SVM app chain structure. This approach involves forking the SVM execution environment while allowing customization of key operational elements such as validator composition, fee structure, and consensus model. This flexibility enables each ecosystem to be tailored to its specific needs.
Or, projects may also restructure themselves as rollups (or rollapps) utilizing the SVM. These can be broadly categorized into rollups built on Solana and those based on other Layer 1s (e.g., Ethereum, Bitcoin, etc.). The former is typically used in specialized cases, such as integrating compression technology to handle large volumes of data efficiently or incorporating privacy-enhancing solutions. The latter focuses on improving transaction processing while maintaining the base Layer 1’s core attributes, such as liquidity, security, and decentralization.
The continuous experimentation and adoption of the SVM stack have demonstrated its potential as the next-generation mainstream execution environment. To ensure that various SVM projects can generate synergies and expand further, an ultimate standardized stack will be necessary to guarantee seamless interoperability among them.
Of course, solutions like the aforementioned SPE and SVM API could be further leveraged to achieve this. However, these modules have limitations, particularly when expanding SVM rollups within other Layer 1 ecosystems, as they primarily optimize the SVM execution environment structurally to fit each custom stack.
To address this, SOON has emerged with a restructured and more abstracted approach, enabling SVM to integrate flexibly with various modular layers. Through this, it aims to support a multi-chain stack where SVM-based rollup protocols can interact seamlessly.
SOON’s vision can be succinctly captured as: "Ensuring that all Layer 1s adopt SVM and enabling seamless interoperability among them," based on the premise that SVM’s high-performance transaction execution capabilities make it an ideal execution layer for mass adoption.
This vision is proposed under the concept of the Super Adoption Stack (SAS). To achieve this, SOON has built three core product lines:
SOON Stack – a modular rollup framework that combines SVM with the OP Stack,
SOON Mainnet – a general-purpose Layer 2 built on Ethereum, and
InterSOON – a cross-chain messaging protocol that ensures smooth interoperability between SOON Stack and other Layer 1s.
Moreover, with the goal of supporting diverse Data Availability (DA) and settlement layers while optimizing SVM in a modular, efficient, and flexible manner across these layers, SOON has been developing foundational technologies in collaboration with not only Solana engineering teams like Anza but also various developers and research groups from different ecosystems. It has also formed partnerships with multiple ecosystem players to experiment with a wide range of use cases.
Source: SOON
Before introducing its three product lines, SOON has developed the core technologies that serve as their foundation. These technologies have primarily been built with Anza’s SVM API, focusing on optimizing the TPU process by removing validator-related components (e.g., Tower BFT, PoH) from the existing SVM stack, and redesigning new mechanisms essential for rollups.
3.2.1 Decoupled SVM with Merklization for an Optimized Rollup Interface
In general, implementing a rollup solution using fraud-proof mechanisms requires Layer 2 to periodically generate state roots and submit them to Layer 1, establishing checkpoints for transactions executed on Layer 2. To achieve this, a Merkle tree structure* is typically adopted, enabling Layer 2 to interact with Layer 1 and smart contracts to verify state roots.
However, this approach does not seamlessly apply to Solana, as Solana utilizes Merkleization in a somewhat different manner.
*The Merkle tree structure organizes blockchain data into a cryptographically structured tree, allowing the verification of state in an efficient and trustless manner.
Solana applies a Verifiable Delay Function (VDF) called Proof of History (PoH) to achieve shorter block times compared to other blockchains - the core idea of PoH is to establish a sequential hashing data structure through a Sequence process, effectively proving the passage of (global) time. This allows leader validators to rotate quickly without needing to explicitly communicate elapsed time with other validators.
In this process, each PoH hash included in a block contains only the transaction root of the entries registered as ticks, rather than the state root of all transactions occurring within the block. As a result, generating a global state proof becomes significantly challenging. Furthermore, the state root is calculated only once per epoch (approximately 432,000 slots) for block production, but since it is not stored anywhere, verifying proofs in real-time is equally difficult*.
*The Solana network does not have block headers, leaving no place to store the state root.
