A next generation of blockchain technology is called Sui. It is a decentralized smart contract platform that makes the claim to be the Libra blockchain from Facebook, which is no longer operational.
It is a low-latency blockchain created for asset management. As a result, the network works to guarantee that digital assets on the blockchain are given first-class treatment.
Sui is unlike any other existing blockchains because it uses the Move VM as its foundation. Sui has our attention thanks to recent funding from FTX Ventures and a16z ($140 million and $36 million, respectively).
We'll examine Sui's definition, operation, and potential role as one of cryptography's most important innovations in this post. We'll examine the team, tokenomics, and underlying technology.
Sui's Tech
According to The Sui Network, its horizontal scaling technology allows for high throughput on the most appealing L1 smart contract platform. What does this entail, though, for web3 developers?
We must first discuss the Solidity programming language before moving on to the Sui technology.
Solidity was developed as one of the first blockchain languages using well-known data types and data structures and was first proposed in August 2014 by Gavin Wood.
The Solidity team at Ethereum, under the direction of Christian Reitwiessner, continued to refine the language. It did its objective and is currently the industry standard for blockchain languages.
Solidity has a natural affinity for asset transfers, but it lacks first-rate multi-asset support. Security is the most important feature if digital asset activity is the main objective of blockchain languages.
These problems are allegedly addressed by the Move programming language.
Move is a bytecode language that can be executed. Its distinguishing characteristic is the capability to build custom resource types with semantics derived from linear logic, which permits the movement of digital resources across program storage places but prevents their implicit duplication or disposal.
It supports digital assets, which are created specifically for managing digital assets on the blockchain, as first-class citizens.
Between EVM and Move, there is a variation in the data models. Move uses primitive data types like Boolean, Integer, fixed-size byte arrays, and address data type while EVM assets are encoded inside a dynamically indexed mapping like owner_address -> bytes assets>.
Because Move assets can be any user-defined type, the Move language is intriguing. HashMap assumes that altering the state is simply changing the values of entries in the collection because any arbitrary assets are represented as entries in the collection. Assets can be altered through a sequence of transactions, and move objects are used to leverage those assets. The language, according to the specification, includes built-in resource safety to permit effortless flow of digital assets across contract borders while maintaining their integrity.
The language's ability to compile data is another benefit. A new asset that incorporates an old asset is always a possibility. The contract that defines the digital assets prevents them from evading it. On the other hand, they are granted their language-specific type since they are treated as first-class citizens in the Web3 domain.
Let's go back to Sui and tie everything together now.
Sui employs a novel method for transaction verification using the Move programming language.
Let's start with Move and examine how these function.
Move lets users choose their types for specially created digital items. As a result, it is now the front-runner for the development of smart contracts.
Once a custom initializer function is optionally defined in a module upon publishing for the purpose of pre-initializing module-specific data, such as establishing singleton objects, the Sui runtime executes when Move modules are published to Sui storage. Similar to a constructor in other object-oriented languages like Java, it produces an instance from the class metadata.
Move enables Sui to categorize assets (items) according on ownership by defining its own types for specially created digital things:
• Objects that are owned by an account address and are only usable by transactions that are signed by that account address.
• Things that are owned by another object yet still stand alone as top-level objects and are directly accessible.
• Shared items that can be changed, don't have a clear owner, and can be used in transactions by several parties without receiving permission.
• Immutable objects, which do not have a single owner, may only be supplied as a read-only reference in calls and cannot be modified after they are published.
We must first learn the idea of simple and complex transactions in order to comprehend how Sui is different from other blockchains.
Common transactions are not causally related to other elements of the blockchain state; as a result, they are not interdependent. An object that is immutable or read-only is a frequent example, as is an object that is owned by an account address. Complex ones frequently have shared objects and are connected causally.
Things start to make sense at this point.
Sui still permits transactions to be ordered and carried out sequentially in the rare instances where they are interwoven. Two different methods to consensus are used for this:
• For separate transactions, use Byzantine Consistent Broadcasting, and
• For dependent transactions, use BFT consensus.
