Sui, the world’s first permissionless Layer 1 blockchain completely designed from the ground up, is a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain offering horizontally scalable throughput and storage. Developed by Mysten Labs, which was formed by ex-Meta team members, Sui is a step-function advancement in blockchain technology, aiming to provide enhanced experiences for web3 users. Unlike other blockchains, Sui is not a derivative or add-on of the Diem network.
The team behind Sui comprises former senior leaders from Facebook’s (Meta) advanced blockchain research and development organization. Co-founders Evan Cheng, Adeniyi Abiodun, Sam Blackshear, George Danezis, and Kostas Chalkias were responsible for delivering some of the most advanced open-source components, such as the programming language, execution engine, and cryptography of the Diem network.
Sui’s main features include horizontal scalability without upper bounds, enabling it to meet application demand while maintaining low operating costs per transaction. This innovative design eliminates a critical bottleneck in existing blockchains by organizing data into independent objects, allowing transactions to be executed in parallel. The network also scales throughput horizontally through Byzantine consistent broadcast, eliminating the overhead caused by global consensus without sacrificing safety and liveness guarantees. These unique features lead to unmatched scalability and instant settlement of transactions.
Users, token holders, and validators are the three types of participants in the Sui ecosystem. Users submit transactions, token holders delegate tokens to validators and participate in governance, and validators manage transaction processing and execution on the Sui platform.
Sui has raised $36 million in Series A funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z, with participation from other investors such as Redpoint, Lightspeed, Coinbase Ventures, and Samsung Next. Mysten Labs’ Series B funding round has a valuation of over $2 billion and recently closed a $300 million fundraise led by FTX Ventures, with participation from Jump Crypto, Circle Ventures, a16z, Binance Labs, and O’Leary Ventures, among others.
The SUI token, the native asset of the Sui platform, has a total supply capped at 10 billion. Its four main purposes are staking, gas fees, underlying asset of the economy, and governance. Over 50% of the $SUI tokens are held by the Community Reserve, managed by the Sui Foundation, which will utilize the tokens through various community programs such as the Delegation Program, Grant Programs, Research and Development, and Validator Subsidies.
Sui had a $SUI token airdrop for Testnet Wave 1 and 2 validators, and although registration is closed, there is a possibility of a third testnet “wave.” Sui has announced a SUI Token Community Access Program, distributing retrospective rewards or granting access to an earlier Recognition Sale for eligible participants.
The SUI token sale comprises two rounds: the Recognition Sale and the General Sale. Sui’s mainnet launch is scheduled for May 3, 2023, and participating exchanges include Bybit, KuCoin, and OKX. The Recognition Sale is open only to whitelisted participants and offers tokens at $0.03, with tokens fully unlocked during the mainnet launch. Sui has emailed the allowlisted participants with instructions on how to participate in the Recognition Sale.
In addition to the mainnet launch and token sale events, Binance has announced that users can stake BNB and TUSD in separate Launchpools to farm $SUI over two days, with farming commencing on May 1st at 00:00 UTC. This development offers an opportunity for users to acquire $SUI tokens through staking and participate in the growing Sui ecosystem.
Once SUI’s liquidity meets Binance’s requirements, the platform will proceed with listing the token. Binance will announce the exact date and timing for the listing once it becomes available. This listing on Binance further demonstrates the growing interest and support for Sui as a pioneering blockchain platform, designed to offer unmatched scalability and instant settlement for web3 applications.
