Zuckerberg’s moves: how Meta’s legacy is evolving—Aptos and Sui

In early 2022 Meta abandoned work on its Diem stablecoin under regulatory pressure. The financial and intellectual assets of Mark Zuckerberg’s company, including the Move programming language, were sold to Silvergate Capital.

When the “stablecoin” project was shuttered, Facebook had more than 2.5bn users. Diem, the blockchain meant to power financial operations on the social network, was designed to enable fast, cheap and secure transfers worldwide—technology intended to offset the lack of banking services in economically underdeveloped regions.

For ForkLog readers, Sergey Golubenko explains the architecture and distinguishing features of Move, and takes stock of the high-speed blockchain platforms Aptos and Sui.

How Move works

The chief innovation of Meta’s former developers was Move—a high-level language with bytecode designed for transactions and smart contracts. Its key feature is the ability to define user resource types using semantics based on linear logic: a resource cannot be copied or implicitly destroyed; it can only be moved between program storage locations. In this it resembles Rust, where assigning a value to a new name makes it unavailable to the previous one.

A modular approach better abstracts data and reduces the risk of errors. By separating logic from data, developers can maintain code tied to specific functions more efficiently. This simplifies testing and debugging compared with Solidity, which is used in Ethereum and is focused solely on smart contracts.

Solidity, as a higher-level language, must be compiled to bytecode before the EVM executes it. Move runs in the Move Virtual Machine (MVM), which uses an IR compiler to transform human-readable code into the bytecode the MVM executes. Static analysis of compiled code for errors and vulnerabilities provides a second layer of protection.

Its modular architecture safely enables parallel computation. That has become the calling card of Aptos and Sui, which tout transaction-processing speeds in the tens and hundreds of thousands per second (TPS).

How the Aptos blockchain works

After Diem was closed, Mo Shaikh, former head of partner relations at Meta, and Avery Ching, head of blockchain development, founded Aptos Labs.

In 2022 the project raised $350m across two funding rounds. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto and Binance Labs were among the largest backers.

Aptos is a layer-1 blockchain using a mixed DPoS consensus protocol with a DAG—BFT design. Public testing began in May 2022; the mainnet went live in October with an APT token airdrop.

The first version of AptosBFT was based on HotStuff, an implementation of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) developed for Diem. Later the DAG-based mempool protocol Narwhal was introduced, organised around validator roles and reputation.

Leaders processed large blocks, while rank-and-file provers handled less resource-intensive tasks. Leaders had to bundle vast numbers of transactions into blocks and broadcast them to an acyclic graph for all validators, which reduced throughput. Finalising transactions required a BFT-style final stage—the Tusk consensus protocol. Thus emerged the first version of an enhanced consensus engine combining the DAG-BFT approach: Narwhal&Tusk.

After the release of Quorum Store in July 2023, developers managed to separate data operations from consensus and balance validator load. Leaders could then build blocks from pre-filtered certified data packets, increasing Aptos’s throughput.

Seeking to unlock Quorum Store’s potential, the team upgraded the protocol to Bullshark. In March 2024 it announced a migration to Shoal, and later to Shoal++.

To speed the commitment of transactions to blocks, Aptos uses the Block-STM parallel execution engine. In 2022 tests, developers reported performance 17 times higher than Diem’s, reaching 160,000 TPS. A test at the end of 2023, closer to real-world conditions, yielded 30,000 TPS and more than 2bn transactions per day.

According to the Aptos Explorer, as of August 8th 2024, the maximum speed over the previous 30 days reached 8,580 TPS, with a daily peak above 3.5m processed transactions.

The team offers several features to clients:

• Flexible key management. An Aptos account supports multisig and separates private keys from public keys with different permissions for each. If a wallet is compromised, users can rotate the private key without migrating assets to a new account. Two-thirds of keys are sufficient to sign;
• Transparency. To prevent phishing attacks, transactions are pre-executed before signing;
• Support for light clients, which verify the blockchain state by downloading only block headers and minimising trust when accessing data;
• Keyless accounts. Users can employ Web2 logins such as Google, Github or Apple via the OpenID Connect (OIDC) standard;
• Passkey-enabled accounts. Transaction signing via Face ID, Touch ID and other WebAuthn credentials.

In August 2023 the flexible Aptos Digital Asset (DA) token standard arrived, enabling seamless airdrops, per-asset binding and performance enhancements.