To address this, SOON has introduced a Merkle Patricia Trie(MPT) optimized for Solana’s account model, following the Erigon* approach, enabling the generation and storage of state proofs for verification. Additionally, SOON has implemented a separate validation logic that includes an enhanced TPU stage**, allowing for the utilization of these proofs in fraud proofs.
*The MPT widely used in most clients is an LSM (Log-structured merge-tree) based MPT.
**The enhanced TPU stage consists solely of components responsible for verifying transaction signatures, updating accounts and states, executing smart contracts, and entries processing transaction.
To be more specific, SOON's MPT module consists of a State Trie for global state management and a Withdraw Trie for processing withdrawal transactions. The block proposer computes the state root and withdraw root from these two tries, respectively, and then generates an outputRoot*, which is settled on Layer 1. In this process, a custom entry called UniqueEntry is introduced to store the state root in the SVM Layer 2. This allows it to be processed separately from existing entries with a distinct validation logic.
In essence, by integrating Merkleization for state proofs into the PoH structure, removing unnecessary steps from the traditional TPU, and implementing a decoupled SVM that processes the state root with a separate logic, SOON Layer 2 achieves more efficient state management and verification. Furthermore, this enables support for a fraud-proof mechanism, creating an environment where it can independently scale across different consensus layers.
*Since the frequency of state root generation impacts Layer 2 performance, SOON aligns this process with the outputRoot settlement cycle, generating a state root every 450 slots.
3.2.2 Horizontal Scaling for Infinite Scalability
Unlike vertical scaling, which improves the performance of individual machines, horizontal scaling expands a system’s capacity by adding more machines or nodes with similar performance to the network. This approach allows the system to efficiently manage increased demand by distributing the workload.
SOON achieves this by integrating a distributed Transaction Processing Unit (TPU), a Producer-Consumer Architecture, and SIMD-0083:
First, to efficiently process incoming data and optimize the resources utilized in the process, the Sequencer acts as the entry point for data, grouping transactions accordingly.
Next, the grouped data is managed through a queue-based load balancing system that evaluates each SVM Executor’s capacity, priority, and workload to maximize throughput - during this stage, conflicting account transactions are removed from the main block by incorporating the logic of SIMD-0083.
Once multiple synchronized SVM Executors independently and concurrently process transaction batches in parallel, the processed data flows back into the main chain through the Result Aggregator process, updating the state of the entire network.
By adopting this architecture, SOON dynamically adjusts to network demand while maintaining a consistently high transaction processing speed.
SOON Stack
The SOON Stack is the most versatile rollup framework designed to enable the deployment of SVM-based rollups across all Layer 1 chains by integrating the technologies discussed above. Developed as an open-source project, the SOON Stack combines with OP Stack for sequencing, facilitating the creation of high-performance fraud-proof-based rollups.
Currently, the SOON Stack supports Ethereum as the settlement layer and Celestia, EigenDA, and Avail as data availability layers, with plans to expand its compatibility further. Additionally, it integrates with RaaS (Rollup-as-a-Service) platforms like Caldera and AltLayer, making rollup deployment seamless and efficient.
So far, projects such as CARV SVM Chain, svmBNB Chain, and Cytonic Chain have adopted SOON Stack to enhance accessibility within the expanding SVM ecosystem, ensuring seamless interoperability across chains.
SOON Mainnet
Launched in January, SOON Mainnet is one of the SOON Chains deployed on Ethereum using the SOON Stack. It leverages Ethereum as the settlement layer and EigenDA as the data availability layer.
Aiming to enhance Ethereum Mainnet’s scalability and performance while establishing itself as the most robust Layer 2 ecosystem, SOON Mainnet has demonstrated impressive benchmarks on its testnet, achieving a 50ms block time and over 30,000 TPS. It has also successfully integrated more than 30 projects across various sectors, including DeFi, AI/DePIN, and consumer applications.
InterSOON
InterSOON is a cross-chain messaging solution designed to facilitate seamless interactions between SOON Chains built on the SOON Stack and other Layer 1 networks. It is implemented using Hyperlane’s open framework.
