Can the Layer 1 newcomer Sui, created by the former Facebook team, become Web3's biggest dark horse?

Written by: Adeniyi Abiodun

Compiled by: Blockchain in Plain Language

The crypto market performed strongly in September, with leading Bitcoin rising over 10%, while Sui, dubbed the 'next Solana,' saw a market cap growth of 132.2%, ranking 13th and becoming a recent focus.

With the former star project Libra's halo, the five co-founders of Sui are all big names from different fields at Facebook, and compared to Aptos, which is also a successor to Libra, the team's strength seems even more robust. Recently, co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun shared a detailed account of the story and birth of the Sui team.

The following is the main text:

Imagine this: your wife is in labor, about to give birth to your first child, and you are risking all your savings on a startup project. Would you do that? I did, and this decision changed everything for me. It was a turning point in my life that ultimately brought me together with some of the best talents in the industry to found Mysten Labs and build Sui. Next, let me first tell my story before discussing Sui's story.

Previously on:

In 2012, I was working in the financial industry. Life and work were very regular at that time; I could tell you every detail from the moment I woke up until I finished work. I knew what I needed to do, which train to take, who to meet, who would be in front of me when I sat down, what I would write, how to test, how to check the code, and even what the trader would say about the new improvements I made before going home. Everything was too predictable.

For me, certainty in life actually makes me feel bored. I crave something uncertain to challenge myself or at least make me feel there is room for growth. It was during this time that I discovered Bitcoin.

I first read the Bitcoin white paper from a colleague (as shown above) and initially thought it was somewhat of a scam, thinking there was nothing to it. It wasn't until later when I checked out the code and read the paper again that I thought, "Wow, this is incredible; this is amazing!" The concept of decentralized assets deeply moved me. This is not just mining, but a bigger vision; Bitcoin showed me that robust assets can exist outside the traditional financial system.

So, I started buying Bitcoin and mining on my own. I built my own mining rig at home, and over time I realized there was a demand in the market, so I began providing mining services for others, and people started paying for it. Until one day, my wife asked me to move the machines out of the house because there were no more rooms left. The house was full of constantly running mining machines. So, I started renting space in a data center and ended up establishing my own mining company. Of course, all of this happened naturally.

But in the end, I made the decision to give it my all.

Imagine this: you're in a hospital, your wife is in labor, and you have to admit that you've just spent all your savings on Bitcoin mining machines. That’s my reality; that moment could have had different outcomes. I felt nervous and anxious, but I was also filled with hope. I knew it was risky, but I believed that cryptocurrency could change our lives. My wife was certainly very angry, but I assured her it was an investment in our future. I understood that making carefully considered risk decisions and pursuing one’s dreams is very important, even if it means facing uncertainty and possible failure.

So, I used that money to buy mining machines, placing them in the data center where people would pay to rent my machine time, and the Bitcoins mined would belong to them, while I would charge a fee. Most of my orders came from the U.S., and my largest supplier was also in Texas. So considering my expenses with the supplier and the money I was making from the U.S., it made sense to expand my business there.

So I took a flight to the U.S. Originally, this was just a temporary move for six months to collaborate with suppliers while waiting for mining machines to start production, but it eventually turned into a long-term settlement. Of course, this wasn’t my first sudden move to a new place, adjusting to a new environment and new friends.

A Nigerian child with an Aberdeen accent

Let’s go back to the beginning of all this.

I was born in Nigeria and lived there until I was eight. At that time, my father was pursuing a Ph.D. in economics, so our whole family moved to Aberdeen in the East of Scotland while he completed his doctoral studies (later, my brother followed the same path). Thus, I have a strong Aberdeen accent—it’s quite strange, you know, a child from Nigeria speaking with a Scottish accent; it really is odd.

After my dad completed his Ph.D., we moved again, this time to England. He started working but soon made a bold decision—to resign and become a full-time pastor, dedicating himself to serving God. This made me understand: anything is possible; you don’t have to be limited by past choices.

As for my mother, she is a natural entrepreneur, always investing in businesses and real estate. To be honest, she might be the best negotiator I've ever seen. When she goes to the market, she can negotiate to an embarrassing degree, always getting what she wants. She never easily accepts rejection... I may have inherited some of that from her, but I'm definitely not as good as she is.

The road hasn't always been smooth—moving, adapting to new environments, watching my parents bravely take steps forward. But looking back, I wouldn’t change anything. My parents have given me tremendous inspiration throughout this journey: living predictably is so boring.

You can see that in my childhood, I moved around a lot, eventually studying at Queen Mary University. But to be honest, I was completely uninterested in studying; I just wanted to play games and enjoy life. It wasn’t until I needed to take exams that I realized how little I had learned.

I noticed that former friends were not doing well; some went to prison, while others got involved in shady dealings. I thought, this is not the life I want, especially since my parents are African; if I keep going like this, I'm finished.

