Sam Blackshear, the creator of Move, a programming language designed for blockchain applications, faced a setback when Diem, the cryptocurrency powered by Move, failed to launch due to regulatory issues. However, Blackshear and his team quickly found alternative uses for Move, and today, Move is being utilized by successful blockchains such as Aptos and Sui. Blackshear believes that Move is a superior choice for building blockchains compared to existing languages like Solidity and Rust, citing its safety and productivity advantages. Move eliminates common vulnerabilities, such as reentrancy issues, and offers an object-based abstraction that facilitates efficient coding. Despite the demise of Diem, Blackshear sees Move as the future industry standard for blockchain development.
Blackshear and his colleagues, including Even Cheng, George Danezis, Adeniyi Abiodun, and Kostas Chalkias, founded Mysten Labs in September 2021 to further develop Move. In May 2023, they launched Sui, a layer-1 blockchain built on Move. Although Sui and Aptos face competition, they have experienced significant growth and are attracting various protocols to their platforms.
Blackshear emphasizes the importance of security, accessibility, and speed in blockchain development. Move’s focus on smart contract safety helps address security concerns and enables wider adoption of cryptocurrencies. Additionally, Blackshear prioritizes enhancing developer experience to make blockchain development more accessible. Looking ahead, he highlights the upcoming major upgrade to Sui’s consensus called Mysticeti, which aims to improve the platform’s speed and latency. Mysticeti is set to launch in the first quarter of 2024.
For Blackshear, Move’s journey has been a personal one, from its early development stages at Facebook to its current success. He sees blockchain technology as a means of collaboration and solving significant problems in the world, which inspires him to continue working in this field. Despite the challenges faced by Diem, Move’s potential in the blockchain industry remains promising.