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Author: Biteye Core Contributor Fishery

Editor: Biteye Core Contributor Crush

Community: @BiteyeCN

*Text: 5000 words, read in 5 mins.

01 Introduction

Five years ago, Facebook's Libra (later renamed Diem) project emerged, drawing global attention. However, this ambitious initiative ended in 2022, leaving behind an unfinished legacy. Nevertheless, Libra’s technical foundation—Move programming language—has found new life through its successors.

As widely known, Aptos and Sui have carried on this legacy.

Now, the emergence of Movement Network demonstrates the potential to surpass Libra’s original vision. With its modular design and commitment to ecosystem interoperability, it offers a much more ambitious blueprint for Move than Libra/Diem’s initial framework ever imagined.

02 The Evolution of Smart Contract Blockchains

Ethereum, with its EVM-based smart contracts, emerged as the most popular blockchain after Bitcoin, driving widespread adoption of the Solidity programming language.

After Ethereum, several new blockchains attempted to chart alternative paths by creating their own smart contract languages to replicate Ethereum’s success.

For example:

• NEO adopted C# and JavaScript

• Waves developed Ride

• Cardano opted for Haskell

While innovative in concept, most of these blockchains failed to capture significant market share, unable to replace Solidity's dominance.

Over the years, Solidity’s limitations have become increasingly apparent during the evolution of DeFi: Its complex language design, Susceptibility to vulnerabilities, and Cumbersome development processes have frustrated teams and users alike.

The market now demands a new generation of smart contract languages that prioritize simplicity and security.

Move answers this demand. Its design emphasizes data resource safety and uniqueness, rooted in a deep understanding of financial security and resource management.

This approach aligns perfectly with blockchain asset management’s core requirements, making it appealing to those prioritizing security and stability.

In the current market cycle, the Move ecosystem has been gaining traction steadily. Developers and users are “voting with their feet” by migrating to Move-based blockchains.

Unlike the speculative hype that characterized earlier smart contract language booms, Move’s popularity stems from its practical solutions to real developer and market needs.

Move’s growth trajectory is distinct from Ethereum’s. It avoids the rapid expansion driven by market speculation seen with early platforms.

Instead, it adopts a pragmatic development strategy, focusing on addressing actual challenges and meeting demand.

03 Comparing Move and Ethereum Ecosystems

While numerous technical comparisons between Move and Ethereum exist, this section explores their contrasting growth paths.

The key difference lies in the closer collaboration between Move’s core infrastructure teams and ecosystem projects. During Ethereum’s early development, the disconnect between core developers and ecosystem projects was notable, with little direct support provided.

For example, in 2018, when ETH’s price dropped from $1,400 to $80, the network had almost no active applications.

DeFi grassroots teams and miners later revived Ethereum, though the Ethereum Foundation provided limited acknowledgment or support. Instead, the foundation focused on advancing Layer 2 and transitioning to PoS, ensuring technical continuity but limiting ecosystem diversity.

Ethereum’s success relied equally on its smart contract functionality and the grassroots DeFi teams that emerged—one could not have succeeded without the other. In contrast, Move’s early development saw infrastructure teams proactively supporting various applications and developers within the community.

By offering developer tools, funding, and resource-sharing, Move’s core teams fostered a collaborative, win-win relationship. This strengthened community cohesion and laid the groundwork for Move’s thriving ecosystem. Furthermore, Move exhibits greater market responsiveness.

One standout example is Movement, the only Move-based solution positioned similarly to Ethereum’s Layer 2. Movement’s development reflects the Move ecosystem’s acute understanding of market needs.

Unlike Ethereum, which oscillated between Beam and Layer 2 solutions, Movement remains adaptive to market feedback, delivering products aligned with demand.

This market-oriented approach cultivates a dynamic environment for innovation, enabling Move to remain resilient and growth-focused in the rapidly evolving blockchain space.

04 The Evolution of Move

The development of the Move ecosystem can be divided into three phases:

Phase 1：The Libra/Diem Era

In 2019, Facebook (now Meta) aimed to launch a global digital currency through Libra/Diem, introducing the Move programming language to ensure smart contract security. However, U.S. regulatory hurdles led to the project’s termination in 2022, delaying Move’s initial commercial application.