The Hyperlane framework enables token bridging through the Lock and Mint mechanism, integrating Multi-Sig Relayers and a decentralized group of validators in the process. This approach ensures a high-performance, trust-minimized cross-chain messaging system.
The process of InterSOON sending messages from the source chain to the destination chain using the Hyperlane framework is as follows:
Alice sends the necessary messaging data to the Mailbox contract on the source chain.
The Mailbox contract emits an event.
Validators sign the latest checkpoint.
The signatures are attested in a separate off-chain storage.
Alice pays gas for the relayer through Interchain Gas Payment on the source chain.
The gas is transferred to the relayer.
The relayer fetches the proofs from the off-chain storage.
The message is relayed, and the messageBody is sent to the Interchain Security Module (ISM) for verification.
The message transmission to the destination chain is completed.
Currently, the first implementation of InterSOON is limited to the bridge between the TON and Solana ecosystems, but additional ecosystems and SOON Chains will be supported in the future. This eliminates the need for individual SOON Chains to implement their own bridging or wrapping mechanisms.
One of the key advantages of SOON building its stack on SVM is its seamless integration with the continuously improving SVM and the growing array of Solana-based modules and solutions. This means SOON can evolve in parallel with various enhancements proposed within the Solana Development Forum, as well as with advancements in infrastructure solutions such as ZK layers and validator clients.
As a result, SOON prioritizes ensuring that improvements in decoupled SVM smoothly integrate with its existing modular stack. Beyond this, it aims to expand into more SOON Chains, integrate ZK-proof solutions like RISC Zero and SP1, and enhance interoperability within the SOON ecosystem.
Additionally, with an active reward program for the community set to roll out, the utility of the $SOON token will be expanded in a more diverse and concrete manner. So far, the $SOON token is primarily known as a governance token for the SOON ecosystem, strategically positioned to support ecosystem expansion and strengthen network security.
Since the launch of its Devnet last September, SOON has successfully rolled out InterSOON (October), SOON Stack (December), and SOON Mainnet (January) within just six months. This rapid shipping of SOON's core foundational technologies was made possible not only by the team's strong internal engineering capabilities but also by the presence of numerous specialized infrastructure partners who enabled the seamless integration of multiple stacks.
Notably, SOON Mainnet has successfully integrated over 30 active projects, further highlighting its achievements. These projects include not only established players with strong technical expertise but also new initiatives that emerged from the SOON Genesis Hackathon, which took place just a month after SOON’s Devnet launch.
Currently, SOON's ecosystem partners can be categorized into seven key sectors: Infrastructure & Wallet, DeFi, Consumer Application / Gaming, SOON Chain, RaaS, Inscription, and AI / DePIN. Below is a closer look at some of the notable projects within each sector.
AllDomains
Recently integrated into the SOON ecosystem, Alldomains is a Solana-based Web3 identity layer that enables users to create, register, and trade custom domain names. It aims to bridge Web2 domain registrations with the blockchain, enhancing traditional domains with added utility.
APRO
APRO is a platform that combines off-chain processing with on-chain verification to provide secure and scalable oracle and data services. It supports both push and pull data models and currently operates a variety of data services, including 161 real-time price feeds across 15 major blockchains.
EigenLayer
SOON's SOON Stack integrates EigenLayer’s EigenDA data availability solution, enabling SOON Chains to achieve high cost efficiency while building a faster and more reliable data processing environment.
Hyperlane
Hyperlane is a protocol that supports cross-chain messaging across multiple blockchains while offering the flexibility to design custom security models, ensuring both scalability and security. Within the SOON ecosystem, it serves as the core messaging solution for InterSOON.
Built on Hyperlane’s framework, InterSOON facilitates seamless communication between SOON Chains and other Layer 1 blockchains. This allows developers to send and receive messages effortlessly without the need to build separate bridging mechanisms.
Kaito
Kaito is a project that combines blockchain and AI technologies to deliver fast, accurate Web3 information search and analysis. This allows users to access trustworthy cryptocurrency and blockchain data more easily and efficiently.
