Three emerging blockchain projects - Sui, Aptos, and Linera - are gaining significant attention from major venture capital firms like a16z, FTX Ventures, and Coinbase. These projects share a common origin: they were all founded by former Meta employees who worked on the discontinued Diem (formerly Libra) project.
Why These New Blockchains Matter
At a time when Layer1 competition is fierce and narratives are weakening, these projects stand out due to their technical inheritance from Diem and their innovative approaches to solving blockchain scalability issues.
Key highlights:
- All three use variations of Move programming language
- Focus on parallel transaction processing
- Backed by top-tier crypto VCs
- Achieving valuations exceeding $2B within months of launch
The Diem Legacy and Move Language
Diem was Meta's ambitious stablecoin payment system that ultimately failed due to regulatory pressures. However, it left behind valuable technological innovations, most notably the Move programming language.
What Makes Move Special?
- Designed specifically for digital asset operations
- Inspired by Rust with linear logic for resource management
- Prevents common vulnerabilities like asset duplication
- Static type system catches errors at compile time
- More secure and verifiable than Solidity
Additional Diem innovations inherited by these new chains:
- Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus
- Optimized blockchain data structures
Comparative Analysis of Three Diem Successors
1. Sui by Mysten Labs
👉 Learn more about Sui's technical innovations
Current Status:
- $140M raised at $2B valuation
- Testnet launched with Chrome wallet
- Incentivized testnet coming August 2022
Technical Highlights:
- Transaction parallelization for high throughput
- Modified "Sui Move" variant
- Claims sub-3 second finality
- Object-centric storage model
2. Aptos
Current Status:
- Raising at $2.75B valuation
- 4-round incentivized testnet ongoing
- Mainnet launch planned for September 2022
Technical Highlights:
- Testnet handling 10,000+ TPS
- Over 100 projects building in ecosystem
- Former Solana marketing lead joined team
3. Linera
Current Status:
- $6M seed round led by a16z
- Earliest development stage
- Focused on "linear scaling" model
Technical Highlights:
- Builds on FastPay and Zef protocols
- Enables per-account parallel processing
- Potentially lowest latency solution
Market Potential and Challenges
These chains benefit from:
- Diem's technical credibility
- Strong VC backing
- Novel technical approaches
Potential obstacles:
- Move vs. Solidity ecosystem divide
- Layer2 adoption trends
- High valuations raising expectations
FAQ
Q: How are these chains different from existing Layer1s?
A: They inherit Diem's technical advantages while implementing novel parallel processing approaches.
Q: When will mainnets launch?
A: Aptos plans September 2022, Sui likely Q4 2022, Linera TBD.
Q: Why are VCs so excited about these?
A: They combine proven Diem technology with fresh approaches to scalability.
Q: What's the biggest technical innovation?
A: Transaction parallelization enabling much higher throughput than sequential processing.
Q: How do they compare to Ethereum?
A: Different programming language (Move vs Solidity) and consensus mechanisms, but complementary rather than competitive at this stage.
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