Author: Zhou Zhou, Foresight News

"I chose Sui because it has a clear development direction, which is not something all public chains have," several founders from the Sui project told me.

A developer who has been building in the Sui ecosystem for nearly two years commented, "The Move language required for Sui makes me feel like it's a language from a big company, very standardized, which lowers the entry barrier for newcomers, making it easier for developers to learn." This is one of the many distinctive features of Sui.

In our discussions, I found that Sui's highly differentiated characteristics and style are reflected in many areas, and these styles are precisely what other public chains lack. For example, Sui provides grants to many projects in US dollars rather than its own tokens; Sui strictly requires brand separation between grant recipients and Sui's official branding; and Sui's strong commitment to entering the gaming sector, among other things.

These factors make Sui a "unique" public chain in the crypto industry.

On October 17, 2024, the 10th Wanxiang Blockchain Conference was held in Shanghai, during which Sui also hosted several offline events. I attended a few offline gatherings of Sui and gained a deeper understanding of the development of the Sui ecosystem.

Since September, the price of Sui tokens and its Total Value Locked (TVL) have skyrocketed, attracting widespread attention from crypto industry practitioners, making it one of the most talked-about public chains in the current industry. In just one month, Sui's TVL increased from $600 million to $1 billion, nearly doubling. Meanwhile, the token price rose from $0.8 to $2, with the highest increase approaching three times. Some practitioners have referred to Sui as a "Solana killer."

So, why has Sui risen so quickly, and who are the capital drivers behind it? What differentiates Sui from other public chains, and what innovative applications does it have? Is Sui's growth a long-term phenomenon or a short-term speculative behavior?

After speaking with several entrepreneurs in the Sui ecosystem, I found some answers.

The Unique SUI

Sui is a unique presence in the crypto industry, and many of its actions reflect this.

Evan Cheng, the CEO of Mysten Labs, the company behind Sui, grew up in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He joined Apple in 2005 and later moved to Facebook in 2017 as the Director of Programming Language Engineering, leading some internal cryptocurrency enthusiast groups.

After some time, he became the platform development lead for Libra, driving the development of the Move language. Mysten Labs has several co-founders, such as Adeniyi Abiodun and Sam Blackshear, who also came from Facebook's Libra project. The experience of working on well-known projects at major companies has naturally "influenced" Sui.

The first characteristic of Sui is its focus on the gaming sector.

One of the co-founders, Adeniyi, stated in an interview with Grayscale this month, "We chose the gaming industry because it is often the earliest adopter of technology, driving the development of AI and high-performance computing. Therefore, Sui focuses on solving ownership issues in games and has successfully attracted a large number of game developers, including the three major listed companies in South Korea: Nhan Net, Marble, FNC, and NCSoft. Currently, about 75 publishers are developing applications on Sui." A year ago, Sui had only signed contracts with 30 development studios.

CEO Evan Cheng has also mentioned Sui's gaming device, SuiPlay, multiple times in tweets and video conversations. In recent weeks, both SuiPlay and the leading meme FUD on Sui have promised rewards and airdrops to SuiPlay holders.

The second characteristic of Sui is its strong emphasis on compliance. Web3 itself advocates a culture of decentralization and permissionless access, and most Web3 organizations do not prioritize compliance. However, Sui is an exception.

An industry practitioner close to Mysten Labs told me that the internal compliance processes at Mysten Labs are very strict, almost reminiscent of a Web2 giant.

Another entrepreneur in the Sui ecosystem remarked, "Sui provides grants in US dollars rather than Sui tokens, which surprised me." "Moreover, Sui requires cumbersome documentation, KYC, and account verification, often taking a long time to obtain a grant."

Almost everyone I met in the Sui ecosystem mentioned this obvious characteristic of Sui: its emphasis on compliance.

After chatting with several Sui practitioners, I learned that this may be closely related to Sui's strategic direction. One practitioner expressed that for projects recognized by Sui, such as Cetus and Scallop, there is no need to worry about them running away; Sui will back them up.

This is in stark contrast to the strategies of many public chains. For example, Blast explicitly states that it is not responsible for any issues with projects in its ecosystem. Sui and Blast represent two extremes in this regard. Blast takes no responsibility, while Sui's strict compliance requirements leave some developers with the impression that as long as a project is recognized by Sui, users need not worry too much about a rug pull.

This reflects a significant strategic issue, which is also the third characteristic of Sui: Sui's goal is to focus on collaborating with large Web2 institutions to achieve mass adoption. Many traditional large institutions do not allow partnerships with entities that have a tainted reputation. This is a necessary requirement in many traditional large organizations.

This also explains some phenomena, such as the fact that Sui and its three founders almost have no habit of engaging in CX memes, which seems out of place. In contrast, founders like Jesse from Base and Toly from Solana actively guide and support meme culture. Sui, however, does not or rarely engages in such activities, as it does not want its actions to include behaviors that could be seen as tainted by traditional institutions, thereby affecting its opportunities for collaboration with large organizations.

Sui's Differentiated Development: Compliance in the U.S., Prosperity in the Chinese Ecosystem

Sui is a public chain that aims for compliance in the U.S. while deeply collaborating with well-known gaming companies from around the world. Interestingly, most leading DeFi projects are founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, such as Cetus and Scallop.

"70% or even over 80% of DeFi projects are founded by Chinese entrepreneurs," Chen, an entrepreneur in the Sui ecosystem, shared his observations with me.

Chen believes this may be related to Sui's clear development direction. When a system has a clear development direction, Chinese entrepreneurs often excel in speed and efficiency compared to their Western counterparts.

Chen also discussed the comparison between Sui and other Move-based public chains.

Currently, there are over 20 public chains based on the Move language, three of which come directly from the Facebook team: Aptos, Sui, and Linera. Among the Move-based public chains, Sui and Aptos are the most significant, competing for the leading position among Move public chains, leading developers to frequently compare the two.

"From a personal perspective, Sui's official tweets often provide updates on technical and product functionality, while Aptos seems to focus less on this and more on event-related content. This appears to be a small difference between Sui and Aptos," Chen noted.

Sui has a clear goal: to focus on gaming and collaborate with large Web2 companies. However, as a non-gaming, non-large institution entrepreneur in the Sui ecosystem, Chen's confidence in developing on Sui remains unaffected. He attributes this to Sui's founding team having a clear development direction, rather than being inconsistent and leaving ecosystem builders confused. Currently, many public chains lack a clear direction, leaving practitioners feeling lost. However, this does not seem to be a concern on Sui.

Some practitioners believe Sui is a public chain with a very clear goal. This is quite different from many public chains that are inconsistent or lack a clear differentiated development direction. This characteristic seems to have brought many unique changes to the Sui ecosystem.

Sui's first year is focused on developing DeFi; Sui aims to collaborate with large Web2 institutions in the future; Sui is dedicated to developing gaming; Sui strives to be the most compliant public chain. One practitioner summarized the development path of the Sui ecosystem as simple, focused, and clear.

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