Published
11 months ago on
May 04, 2023
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Layer-1 blockchain Sui has announced the launch of its mainnet on Wednesday as it gears up to take on other decentralized finance (DeFi) heavyweights such as Aptos.
The Sui network was developed by Mysten Labs, founded by ex-Meta executives, and uses the Rust-based Move programming language.
Sui Mainnet Goes Live
The launch of the high-performance blockchain comes after months of testing, with the team announcing the launch through a press release. The press release stated,
“The Sui Foundation announced today that Sui Mainnet is now live. Sui is a first-of-its-kind Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform designed from the bottom up to make digital asset ownership fast, private, secure, and accessible to everyone. The Sui Foundation is the independent organization whose mission is to support the advancement of the Sui ecosystem.”
The press release states that Sui offers several advantages over current blockchains, with its object-centric model enabling parallel transactions, sub-second finality, and rich on-chain assets. Thanks to horizontally scalable processing and storage, Sui is able to support a vast array of applications at low costs and unrivaled speeds. At the time of launch, transaction speeds on the network were around four transactions per second. However, this figure kept increasing during the day, eventually reaching 18 transactions per second. In comparison, Aptos offers speeds of around 9 transactions per second.
However, the network did face some issues, especially on the decentralization front. Currently, the Sui network has over 2100 nodes. However, most of these nodes are located in Germany and the United States, with a few others located in Asia and Eastern Europe. However, the network is still in its infancy, and validators may eventually become more evenly distributed.
A Highly Scalable Blockchain
The Sui network and blockchain were developed by Mysten Labs, founded by ex-meta employees and executives. Back in September 2022, Mysten Labs raised $300 million in a series B funding round, putting the project’s valuation at $300 million. The Sui blockchain has been designed to be highly scalable. Unlike current blockchains that rely on Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms, Sui utilizes a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS) consensus mechanism. In this type of consensus mechanism, network users can elect and vote on delegates to confirm the next block.
Sui has been created on Move. Move is a Rust-based programming language originally designed at Meta. However, Meta subsequently shuttered its Diem project. The team at Sui has stated that over 200 decentralized applications (dApps), ranging from gaming and social media to NFTs and DeFi, were waiting in the wings to go live on the network. Furthermore, they added that another 100 projects were ready to build on the new network.
The SUI Token
The protocol’s native token, SUI, has already been listed on several major cryptocurrency exchanges right after the platform’s mainnet launch. Crypto exchanges that have listed the token include ByBit, Binance, KuCoin, and OKX. The token opened at a price of $2.16. However, it quickly experienced a staggering 40% drop from its initial launch price. According to data from CoinGecko, the token is currently trading at $1.37. However, this figure represents an astronomical increase from its pre-sale price of $0.03 and its public sale price of $0.10.
Back in April, Sui disappointed many community members after it revealed that it would not be conducting an airdrop. Instead, it stated that the SUI token would be available to community members at a price of 3 cents per token during an early sale.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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