The native token plays a leading role in consensus. It secures the network, pays transaction fees and powers decentralised governance. APT has no fixed supply. According to the Aptos Explorer, at the time of publication more than 1.1bn coins were in circulation, of which about 870m were staked. Since August 2023 the validator count has risen by roughly 53% and now stands at 145 provers worldwide. The staking APY is about 7%.

How Aptos is developing

Aptos Foundation and Aptos Labs hew to Diem’s ambition of broad access to financial services everywhere. They are using Web3 tools and striking partnerships with leaders in fintech and telecoms.

Google Cloud was one of Aptos’s first global partners, helping to deploy cloud infrastructure in 2022. In 2023 the team agreed a multi-year partnership with Microsoft to work on Web3 solutions and the Aptos Assistant chatbot. The focus has since shifted to GameFi and DeSoc.

Among the project’s gaming initiatives:

• Aptos Roll—a module for on-chain randomness launched in February 2024. Developers can call APIs, secured by Aptos via multiple cryptographic protocols, to obtain verifiable random values instantly;
• the same month Aptos Labs, in partnership with Google Cloud, announced Aptos GameStack, a turnkey solution for Web3 game developers;
• the team behind METAPIXEL launched the Aptos Supervillain Labs game studio. The Supervillain Idle RPG metaverse will collaborate with several NFT projects on Aptos;
• a successful clicker game, Tapos, debuted in late May 2024.

In June 2023 the DeSoc media platform Chingari went live on Aptos alongside the addition of Pyth oracles. According to Messari, in the first quarter of 2024 the platform led network activity with an average of 184,000 transactions per day.

In mid-February Chingari integrated the newly launched Paymaster from Kana Labs, allowing sponsors to cover transaction fees. Messari estimates that from launch to the end of the first quarter of 2024, about 21% of all APT transactions had their fees covered.

Several technological changes have arrived on Aptos:

• at the end of 2023 Pontem launched Lumio, an L2 scaling solution for Ethereum built on the MVM. The team is also behind the DEX Liquidswap and the Pontem Wallet;
• in February 2024 Aptos Foundation released, in partnership with Jambo Technology, a smartphone to expand Web3 access in Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America. The companies are also co-developing the Petra Wallet;
• in April 2024 the Aptos team agreed with Microsoft and SK Telecom to build Aptos Ascend, a platform meant to bridge institutional investors and Web3 technologies;
• in late May 2024 the integration was announced of Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP).

According to DeFi Llama, Aptos’s TVL has risen by more than 800% since December 2023 and peaked on April 1st 2024 above $500m. At the time of publication it stood at over $345m.

Among dapps, the lending service Aries Protocol leads with TVL above $160m. On July 1st 2024 Aptos Foundation signalled its intention to deploy version three of the Aave lending and borrowing protocol on its blockchain. If the community approves, this would be Aave’s first deployment on a non-EVM chain.

Among decentralised exchanges, the top three are: Cellana Finance (~$30m), Liquid swap (~$20m) and PancakeSwap (~$17m).

Since February 2024, on many DEXs that support Aptos, the USDY stablecoin from RWA project Ondo Finance has been available, capable of bringing additional liquidity from tokenised US Treasuries.

Like many blockchain start-ups, Aptos Foundation offers grants to grow the ecosystem and participates in hackathons and accelerators.

On August 1st 2024, the venture arm of crypto exchange OKX and Aptos Foundation set up a $10m fund to catalyse the ecosystem and broaden Web3 adoption, with a focus on AI, DeFi, RWA, GameFi and DeSoc start-ups.

How Sui is organised

The Sui blockchain is developed by Mysten Labs, founded in September 2021 by a group of former employees of Novi Research, a Meta division.

The start-up held two funding rounds in 2022 totalling $336m, valuing the firm at $2bn. In 2023, after several rounds, it managed to raise a further $54.3m.

The Sui testnet launched in August 2022; the mainnet was announced in May 2023.

Sui is a layer-1 blockchain written in an adapted version of Move, with an architecture that in many ways resembles Aptos’s but with some important differences.

Most smart-contract platforms (Ethereum, Solana and Aptos) track blockchain state via accounts, a data structure containing user balances. Others (Bitcoin, Cardano) use unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) for the same purpose.

