Written by: Adeniyi Abiodun

Compiled by: Blockchain in Plain Language

The crypto market performed strongly in September, with leading Bitcoin rising more than 10%. Meanwhile, Sui, touted as the 'next Solana,' saw its market cap grow by 132.2%, ranking 13th and becoming a recent focal point.

With the former star project Libra's aura, Sui's five co-founders are all heavyweights from different areas of Facebook, and compared to Aptos, which is also a successor of Libra, the team seems stronger. Recently, co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun shared a detailed account of Sui's team story and inception.

The following is the main text:

Imagine this: your wife is giving birth, your first child is about to arrive, and you’re risking everything you’ve got to invest in a startup project. Would you do it? I did, and that 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, allowing us to found Mysten Labs and build Sui. Next, let me share my story before diving into the story of Sui.

Previously on...

In 2012, I was working in finance. At that time, life and work were very routine; I could tell you every detail from morning until I left work. I knew what I had to do, which bus 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 traders would say about the new improvements I made before I got home. Everything was too predictable.

For me, certainty in life makes me feel bored. I long for something uncertain, to challenge myself, or at least to feel like I have room for growth. It was at this time that I discovered Bitcoin.

I first read the Bitcoin white paper from a colleague (in the image above) and initially thought it looked a bit like a scam—nothing to see here. It wasn’t until later that I checked the code and read the paper again, thinking, 'Wow, this is incredible, this is fantastic!' The concept of decentralized assets struck me deeply. It's not just about mining; it's a bigger vision, and Bitcoin made me realize that robust assets can exist outside of traditional financial systems.

So, I started buying Bitcoin and mining myself. I built my own mining farm at home, and as time went on, I realized there was a demand in the market, so I began offering mining services to 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 empty rooms. The house was filled with constantly running mining rigs. So, I began renting space in a data center, ultimately establishing my own mining company. Of course, all of this happened naturally.

But eventually, I made the decision to go all in.

Imagine this: you're in the hospital, your wife is giving birth, and you have to admit that you've just spent all your savings on Bitcoin mining rigs. This is my reality, and that moment could have had a different outcome. I felt nervous and anxious, but I was also filled with hope. I knew it was a risk, but I believed that cryptocurrency could change our lives. My wife was understandably upset, but I assured her that this was an investment in our future. I understood the importance of making thoughtful risk decisions and pursuing my dreams, even if it meant facing uncertainty and potential failure.

So, I used that money to buy mining rigs and placed them in a data center, where people paid to rent my machine time, and the mined Bitcoin belonged to them, while I charged a fee. Most of my orders came from the U.S., and my largest supplier was in Texas. So, considering my expenses with suppliers and the money I earned from the U.S., it made sense to develop my business there.

So, I boarded a plane to the United States. Initially, this was just a temporary move for six months, aimed at collaborating with suppliers while waiting for the mining rigs to go into production, but it ultimately turned into a long-term settlement. Of course, this wasn’t my first sudden move to a new place; I had to adapt to new environments and new friends.

A Nigerian kid with an Aberdeen accent

Let's go back to the beginning of it all.

I was born in Nigeria and lived there until I was eight. At that time, my dad was pursuing a PhD in economics, so our whole family moved to Aberdeen in eastern Scotland, where he worked on his doctorate (my brother followed the same path later). As a result, I have a strong Aberdeen accent—it's quite strange, you know, a kid from Nigeria speaking with a Scottish accent, which is indeed odd.

After my dad completed his PhD, 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 realize that anything is possible, and you don’t have to be limited by your past choices.

As for my mother, she's a natural entrepreneur who always invests in businesses and real estate. Honestly, she might be the best negotiator I've ever seen. When she goes to the market, she negotiates to an embarrassing degree and always gets what she wants. She never easily accepts rejection... I might have inherited some of that from her, but definitely not to her level.