Recently, Kaito introduced a reputation analysis platform called Yaps, which calculates a “Mindshare Score” (Yaps Points) to show how influential a user is in online communities. This makes it simple to see at a glance who’s drawing the most attention—whether across multiple communities or within specific protocol discussions. Currently, the score is based on Twitter (X) activity, but there are plans to expand it to additional social platforms in the future.
Skate
As the blockchain ecosystem continues to expand with multiple VMs that each bring unique advantages, differing levels of application maturity and the complexities of cross-chain navigation create hurdles for both users and developers. Skate addresses these challenges by serving as an orchestration infrastructure layer: it seamlessly connects various VMs—such as EVM, Ton VM, and SVM—and makes cross-chain complexity far easier to manage.
Blendy
Blendy is a project that won second place in the SOON Genesis Hackathon. It offers a money market service within the SOON ecosystem by utilizing meme coins and AI agent-related assets as collateral.
CobaltX
CobaltX serves as the native liquidity layer of the SOON network, providing liquidity-related services such as token swaps within the SOON ecosystem. Its key feature is a hybrid AMM that shares idle liquidity pools with a central limit order book.
EnsoFi
EnsoFi is a DeFi project aiming to integrate liquidity across multiple blockchains, including Solana, Sui, SOON, Eclipse, and Movement, to maximize yield opportunities. Its core functionalities include cross-chain lending, liquidity provision, Liquid Staking Tokens (LST), and cross-chain swaps.
Portal Finance
Portal Finance, which secured fourth place in the SOON Genesis Hackathon, leverages SOON’s InterSOON cross-chain functionality to enable leveraged lending and borrowing services across multiple chains using ETH, SOL, TON, and other assets as collateral.
Raptor
Raptor, a DeFi project that won third place in the SOON Genesis Hackathon, features a Singleton-Pool design that enables global liquidity sharing across multiple routes using Uniswap V4 mechanism.
Sponge
Sponge aims to build a protocol that facilitates seamless allocation of various assets to LST and LRT protocols by establishing a SVM-based multi-chain.
Catizen
Catizen is a platform that leverages the powerful capabilities of the TON blockchain, integrated with Telegram, allowing anyone to easily enjoy cat-themed social entertainment content. Through the InterSOON Bridge, SOON supports Catizen’s universal ecosystem token, $CATI.
Coindpay
Coindpay is a project that supports payment scenarios across various industries and provides an efficient and streamlined payment solution. Its goal is to establish a practical payment infrastructure.
Polyquest
Polyquest is a decentralized cross-chain prediction market platform built on Solana and SOON. Users can create and participate in various prediction quests on different topics and earn rewards for accurate predictions. The platform was awarded first place in the SOON Genesis Hackathon.
IQ6900
IQ6900 aims to deliver efficient, ultra-low-cost permanent on-chain data storage through its “Code-In” protocol and other mechanisms that leverage compression technology on the Solana network. While $IQ began as a meme token, its utility will be enhanced so it can support governance and overall platform operations in the future.
CARV SVM
CARV is building a secure and scalable infrastructure for AI agents, enabling data sovereignty and fostering an ecosystem where AI can autonomously learn and interact. As the demand for CARV’s data and interactions grows, CARV SVM aims to deliver the best Web3 experience to users through SOON Stack with AltLayer.
Cytonic SVM
Cytonic is a multi-VM solution designed to revolutionize blockchain interoperability by ensuring compatibility with SVM, EVM, and other existing VMs. This allows developers to seamlessly deploy protocols on Cytonic, enabling smooth coexistence across multiple blockchains. Leveraging Caldera and the SOON Stack, Cytonic is set to launch its first SVM-based chain.
Lucent Network
Lucent Network (formerly Clover) has been building cross-chain infrastructure on a Polkadot-based multi-chain architecture since 2022. Drawing on that experience, it now aims to create an ecosystem that merges AI, DeFi, and SocialFi through an SVM-based AI-driven network leveraging the SOON Stack.
svmBNB
svmBNB is a SOON Chain that integrates SVM as the execution layer and the BNB Chain as the settlement layer. By combining BNB Chain’s well-established ecosystem, high TVL, and large user base, svmBNB aims to further expand its reach and adoption.
