"The Ethereum killer" has really arrived this time

Author: Biteye Core Contributor Willson Lee

Editor: Biteye Core Contributor Crush

Community: @BiteyeCN

0 1 Introduction

Faster and safer blockchains have always been the core narrative driving the continuous technological development of the crypto industry. From the endless emergence of L2 scaling technologies to high-performance public chains like Solana, all are exploring the boundaries of blockchain performance and security to provide a better experience for blockchain users.

With the explosive emergence of L1/L2, many have unfortunately become "zombie chains." The market tells us that superior technology is not the only factor for success; L1/L2 still need to make tremendous efforts to build their ecosystems.

EVM compatibility is an important criterion for distinguishing blockchains. High-performance public chains often sacrifice EVM compatibility to achieve sufficient performance, such as Solana, Aptos, and Sui;

In contrast, Avalanche and Polygon balance EVM compatibility without pursuing extreme performance, ensuring that the thriving Ethereum ecosystem can seamlessly transition to themselves.

The trade-off between EVM compatibility and performance reflects whether a blockchain should give up part of its easily convertible ecosystem for extreme performance, with the core reason being the limitations of Solidity and EVM itself.

Since its inception, the Move language has been highly anticipated. As a new smart contract language developed and designed by Facebook (now META), Move was born specifically for crypto assets.

Compared to programming languages commonly used in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as Solidity, Move emphasizes "security" and "high performance" in its logical design.

Without relying on L2, MOVE reduces the storage space and computational costs of blockchain transactions through an optimization technique called "module packaging." Module packaging reduces storage and indexing costs by bundling multiple smart contracts into a single module and improves execution speed by reducing the steps of bytecode execution.

This allows Move-based public chains to often achieve TPS exceeding ten thousand, and even scale to hundreds of thousands.

Aptos and Sui, as the twin stars of Move, once achieved remarkable market performance, but there remains a certain gap in ecosystem building compared to traditional EVM ecosystems, which has led to a lack of momentum in their performance.

Movement is the breakthrough for the current challenges in the Move ecosystem. Movement aims to connect the security and high-performance advantages of the Move language with the liquidity and large user base of the EVM ecosystem, achieving a synergistic advantage.

Through the Movement SDK, developers do not need to write Move code; it can automatically convert Solidity scripts into opcodes that Move can understand, achieving interoperability compatible with Ethereum and other EVM networks, perfectly combining the advantages of the Move language with the thriving Ethereum ecosystem.

0 2 Product Solutions and Advantages

2.1 Core Components: M1 and M2

Movement consists of two core components, M1 and M2, which together provide a secure, efficient, and decentralized blockchain ecosystem.

M1 serves as a general-purpose Move-EVM blockchain, gradually evolving into a decentralized sequencer, while M2, based on Move + EVM, is a zero-knowledge Layer 2 that realizes the security and efficiency of smart contracts, empowering users and developers to innovate and operate on a unified platform.

• M1: M1 is a community-driven blockchain network based on the Move language, characterized by good compatibility and scalability.

• Good Compatibility

• There is a camp division issue within the Move ecosystem: as the twin stars of Move, Aptos and Sui, although both originate from Facebook's blockchain project, they differ in technical implementation and goals. Therefore, Aptos and Sui's Move languages are actually completely different languages, leading to confusion and division among developers when making choices. Aptos is closer to the Move language in Facebook's DM project, while Sui has undergone six months of iteration based on this, making it more similar to Solana's semantics and consensus mechanism. Thus, Aptos Move is more secure, while Sui Move has higher speed and compilation efficiency.

• Solution: Movement has built an RPC translation mechanism to compile Sui Move and Aptos Move into the same bytecode, achieving compatibility. Additionally, they have developed an EVM interpreter called Fractal, allowing developers to deploy EVM smart contracts on Movement. Therefore, Movement users can operate on the liquidity of EVM while experiencing a unique execution environment and a vibrant ecosystem.

• Scalability: M1 will serve as the first general-purpose Move-EVM blockchain, driven by its independent set of validators, and will gradually evolve into a decentralized sequencer, supporting M2 and other Rollups built on the Move Stack.

• The design intention of M1 is decentralization; it allows validators to start quickly, inheriting the security of existing Snowman validators while requiring very low hardware. As the network matures during the Parthenon testing phase, more community validators will be allowed to join the network, with the ultimate goal of achieving permissionless decentralization. This will ultimately realize the first permissionless decentralized shared sequencing unit, supporting M2.

• Furthermore, M1 creates the most economically viable shared sequencing unit, as all transaction fees will be allocated back to the token-staked validator network, forming a flywheel effect that incentivizes more validators to join the network for higher returns. As sequencing fees gradually decrease, M1 will become the center of the next generation of Rollups, as it becomes the staking center, ultimately incentivizing Rollups to use decentralized shared sequencers.

Source: https://x.com/movementlabsxyz/status/1747746334797410811/photo/1

• M2: M2 is the first zero-knowledge Layer 2 (MEVM) based on Move + EVM, running on Ethereum and supported by Celestia for DA, bringing MoveVM natively to Ethereum. M2 combines Move's strong ownership model with EVM's liquidity, providing a secure and efficient smart contract development platform. It supports Aptos Move, Sui Move, and also embeds the EVM interpreter MEVM, allowing Sui, Aptos, and EVM users to operate on the same Layer 2. With high TPS and instant finality, M2 can support large-scale financial transactions and decentralized applications while providing modular customization options to adapt to different project needs, achieving efficient and flexible blockchain solutions.