This journey hasn’t always been smooth—moving, adapting to new surroundings, and witnessing my parents bravely take steps forward. But looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. My parents have given me immense inspiration throughout this: how dull life can be when it's predictable.

As you can see, during my childhood, I moved around a lot and ultimately studied at Queen Mary University. But to be honest, I had no interest in studying; I just wanted to play games and enjoy life. It wasn't until exam time that I realized how little I had studied.

I noticed that my former friends had no bright futures; some ended up in prison, while others got involved in various shady activities. I thought, this is not the life I want, especially since my parents are African—if this continues, I'm done for.

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

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

After graduation, I developed software and hardware for a startup, remotely monitoring oil and gas production. I later shifted to finance, building trading systems and risk management systems. Working at JPMorgan and HSBC was fun while building these systems, but it gradually became boring.

As I said, everything was too predictable. I could tell you what to do from the moment I woke up to the moment I left. And I couldn't see where my long-term value and significant impact would come from. I don’t want a 1% improvement; I want a 100-fold change and achievements that I can repeatedly talk about and be proud of.

Thus, moving to the U.S. because of the Bitcoin mining company was a blessing for me, as I realized that the technology Bitcoin pioneered is not just about peer-to-peer cash—it can change the way our world operates. I began to see a broader prospect.

Finding clarity through burnout

After spending some time in Bitcoin mining, I felt a bit disappointed, as it seemed we weren't making much progress in Bitcoin. Mining is just one part of it; what else could we do?

Because I have a background in the business world, particularly working for large banks, I began to feel that blockchain technology might be the key to solving enterprise problems. So, I decided to bring blockchain technology into the enterprise. These experiences allowed me to work at Oracle and VMware, with VMware being 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, and there were almost no other products, just algorithms.

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

I know the crypto industry changes rapidly, and I must launch products quickly because I understand that the feeling of failure is unpleasant. I don’t want to accept failure because I didn’t go all out; I can’t accept that my failure is due to my lack of effort.

Lessons from competitiveness and burnout

What’s worse is that I’ve always been very competitive. Whether it’s playing football, basketball, or video games, I always want to win. For me, a true victory is a resounding one. I don’t want to win you 1-0 in FIFA; I have to win 6-0; the margin of victory has to be clear, right?

As a result, I took on a lot of responsibility in a short time because the work was just too much. I found myself doing marketing, engineering, product management, and a lot of travel and meetings; it was too much for one person, but I was very motivated.

I always tell myself and the team: 'We have to do our best because we're still behind and need to launch this product as soon as possible.' I work 20 hours a day, seven days a week. On my way to and from the office, I'm busy working, collaborating with people across different time zones. I feel unstoppable.

But soon I realized that the real issue was not the technology—we could handle that—but rather the ownership issue. Each company wanted to control the infrastructure they needed, making it difficult to build good partnerships. Every company wanted a piece of the pie, and no one was willing to work together for a common goal. Thus, I experienced burnout for the first time, feeling like I had been hit by a truck. I completely exhausted myself in six months.

This experience made me realize that we cannot view failure as a short-term thing. We need to focus on long-term goals, which has been the philosophy we’ve adhered to as the Sui team. We're not just pursuing quick wins; we're building a truly decentralized internet.

This is not 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 equally committed to achieving 100-fold results, and it all started with Facebook's Libra project.

Encountering the 100-fold team

After experiencing career burnout at VMware, I came to Facebook.

At Facebook, I began working on a project called Libra, which was very ambitious. Facebook formed a coalition with the aim of creating a global digital currency and payment system. The reason I was attracted to join Facebook was that they could achieve the teamwork that we couldn’t realize in our previous work: at Facebook, everyone can work together towards a common goal.

Although the 'startup issues' I saw at Oracle and VMware still exist, I believe that Facebook has addressed this issue through the Libra and Diem coalition, which is committed to building this infrastructure for the world.

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

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

My collaborative experiences 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 much talent, we still face significant challenges. The biggest problem is that due to Facebook's past issues with public trust and data privacy, many people are skeptical about launching a new financial system.