So, I decided to change, to study hard, and I finally barely got into Queen Mary University. After enrolling, I took a year-long introductory course and thought about my future direction. I was very interested in astrophysics, but gradually realized I needed to do something more practical. The theory was nice, but I preferred things I could actually work on.

So, I gave up astrophysics and turned to electronic engineering and computer science. Here, my passion for computers, programming, and software development began to grow.

After graduation, I developed software and hardware at a startup, remotely monitoring oil and gas production. Later, I switched to finance, where I started building trading systems and risk management systems. Building these systems while working at JPMorgan and HSBC was fun, but gradually it became boring.

As I said, everything was too predictable. I could tell you what to do at every step from the moment I woke up until I left. And I couldn’t see where my long-term value and significant impact lay. I didn’t want a 1% improvement; I wanted a 100-fold change—achievements I could talk about repeatedly and be proud of.

Thus, moving to the U.S. because of Bitcoin mining companies was a blessing for me, as I realized that the technology pioneered by Bitcoin is not just peer-to-peer cash; it has the potential to change how our world operates. I began to see a bigger picture.

Finding clarity through burnout

After spending some time in the Bitcoin mining field, I felt a bit disappointed because it seemed we weren't making much progress with Bitcoin. Mining is just one aspect; what else can we do?

Because I have a background in the business world, especially working for large banks, I began to feel that blockchain technology could be key to solving corporate problems. So, I decided to bring blockchain technology into the enterprise. These experiences allowed me to work at Oracle and VMware, a software company focused on cloud computing. Joining VMware was a new challenge for me; they were developing a blockchain-based enterprise solution, but progress was slow, with almost no other products, just algorithms left.

We need to build new products, launch them to the market, sell to enterprises and customers, and strive to catch up with companies like IBM and Oracle, which were established before us. This puts a lot of pressure on me.

I know that the crypto industry changes quickly, and I have to launch products rapidly because I understand that the feeling of failure is unpleasant. I don’t want to fail because I didn’t give my all; I can’t accept failing due to not working hard enough.

Lessons of competition and burnout

Worse still, I've always been very competitive. Whether it’s football, basketball, or video games, I always want to win. For me, real victory means a decisive win. I don’t want to beat you 1-0 in FIFA; I have to win 6-0 for it to feel satisfying, right?

Therefore, in a short time, I took on a lot of responsibilities because there was just too much work. I found myself doing marketing, engineering, product work, etc., frequently traveling and attending meetings—these tasks were just too much for one person, but I was very motivated.

I always tell myself and the team: "We must do our best because we are still behind and need to launch this product quickly." I work 20 hours a day, seven days a week. On my way to and from the office, I am busy working, collaborating with people in different time zones. I feel unstoppable.

But soon I realized that the real issue was not the technology; we could handle that, but the ownership issue. Each company wanted to control the infrastructure they needed, which made establishing good cooperative relationships difficult. Every company wanted a piece of the pie, and no one was willing to work hard for a common goal. So, I experienced burnout for the first time, feeling as if I had been hit by a truck. I completely drained my energy within six months.

This experience made me realize that I can't view failure as a short-term issue. We need to focus on long-term goals, which is the philosophy we have always followed in the Sui team. We are not just pursuing quick victories; we are building a truly decentralized internet.

This isn’t just a 1% improvement, but a 100-fold enhancement. I hope this is something I can talk about repeatedly and be proud of. But it also requires a team that equally pursues 100-fold results, and it all started with Facebook's Libra project.

Meeting the 100x team

After experiencing burnout at VMware, I came to Facebook.

At Facebook, I began participating in a project called Libra, which was very ambitious. Facebook formed a consortium to create a global digital currency and payment system. The reason I was attracted to join Facebook was that they could achieve the teamwork we couldn't in our previous work: at Facebook, everyone could work together towards a common goal.

Although I still see the 'startup problem' I encountered at Oracle and VMware, I feel that Facebook has addressed this issue through the Libra and Diem consortium, which is committed to building this infrastructure for the world.

Our goal is to make transferring money online as simple as sending an email. We believe this is a public utility that can genuinely help the entire world. Honestly, after going through what I did, working at Facebook feels much easier; the environment is entirely different.

Facebook assembled one of the best research teams I’ve ever seen. The team included professors from Stanford, outstanding computer scientists, and smart people from all over the world.

My experiences collaborating with David Marcus and Kevin Weil were very positive; everyone was passionate about achieving our goals, and the team atmosphere was fantastic.

However, even with so many talented people, we still faced significant challenges. The biggest problem was that due to Facebook's past issues with public trust and data privacy, many people were skeptical about their launch of a new financial system.

Think about it: if you woke up tomorrow to find that 2 billion people had 'Facebook Bank' accounts, that would be the largest bank in the world. That would be terrifying for any country.

The public generally perceives: "I don’t trust Facebook because it’s a monopoly." This is the problem we want to solve: how to build trust on a foundation of distrust? As a result, Libra failed to succeed. In hindsight, we may have underestimated Congress's pressure on Facebook. However, I genuinely believe that Zuck and David Marcus deserve praise for daring to attempt what others wouldn’t.