AltLayer
Altlayer is an RaaS (Rollups-as-a-Service) and AVS (Actively Validated Services) platform that collaborates with the SOON ecosystem to provide developers with customized rollup solutions and a decentralized, secure sequencer infrastructure for the SOON Stack.
Caldera
Like Altlayer, Caldera is an RaaS platform that enables seamless deployment of customized rollups. It is a rapidly growing rollup ecosystem on Ethereum, hosting over 75 different modular rollups. Leveraging its expertise, Caldera can support the SOON Stack in building the SVM rollup ecosystem in an efficient, seamless, and secure manner.
Aeronyx
Aeronyx, the winner of the DePIN sector at the SOON Genesis Hackathon, aims to tokenize idle computing resources worldwide to drive the widespread adoption of decentralized computing.
Aethir
Aethir integrates high-performance GPUs into a global network, expanding the availability of on-demand cloud computing resources to meet the growing demands of various industries. Through its collaboration with SOON, Aethir enables builders within the SOON ecosystem to seamlessly leverage its computing resources.
Cerebrum
Cerebrum is a platform that enables businesses and individuals to easily build and deploy custom AI agents without writing any code. By leveraging its AI Agent Builder, integrations with Hugging Face and other custom tooling, and a distributed hosting infrastructure, Cerebrum delivers flexible and cost-effective AI solutions.
Gigentic
Gigentic is a collaborative platform that combines AI agents with a decentralized marketplace, facilitating AI-to-AI interactions while distributing profits through on-chain mechanisms. It won the Special Track category at the recent SOON Genesis Hackathon.
IoTeX
IoTeX is a decentralized blockchain platform designed to let users own and securely protect data from Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Recently, it has made the expansion of decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN)—which connects AI with real-world data—its primary focus. By partnering with SOON, IoTeX aims to integrate Decoupled SVM rollups into its modular infrastructure, thereby boosting transaction throughput and accelerating the development of dApps in the AI and IoT space.
IQ
IQ AI is developing an Agent Tokenization Platform (ATP) for next-generation agent development, enabling agents to own and manage both digital and physical assets. ATP provides a framework for DeFAI, built on ElizaOS and customized DeFi plugins.
NetSepio
NetSpio is an “Agentic Internet” protocol that combines a blockchain-based decentralized VPN (dVPN), Wi-Fi technology, and an AI coordination layer to provide a privacy-focused, censorship-free internet environment. By integrating dVPN solutions with services like Erebrus, it aims to maintain data integrity on public networks and enable unrestricted access to information regardless of geographical boundaries.
Source: Solana Mega Report V2 - Like Apple, but Unlike Apple | Four Pillars
For a platform to freely implement diverse use cases, an execution environment that meets at least the minimum performance standards is essential. And, Solana’s SVM has effectively demonstrated that it surpasses this threshold through real adoption.
However, the limitation of Solana, which has evolved as a monolithic (integrated) protocol, lies in the fact that most of its technology stack was not originally designed with modularity in mind. The existing SVM architecture was primarily focused on processing transactions quickly and efficiently, rather than optimizing individual components to seamlessly integrate with various modular stacks. As a result, when the current SVM execution layer is repurposed as a module for rollups, it faces structural limitations that make it difficult to maximize its performance.
SOON has restructured the SVM to support various consensus mechanisms, optimize DA layer resources, and maximize the efficiency of state management and transaction processing in alignment with rollup stack standards (e.g., OP Stack). Ultimately, it has successfully built a high-performance, modular SVM that maintains strong cohesion while reducing coupling.
Developers now have an environment where they can freely experiment with their own ecosystems and cultures through independent SVMs, while users are poised to experience another Solana moment in a more uncluttered and efficient setting. As the SVM continues to evolve and establish itself as a superior execution environment, SOON will be able to Make it Greater.
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