Just think, if you woke up tomorrow and found that 2 billion people had 'Facebook Bank' accounts, that would be the largest bank in the world. This would be frightening for any nation.

The public perception is: 'I don't trust Facebook because it's a monopolistic company.' This is the problem we wanted to solve: how to build trust on a foundation of distrust? In the end, Libra was not successful. In hindsight, we may have underestimated the pressure Congress put on Facebook. Still, I truly believe that Mark and David Marcus should be commended for daring to try what others were afraid to do.

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

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

Excellent teams without a plan

The five co-founders of Sui

I also want to say that the failure of Libra contained the seeds of success for me personally. Without that failure, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to collaborate with those excellent talents who ultimately came together to create Mysten Labs and later launched Sui. Looking back at my time at Facebook, one thing that impressed me was that Evan and his team left me in awe. 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 daily. It was a major breakthrough 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 all kinds of things we use daily. So, when the opportunity to collaborate with Evan and his team arose, I seized it immediately, which also allowed me to forge friendships with the future co-founders of Mysten Labs.

As the launch of Libra/Diem seemed to have no end in sight, Evan and I got together. He asked, 'If we were to start a company, who would you want to work with?' He asked the same question of the other founding team members. Everyone's answer was unanimous; this was clearly a destined outcome. Sam Blackshear is one of Facebook's top engineers, and the Move programming language was his brainchild. This guy is a genius.

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

Next up is consensus expert George Danezis.

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

Finally, there's Kostas 'Kryptos' Chalkias, whose ideas are truly astonishing.

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

We set up a conference call, and the names everyone mentioned were completely consistent. So, we decided: 'Let’s just do it!' There was no debate about roles and responsibilities. To be honest, we didn’t even know exactly what we were building, but we were clear on one thing: we wanted to work together. This is how Mysten Labs was born; it was a great start.

Global coordination layer for smart assets

The vision for Libra was to make remittances as easy as sending an email, relying on a coalition 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 larger, more open, and decentralized.

We are not pursuing quick success either. As I mentioned earlier, this is not a 1% improvement but a 100-fold enhancement, something I want to be able to talk about repeatedly and be proud of.

The world is undergoing full digitalization, and every asset is defaulting to becoming digital. Nowadays, the internet excels at data transfer, but it falls short in transferring value or intent. If I want to send you money, we face a chaotic mess of protocols, none of which 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 of assets, each person with their own assets, how can we coordinate the intentions of these assets in a unified manner, allowing others to participate as well?

We realized this is our mission.

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

But the key is: we knew we had the capability to tackle this challenge.

We are not a bunch of tech guys just playing around with crypto technology. Our team has many who have been involved in building systems and applications scalable to billions of users. We have the necessary technology and practical experience to create a product that can truly operate globally.

For me, everything fits perfectly: a grand vision, a team I completely trust, and the opportunity to make a profound impact on the future of the internet.

I believe we have enough talent to achieve this goal.

As the construction progressed, the strength of our team became increasingly evident. From the fastest consensus protocols to object-oriented approaches, to the best developer experience in the industry, Sui began to take shape.

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

I can confidently say that there is currently no L1 blockchain that can compare to the vision or technology we are pursuing at Mysten Labs. Moreover, no other company has the talent that our team possesses. That’s why I believe we can win. As I mentioned earlier, I hate failure. I'm not good at accepting failure, and this is a competition in which I am firmly convinced we will win.

You might wonder why I spend so much time telling my story instead of directly discussing the exciting content of Mysten Labs. I feel it's important to understand my background so you can see the bigger picture. On the surface, it seemed smooth sailing, but that was not the case. Just like in the crypto world, my journey has been full of ups and downs—unstable, uncertain, and sometimes even risky, possibly seeming reckless. If you've made it this far, thank you for your patience. If you're more interested in Sui's vision, see you in the next article where we'll delve deeper.