Sui provides a "multi-lane" method for validating transactions that combines Byzantine Consistent Broadcast (BCB) and Byzantine Fault-Tolerant Consensus (BFT).
Sui can bypass consensus and parallelize transactions that are not causally related by using BCB. lowering latency and raising throughput as a result.
A single address can send any number of transactions to be completed in parallel via BCB as long as they involve separate objects.
On the majority of blockchains, before a transaction can be carried out consecutively, it must be sorted and added to a block. Sequential execution on these chains unnecessarily restricts throughput because the majority of transactions are independent. Sui needs clear declarations of a transaction's dependencies in order to execute them concurrently.
Sui is also in a great position to scale horizontally (i.e., by adding more machines to the existing validators) in order to increase throughput even further.
Sui also lessens the effect of a single point of failure (faulty validator) on the performance of the blockchain due to BCB's leaderless design by avoiding leader bottlenecks in typical transactions.
A more prevalent BFT consensus is employed when dealing with complicated (causally connected) transactions. Sui still offers Narwhal and Tusk, a high-throughput mempool and consensus mechanism provided by Mysten Labs, to further enhance operations.
Sui is a blockchain that performs incredibly well thanks to transaction parallelization. More than 120K token transfers can be handled by it each second. Tusk was able to attain a peak throughput of 160,000 tx/sec with a 3-sec latency in tests conducted by Mysten Labs, which is mostly maintained even during faults.
Sui may validate independent transactions in concurrently, allowing for linear throughput growth with more computers per validator.
Therefore, Sui Scales qualifies as a blockchain.
Unlike most blockchains, which are designed around accounts, Sui's storage is centered around items. Every object is associated with an address and is mutable by default, but it can also be shared or declared immutable.
Sui's Move smart contracts have the ability to accept these things as inputs, manipulate them, and then deliver the results as outputs. This distinguishes it fundamentally from other programming languages for smart contracts, like as Solidity or Rust.
This intuitive programming is perfect for dynamic NFTs and crypto games that frequently mix and change digital objects.
Sui's Tokenomics
The 10 billion SUI token supply limit was just disclosed by the Mysten labs team on their Medium website. In the upcoming weeks, the precise token allocation information will be made public.
But as of right now, we are aware of the four purposes of the Sui's token:
- Staking / Security
- Transaction fees
- Governance
- Unit of Account / Medium of Exchange
The majority of blockchains face significant changes in gas prices due to fluctuating network demand. Sui adopts a cutting-edge gas market structure to maintain stable and cheap gas prices.
Epochs are used in Sui. The validator set is updated every epoch (24 hours). A reference gas price for the new epoch is then decided by a vote of its validators.
As a result, the protocol offers validators a number of incentives to keep transaction fees close to the reference price for the duration of the entire epoch. As a result of more steady gas prices, Sui processes transactions at more consistent rates.
As a result, user experience is enhanced. But how do gas prices continue to be low when there is network congestion?
Since the throughput of the network scales linearly with the number of workers, validators can raise their workforce in response to increases in network demand. Prices therefore continue to be quite close to the reference price.
Sui talks about the problem of state bloat as well. Users are required to pay both petrol fees and fees to Sui when they upload data to Sui's "storage fund." The actual cost of validators storing user data is covered by this fund.
As the network develops and storage costs increase, validators are compensated through the storage fund. Additionally, users can remove material they no longer need to keep and get a refund from the storage fee after doing so.
Team Behind Sui
Mysten Labs, a business designing Web3's fundamental infrastructure, created Sui. Evan Cheng, Adeniyi Abiodun, Sam Blackshear, George Danezis, and Kostas Kryptos, who were all constructing Novi/Diem at Meta at the time, created the company.
Sui's team has four main applications in mind:
• Gaming
• DeFi
• Commerce
• Social
They also created the Narwhal/Tusk mempool, the BFT consensus, and the Move programming language, which are among of the innovations that underpin Sui.