In summary, M1 builds a scalable consensus layer compatible with Move and EVM, independently creating a native Move consensus and ecosystem; M2 is responsible for the conversion and transaction execution of Solidity-Move, directly interfacing with the EVM ecosystem, becoming a bridge for direct communication between Move and EVM.

Source: https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_18939.html

2.2 Developer Entry Point: Movement SDK

Movement SDK is an innovative development tool for Movement, allowing developers to easily build modularity and interoperability between Move and EVM environments.

Movement SDK combines the security and resource management features of MoveVM with the flexibility and adaptability of Solidity, enabling developers to build and deploy Move-based infrastructure and applications in any distributed environment.

It mainly consists of three core components: MoveVM, Fractal, and custom adapters for sequencer networks and DA services.

• MoveVM: is the core execution engine of Movement SDK, providing a resource-oriented and strictly controlled environment for running smart contracts. Although both are MOVE languages, Sui Move and Aptos Move are two independent blockchain systems, each with its own virtual machine (VM) and toolkit, with significant differences. Movement's modular MoveVM is a multifunctional virtual machine designed to be fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and other Move ecosystems. It already supports the deployment of Aptos and EVM code and will soon support the Sui ecosystem.

• Fractal: is a compiler that allows developers to seamlessly deploy existing Solidity smart contracts to MoveVM. This bridging function not only provides Solidity developers with a safer and more efficient execution environment but also retains the original logic and functionality of Solidity contracts.

• Custom Adapters: are the last core component of Movement SDK, designed to provide seamless integration with sequencer networks and data availability (DA) services, ensuring secure connections with various blockchain networks and services.

Movement SDK not only provides developers with tools for the perfect integration of Move and EVM but also works in conjunction with M1 to further enhance Movement's scalability.

0 3 Project Progress

According to the Movement official website, there are currently nearly 80 ecosystem projects deployed on Movement, including star projects like Babylon and Ethena.

In the tags below the projects, we can see various projects in different development languages, showcasing Movement's strong compatibility and ecological potential.

Source: https://movementlabs.xyz/ecosystem/page/1

Note: Movement has currently launched a testnet activity, which can be followed through the tutorial for potential airdrop opportunities. https://twitter.com/BiteyeCN/status/1818523443203358919

0 4 Team Background

4.1 Core Members

The two co-founders of Movement Labs are Rushi Manche and Cooper Scanlon, Rushi is 21 years old this year, and Cooper is 24 years old. Both attended Vanderbilt University.

Source: https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_18939.html

Rushi Manche started programming at the age of 14, initially working at the health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, responsible for migrating cloud infrastructure.

His career began in the field of distributed systems and databases, and later he was introduced to cryptocurrencies during his university years. This experience laid a solid foundation for him in the tech field and paved the way for his future entry into the cryptocurrency space.

Rushi's interest in cryptocurrencies began when he learned that Facebook was developing its own blockchain project during his university years.

He initially learned about it through a New York Times article, which piqued his great interest.

At that time, Cosmos had only five users, Ethereum had only a few hundred users, while Facebook had billions of users, presenting enormous potential for the large-scale adoption of crypto technology.

Rushi delved into the Move language and gained extensive knowledge from the Move Book, ultimately deciding to pursue a career in this field.

Rushi's entrepreneurial journey has not been smooth. While at Vanderbilt University, despite limited resources, he persisted in developing his own projects.

He also shared his experience of choosing between Avalanche and Cosmos, ultimately opting for Avalanche as an early supporter.

During his university years, he founded an AI-driven exam tutoring platform, Ensemble, providing free exam preparation materials for high school students.

In 2022, Rushi joined Aptos as a software engineer, personally participating in the development of Move language smart contracts and making outstanding contributions to the core DEX within the ecosystem. This experience made him realize the immense potential of the Move language and ignited his passion for entrepreneurship in this field.

Cooper Scanlon is another co-founder of Movement Labs. Before founding Movement Labs, he established and audited the first yield aggregator using the Move language.

In November 2022, Rushi and Cooper, both Vanderbilt University alumni, made the bold decision to drop out of school and co-found Movement Labs.

The establishment of Movement Labs marks a new starting point for Rushi and Cooper in the blockchain field. Their team is dedicated to bringing the Move language into the EVM, driving the advancement of blockchain technology.

Rushi and Cooper's entrepreneurial story showcases their deep accumulation of technology and innovation, as well as their courage. Despite facing numerous challenges, they remain steadfast in advancing their vision, contributing to the development and application of blockchain technology through Movement Labs.

4.2 Funding Situation

Rootdata shows that Movement received investment from Binance Labs in May. In the Series A funding round, Movement secured investments from top institutions such as Polychain and Hack VC, raising a total of $38 million. This demonstrates Movement's strong capabilities and market recognition.

Source: https://www.rootdata.com/Projects/detail/Movement?k=OTMxMg%3D%3D

0 5 Summary and Outlook

Movement Labs has carved out a unique path in the fiercely competitive Ethereum L2 space and the burgeoning Move ecosystem, exploring a potential road that balances performance and ecosystem, standing out and gaining market recognition.

Movement has not only achieved a perfect combination of Move and EVM in technology but is also continuously striving to build an ecosystem that provides developers and users with a secure, efficient, and user-friendly blockchain platform.

As the infrastructure of Movement continues to improve and the ecosystem gradually builds, we look forward to Movement bringing more innovations and breakthroughs in the future, driving the development of the entire blockchain industry.