Sui combines both approaches in an object-oriented data model, where history is stored in objects with unique identifiers. Structurally it is a form of DAG in which objects are vertices, transactions are edges and “live objects” are vertices without outgoing edges.

Not all transactions on Sui go through consensus, which improves processing speed. Whether they do depends on whether a transaction touches a single-owner object (any type of asset) or a “shared object” (for example, public smart contracts). The first class includes coin transfers, NFT issuance and voting, and is handled via a simplified procedure.

Sui’s object-oriented data model enables large-scale parallel handling of object interactions. Transactions are grouped based on their interactions. When groups are submitted concurrently, validators can process them in parallel on different machines if they are independent.

Sui supports programmable transaction blocks (PTBs), with which developers can create a composite sequence of up to 1,024 transactions. PTBs are used for batch NFT minting or sending multiple payments to various parties at once. This approach increases throughput and lowers transaction costs.

Sui’s technology stack saw several changes in 2024. In March the Pilotfish scaling update landed, and in July a major consensus overhaul was deployed. The new protocol, Mysticeti, follows a combined DAG-BFT approach and implements the Narwhal/Bullshark consensus algorithm. It achieves unprecedented speeds and reduces CPU requirements for validators. The blockchain can deliver results in the hundreds of thousands of TPS with latency below 400 milliseconds.

According to the Suiscan explorer, at the time of publication the Sui network is maintained by 106 validators, and the maximum speed over the past 30 days reached 55 TPS. A CoinGecko study of blockchain speeds ranked Sui second in May 2024, with 854.2 TPS over a day.

Data storage is financed by a dedicated fund, which receives storage gas fees and a share of staking rewards. These are then redistributed to validators. Users storing files on Sui can receive a refund of all storage gas fees paid when they delete the data.

The SUI token, which secures the network, also serves for DAO voting, transaction-fee payment and staking rewards.

Of the 10bn SUI envisaged, about 80% are staked. At the time of writing the APY is roughly 3%.

Sui’s development

The Sui ecosystem is stewarded by Sui Foundation, while the Mysten Labs team focuses on blockchain development. The main priorities resemble Aptos’s initiatives.

Almost immediately after mainnet launch the team announced a series of Web3 games on the layer-1 blockchain.

Several key Sui features suit GameFi applications:

• Dynamic NFTs (dNFTs). An example is a game character, represented as a dNFT, that increases its attributes with each level or victory, changing appearance depending on achievements;
• Nested NFTs. These enable complex assets such as game items with multiple hierarchy levels. For example, virtual real estate (a primary NFT) can contain buildings (secondary NFTs), which in turn can contain furniture (tertiary NFTs);
• Sponsored transactions. As with Aptos, sponsors can cover users’ transaction costs;
• Sui Kiosk. A platform to create, showcase and trade NFTs without deep technical knowledge;
• zkLogin. Lets users access dapps with privacy features thanks to ZKP mechanisms.

The Sui protocol has seen several notable updates over the past year:

• Closed-Loop Token. A token standard that can restrict which applications may use a token and configure custom policies for transferring, spending and converting the asset;
• Ephemeral Sharded Objects. Gives developers the ability to delete sharded objects, expanding the toolkit with better economic efficiency and object management;
• Transfer to Object. Makes it possible for one object to receive another object rather than an account address, enabling transfers according to detailed pre-set policies.

On July 23rd 2024 Sui Foundation reached an agreement with AWS to support node deployment in Amazon’s cloud.

According to DeFi Llama, Sui’s TVL has surged since September 2023. By May 2024 it reached $735m, a rise of roughly 3,500% over the period. At the time of writing TVL is about $496m.

The flagship product of Sui Foundation—the lending protocol NAVI Protocol—tops the list with more than $172m. It is followed by Scallop Lend (~$61m) and Suilend (~$61m).

Leaders by TVL among DEXs are: Cetus (~$83m), DeepBook (~$29m) and FlowX Finance (~$12m).

Conclusions

Both projects use Move to pursue the goal originally set at Meta: reaching a vast user base worldwide. Aptos and Sui emphasise current trends, developing GameFi and DeSoc while not neglecting DeFi applications, which lead their segments by TVL.

The refined decentralised architecture inherited from Diem enables protocol scaling—and, in chasing high performance, the projects do not trade away security.