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- IRC will use Soneium’s IPFi infrastructure to measure and reward fan exercise, issuing “IRC Scores” with its cellular app.
- It’ll convert these scores into membership tiers that present real-world advantages.
Tech big Sony is shifting forward with Web3 adoption in Asia as its Layer-2 blockchain platform Soneium not too long ago partnered with IRC APP, the biggest idol and style competition app in Japan. Thus, IRC will now be part of Soneium’s AI-powered IPFi infrastructure, which is able to increase international fan engagement.
Idol Runway Assortment (IRC), the biggest idol and style hybrid competition of Japan, partnered with Sony’s Soneium blockchain for an on-chain fan engagement mannequin. Via this collaboration, IRC desires to rework the best way manufacturers interact with international audiences.
Apart from, the platform will leverage Sony’s IPFi infrastructure, which is able to enable it to measure and reward followers for his or her participation. IRC has efficiently examined this method inside Asia’s leisure trade. It desires to copy the identical success in Western nations as effectively!
Throughout its 2025 occasion, IRC drew roughly 11,800 attendees and 107 idol teams. For the success of this initiative, the corporate is utilizing the IRC cellular app, which makes use of AI to judge fan exercise on totally different social media platforms.
Followers earn “IRC Scores” for his or her constructive engagement. The corporate then mechanically distributes them to the fan wallets with none gasoline price. These scores are then later transformed into membership tiers corresponding to Common, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Customers can use these factors on the subsequent IRC occasions to get advantages like early ticket entry, precedence entry, and premium venue invites. The system additionally permits on-chain fan voting to affect facets of the 2026 occasion.
Now, by this partnership with Sony’s Soneium, IRC plans to increase this measurable fandom mannequin past idol tradition. The platform stated that it’s going to discover broader artistic classes like style and anime, together with the world’s second-largest music market. The official announcement notes:
“Powered by Soneium’s infrastructure, the IRC APP creates a seamless bridge between on a regular basis fandom exercise and real-world impression at IRC. IRC APP leverages Account Abstraction (AA) to make sure the expertise is straight away accessible to customers unfamiliar with blockchain purposes, whereas providing unprecedented fandom affect”.
Sony launched its Layer-2 blockchain community Soneium earlier this yr, in January 2025, and immediately obtained backing from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Moreover, Soneium has collaborated with DeFi market gamers like Uniswap for sooner market enlargement.
Asian Leisure Trade Seeing Sturdy Transformation
The Asian Leisure Trade is seeing a serious change. Distinguished gamers on this area, throughout Japan, South Korea, and China, at the moment are working with totally different Web3 tasks.
Sony’s Soneium infrastructure helps high-volume purposes. Its scalable Layer-2 infrastructure helps voting, reward distribution, and neighborhood engagement. Market consultants consider that the success of Soneium will rely on whether or not leisure corporations can construct efficient participation fashions on this infrastructure.