Ultimately, Facebook's failure gave opportunities to other companies like PayPal, Visa, and Circle. Their investments in Libra and the subsequent cancellation of the project actually opened the door for others, and I think they should be praised for that.

Seeing this excellent team fail due to external factors really saddens me. That was the best team I’ve ever worked with, and I had no idea what to do next.

The excellent team without a plan

The five co-founders of Sui

I also want to say that the failure of Libra personally contained the seeds of success for me. If that failure hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to collaborate with those excellent talents, who ultimately came together to create Mysten Labs and subsequently launched Sui. Reflecting on my time at Facebook, one thing impressed me profoundly: Evan and his team blew me away. Evan is an outstanding leader and a great visionary.

Evan

Evan is one of the main innovators of LLVM, a technology that powers most iPhones and countless other devices we use every day. It is a huge transformation in the tech world, and his work earned him the prestigious ACM Computer Science Award, which has also been awarded to many top computer scientists.

He led the R&D team at Facebook, and the team members were like mad scientists, creating various things we use in our daily lives. So, when the opportunity to collaborate with Evan and his team arose, I seized it immediately, and this experience also allowed me to build friendships with future co-founders of Mysten Labs.

Due to the seemingly endless delays in the release of Libra/Diem, Evan and I got together. He asked, "If we were to start a company, who would you want to work with?" He posed the same question to the other founding team members. Everyone's answers were consistent, and it was clearly a destined outcome. Sam Blackshear is one of Facebook's top engineers, and the Move programming language is his brainchild. This guy is a genius.

Left: Sam Blackshear; Middle: Evan; Right: Adeniyi Abiodun

Next is consensus expert George Danezis.

Facebook actually acquired his company Chainspace to help build Libra, which is enough to prove his capabilities.

Finally, there’s Kostas ‘Kryptos’ Chalkias, whose ideas were truly astonishing.

At Facebook, he was the go-to person for all things related to encryption; many of the cryptographic algorithms used in WhatsApp were developed by him, and this app is one of the most widely used applications globally.

We had a conference call together, and everyone mentioned the same names. So we decided: "Let’s just do it!" There was no debate over roles and responsibilities. Honestly, we didn’t even know exactly what we wanted to build, but we were clear on one thing: we wanted to collaborate. This is the birth of Mysten Labs, and the beginning was very good.

Global coordination layer for smart assets

The vision of Libra is to make remittances as simple as sending an email, relying on a consortium of multiple companies to control the infrastructure. When we founded Mysten Labs, we realized that this vision was too narrow. We wanted to build something bigger, more open, and decentralized.

We are also not pursuing quick success. As I said before, this is not a 1% improvement, but a 100-fold enhancement, something I can talk about repeatedly and be proud of.

The world is undergoing complete digitization, and every asset is defaulting to a digital form. Nowadays, the internet excels at data transmission, but it falls short in conveying value or intent. If I want to transfer money to you, we face a jumble of chaotic protocols, none of which can truly control the funds.

So, what kind of infrastructure does the internet need to create a world where assets can be seamlessly built, coordinated, and combined?

If we are to have billions in assets, with everyone having their own assets, how can we coordinate the intentions of these assets in a unified way so that others can participate too?

We realized this is our mission.

So, in the ashes of Libra, the vision of Sui gradually emerged—a global coordination layer for digital assets. This is an ambitious goal.

But the key is: we know we have the ability to meet this challenge.

We are not just a group of tech guys playing with crypto technology. The team includes many who have participated in building systems and applications that can scale to billions of users. We have the necessary technology and practical experience to create a product that can genuinely operate on a global scale.

For me, it all fits perfectly: a grand vision, a team I fully trust, and the opportunity to have a profound impact on the future of the internet.

I believe we have enough talent to achieve this goal.

As the construction progresses, the strength of our team becomes increasingly evident. From the fastest consensus protocols to object-oriented approaches, and the best developer experience in the industry, Sui is gradually taking shape.

We also understand that a complete vision is not just a global coordination layer. We need a storage layer and a network infrastructure. We are collaborating with Walrus to build a global storage layer. Next, we will also establish a global network layer, and we are gradually building the entire technical system.

I can confidently say that no other L1 blockchain can compare to the vision or technology we pursue at Mysten Labs. Moreover, no other company has talent like ours. This is why I believe we can succeed. As I said before, I hate failure. I am someone who doesn’t take failure lightly, and this is a competition I firmly believe we will win.

You might ask why I spend so much time telling my story instead of directly discussing the exciting aspects of Mysten Labs. I think it’s important to understand my background so you can see the bigger picture. On the surface, it seems like a smooth journey, but in reality, it wasn't. Much like the crypto world, my journey has been full of ups and downs—unstable, uncertain, sometimes even risky, and it may seem a bit reckless. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for your patience. If you’re more interested in the vision of Sui, see you in the next article where we will delve deeper.