Phase 2：The Birth of Aptos and Sui

Following Diem’s demise, Aptos and Sui emerged as Move Layer 1 blockchains founded by former Libra/Diem team members.

Aptos, co-founded by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, launched its mainnet in October 2022. It emphasizes high performance and low latency, leveraging Move and a unique consensus protocol to attract developers and substantial capital backing.

Sui, developed by Mysten Labs, launched its mainnet in May 2023. It focuses on modular and scalable design, enhancing concurrency and offering advanced developer tools for a better development experience.

Both projects extended Libra/Diem’s innovations, establishing new ecosystems and showcasing Move’s advantages in security and developer-friendliness. Their rise reflects the enduring impact of Libra/Diem’s technical foundations.

Phase 3：Movement Network’s Emergence

Building on Libra/Diem’s vision, Movement Labs introduced Movement Network, a high-TPS, modular Move blockchain infrastructure.

Movement Labs announced its $3.4M pre-seed funding in September 2023, a pivotal moment when the Move ecosystem faced uncertainty.

Subsequent funding rounds, including $38M led by Polychain in April 2024 and investment from Binance Labs in May 2024, cemented Movement’s status as a prominent infrastructure project.

Unlike the Ethereum Foundation’s reserved stance toward early DeFi and mining contributions, Move’s infrastructure teams actively support innovation.

By providing funding, technical tools, and community-building initiatives, Move has quickly gained developers and users, positioning itself as a rising star in smart contract development.

05 Movement Network: The Rising Star of Move Ecosystem

Movement Network holds strategic significance within the Move ecosystem. Unlike Aptos and Sui, Movement complements rather than competes with them, acting as a crucial bridge through its modular architecture.

Its core components include:

• Move Executor: The core of the Movement SDK, enabling dual support for MoveVM and EVM bytecode. This dual compatibility allows developers to leverage Move’s advanced features while maintaining Ethereum application compatibility.

• Fast Finality Settlement Module: Employs an innovative staking-based verification mechanism, delivering near-instant transaction finality without costly proof-generation hardware.

• Decentralized Shared Sequencer: Ensures high performance, security, and interoperability across the platform. In terms of technical architecture, Movement’s innovation lies in its successful integration of the Move programming language with the EVM ecosystem.

As the core component of the Movement-SDK, Movement's Move Executor achieves dual support for both MoveVM and EVM bytecode.

This dual compatibility allows developers to harness the advanced features of the Move language while maintaining compatibility with existing Ethereum applications.

By integrating MoveVM’s parallel execution capabilities with the existing EVM interpreter, the Move Executor strikes a fine balance between compatibility and scalability.Developers can leverage the benefits of the Move language while still relying on Ethereum for settlement.

Notably, Movement supports running Move code from both Aptos and Sui simultaneously. This innovative architecture, referred to as "Move-EVM" (MEVM), offers developers unprecedented flexibility.In transaction finality, the Fast Finality Settlement Module introduces an innovative staking-based validation mechanism.

Unlike traditional zk-rollups or optimistic rollups, the Movement Network achieves near-instant transaction finality without requiring expensive proof-generation hardware. This significantly reduces latency and enhances the user experience.

By requiring validators to stake assets, the module ensures network security while boosting transaction processing efficiency.These technological innovations position Movement as a highly promising infrastructure project within the Move ecosystem, providing a robust foundation for the widespread adoption of the Move language and ecosystem development.

The current macro environment also favors Movement’s narrative. As U.S. regulatory attitudes towards the crypto industry become more favorable, we can expect more enterprises to embrace Web3, much like the previous bull market.

Move, designed by Facebook as an enterprise-grade programming language, is likely to become the first choice for these companies. Considering the strict requirements enterprises often have for system sovereignty, public chains like Aptos and Sui may not meet these demands.

As the only modular solution in the Move ecosystem, Movement’s strategic value becomes increasingly evident.With its open-source Movement SDK, enterprises can deploy their own rollups, maintaining full control over their systems while benefiting from both the Ethereum ecosystem and the infrastructure advantages of the Move language.

06 Conclusion

Reflecting on Web2’s history, developer convenience directly correlates with application quality. Aptos, Sui, and Movement are translating this lesson to Web3, driving Move’s ecosystem growth through diverse technical and innovative approaches. Movement continues Move’s narrative, potentially surpassing Libra’s original vision.

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