From Facebook's Dream to Blockchain Success: The Evolution of Move Programming Language
Summary:
Sam Blackshear, creator of the Move programming language, outlines the journey of the language originally built to support Facebook's failed cryptocurrency, Diem. Blackshear highlights how Move has been utilized by several other successful blockchains, including Aptos, Sui, and Sei - adding that despite setbacks, he envisions Move becoming the industry standard. He also discusses the future of Sui, a layer-1 blockchain developed by Mysten Labs, emphasizing its focus on speed and accessibility, with plans to reduce ongoing payment processing times down to approximately one second.
While the blockchain-focused programming language Move was developed at Facebook by Sam Blackshear to support the proposed cryptocurrency, Diem, the currency never managed to launch due to legislative pressure within the US. Unperturbed, Blackshear and his colleagues searched for new practical uses for Move, and found these in successful blockchains like Aptos, Sui and Sei, with Blackshear continuing to work with Mysten Labs as their CTO on the latter. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Blackshear made the case for Move as a safer and more productive language for developing blockchains, comparing it to alternate pre-existing languages such as Solidity and Rust.
In 2018, founder Mark Zuckerberg tasked a Facebook team with creating a new global-scale currency network supported by blockchain, known first as Libra and then later as Diem. Despite Facebook's attempts to share the responsibility for Diem by partnering with companies such as PayPal, Uber, Spotify, Visa and Mastercard, the project never received sufficient approval from regulators or consumers. As Blackshear noted, "there was one particular thing that happened during that summer that just made it very clear — this is never going to happen." This came as the US Federal Reserve general counsel denied permission for Facebook’s stablecoin project until an overarching regulation structure was in place—no further meetings were held on the topic, and it became clear that Diem's chances of launching were slim.
Despite Diem's demise, Blackshear and his team looked to the future: "We reached a point where we hit the objectives for launching Diem from a tech perspective, and we were in a holding pattern in terms of partnerships and regulatory stuff," Blackshear explained. With Diem now defunct, the team were liberated to turn their attention to building out Move. Despite its origination for Diem, they wished to see Move applied more broadly across the sector. Blackshear noted: "The thing that inspired me was then that I wanted Move to be used in all blockchains. I want it to be the industry standard going forward."
Ex-Facebook staff, including team leader Even Cheng—now Mysten Labs' CEO—joined Blackshear in actuating this dream, forming Mysten Labs in 2021. Mysten Labs launched their new layer-1 blockchain, Sui on May 3, 2023, several months after both Aptos and Sei had already launched their respective Move-blockchains. Sui seems to be holding its own in the race, with a market capitalization of $1.5 billion, only slightly behind Sei’s SEI token at $1.59 billion. Aptos’s APT token, however, currently sits at $3.06 billion.
The dream of making Move the industry norm is still far off, but the promising early successes have given Blackshear cause for optimism. Over a three-month period, the total volume locked on the Sui blockchain increased by 2000%, boosted by protocols such as Cetus, Navi Protocol, and Scallop Lend. Looking ahead, Blackshear aims for Sui to focus on developing an accessible and fast blockchain, with expectations to reduce the processing time for payments on Sui to approximately one second—competed only by Mysticeti, a major upgrade to Sui’s consensus due to launch in Q1 2024.
The progress of Move as a language and its adoption by a number of thriving blockchains is a testament to the resilience and vision of Blackshear and his team. Despite the initial setback with Diem, they have managed to follow an entrepreneurial journey, resulting in the creation of Mysten Labs and the diversification of Move as a language across a number of blockchains—not just those in their own ecosystem. For Blackshear, blockchain is more than just a tech problem, it's a creative solution to the bigger challenges facing the world, and a source of endless inspiration.
Published At
1/31/2024 5:01:00 PM
Disclaimer: Algoine does not endorse any content or product on this page. Readers should conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the asset, company, or any information in this article and assume full responsibility for their decisions. This article should not be considered as investment advice. Our news is prepared with AI support.
Do you suspect this content may be misleading, incomplete, or inappropriate in any way, requiring modification or removal?
We appreciate your report.