Since the inception of Bitcoin, we have witnessed “L1 Wars”, which drove the development of cutting-edge technologies to solve the blockchain trilemma. There is always a need for highly scalable solutions, as no single solution can meet the needs of the industry while ensuring top-level security. This led to the creation of Sui and Aptos, which leveraged the architecture of Facebook's abandoned projects Diem and Novi.

Apt

Aptos Labs, led by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching (an executive from Diem/Novi), created the Aptos Blockchain to revive Diem's technology and compete with market leaders such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. Aptos is designed to provide a flexible, scalable and secure infrastructure. It leverages Diem's architecture with cutting-edge technology to ensure high throughput, low latency, and verifiable state synchronization.

Sui

Sui, developed by Mysten Labs and managed by former Facebook executives Evan Cheng and Sam Blackshear, aims to address the limitations faced by current encrypted networks in order to meet the needs of large-scale use. Unlike Aptos, Sui is not a fork of Diem, but built from the ground up to take advantage of inherent scalability and fast settlement capabilities. Sui is designed to provide high-throughput, low-latency, and affordable computing resources to meet the application needs of billions of users.

Move: Extensibility Language

Both blockchains use Move, a Rust-based programming language that enables parallel processing. The Move ecosystem includes compilers, virtual machines, and other development tools. Aptos uses the core implementation of the language, although Sui has made some minor modifications to it to better fit its architecture.

background

Move is a bytecode language for designing custom transactions and smart contracts. What sets Move apart from other languages such as Solidity is its resource management capabilities and emphasis on scarcity and access control of digital assets. Scarcity limits asset formation to reduce the risk of double spending, while access control determines ownership and asset access. Move's resource management is based on the mathematical idea of linear logic, treating assets as absolute resources that are lost forever once exhausted. This resource specificity allows safe transfer between program storage locations without implicit deletion or copying, hence the name "Move".

Sui's Move changes

While Aptos' Move largely replicates Diem's white paper, Sui adds an object-oriented storage system for tracking everything from addresses to transactions.

Sui classifies properties as objects, defined as follows:

• Shared objects: mutable, have no clear owner, and can be used without authorization in multi-party transactions.
• Owned object: Has a unique owner and can only be changed by that user.
• Read-only objects: have no unique owner, cannot be changed after publication, and are available to all users in transactions.

Sorting these assets into different domains can reduce processing and transaction times, providing scalability for NFTs, game products, and more. This is also Sui's main foundation in the NFT/gaming industry.

Consensus mechanism of Sui/Aptos

Consensus is the process of getting blockchain nodes (validators) to agree on the authenticity of transactions and blocks. Both Aptos and Sui are built on the widely recognized concept of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT). The core principle of the consensus mechanism is that even if up to 1/3 of the validators become malicious or fail, the network can still function normally.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)

The basic concepts of Byzantine Fault Tolerance are as follows:

1. A network is composed of validators, who collectively have N voting rights to decide whether to approve a new block.
2. N typically takes the value 3 F + 1 and must be able to accommodate F validators with voting rights. This means that up to F validators could be malicious, slow, disconnected, etc.
3. In each round, a leader is chosen in a random and observable manner.
4. In each cycle, the leader proposes a new block and the rest of the validators vote on it.
5. As long as there are 2 F + 1 votes from trusted validators, they can agree on a consensus choice.

Task parallelization technology

Aptos 的 Block STM

Aptos achieves parallelization through Block-STM, a modification of the high-performance HotStuff algorithm inspired by software transactional memory. Block-STM recognizes the relationship between transactions and enables parallel execution. If a transaction fails validation but has dependencies, it can be re-executed; otherwise, it is discarded. Once the dispute is resolved using the delayed commit method, all transactions in a block are committed to the blockchain at the same time. This approach saves time and resources because transactions no longer need to be processed sequentially.

Sui's Narwhal and Tusk

For complex processes, Sui adopts the consensus technique of Narwhal and Tusk in its execution layer to achieve parallelization. Narwhal is a mempool module that ensures the availability of data submitted to consensus. Narwhal's design uses a directed acyclic graph (DAG), where many of its components are connected by a network rather than a chain (similar to a distributed ledger). It can also be used standalone (without Tusk) with other consensus engines including HotStuff or Cosmos' Ignite.

1. The sender (similar to the leader node) broadcasts a transaction to all Sui validators.
2. The sender receives votes from Sui validators. Weights are distributed proportionally to validators' interest in Sui under a delegated proof-of-stake setup.
3. The sender collects votes satisfying the anti-Byzantine majority condition and creates a certificate. Validators must reach a consensus via Byzantine agreement to order the certificates in order.
4. After processing each certificate in turn, the sender sends the certificate back to the verifier one last time to complete the final confirmation of the transaction.

Sui’s transactions are connected as a network graph, rather than a series of transactions piled up sequentially in the blockchain. This DAG-based data paradigm, combined with breaking down transactions into smaller parts and exploiting their inherent properties, increases scalability. Sui's asynchronous architecture provides security against denial-of-service attacks, while Tusk, a high-performance BFT consensus process, ensures the ordering of transactions. Together, Narwhal and Tusk enable each validator to process more transactions in a given amount of time.

Product performance

Aptos: 160,000 transactions per second;

Aptos prides itself on processing 160,000 transactions per second (TPS). This achievement benefits from four key technological advances: parallel transaction execution, state synchronization, delayed commit, and cooperative scheduling.

1. Parallel transaction execution - transactions are processed in parallel and related processes are re-executed.
2. State Synchronization - Chain data can be synchronized and verified by reliable non-validators.
3. Collaborative Scheduling - Allows resource allocation of transactions to be optimized during the scheduling phase for faster processing.
4. Delayed Commit - The concept of batch-committing transactions after the block-STM process is complete.

Sui: 120,000 transactions per second and "unlimited" TPS.

An eight-core Macbook Pro can process over 120,000 transactions per second on the Sui blockchain.

This largely depends on the type of transaction, as simple transactions do not require broad consensus and allow for horizontal scaling. Sui's performance is potentially "infinite" at its maximum size. Sui nodes can continue to add workers to complete additional transactions as network needs evolve.

Applications

Both Aptos and Sui are suitable for a wide range of use cases across industries and applications.

The versatile architecture of the Aptos blockchain makes it suitable for applications in different fields. Its main goal is to decentralize the cloud infrastructure that supports Web 2.0 applications and facilitate the widespread adoption of Web 3.0. With scalability, security, and low fees, the Aptos blockchain is ideal for applications in finance, supply chain management, decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, identity management, and more. The platform's focus on solving real-world problems makes it an attractive option for developers and enterprises looking for robust and scalable blockchain solutions.

As a permissionless layer-1 blockchain, the Sui Blockchain offers instant settlement, high throughput and low latency for a variety of industries and use cases. Its focus on energy efficiency and decentralization makes Sui ideal for finance, Internet of Things (IoT), gaming, social media, content sharing, and other latency-sensitive fields. Sui's focus on supporting latency-sensitive decentralized applications makes it a strong contender in the blockchain ecosystem.

Market Performance

Aptos has received substantial funding from well-known venture capital firms, totaling approximately $400 million. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto, a16z, Tiger Global, and Multicoin Capital, among others. This strong financial backing underscores investor confidence in the Aptos project and its potential for growth and success. The participation of well-known companies not only provides financial support, but also opens the door to potential collaborations and partnerships, further strengthening Aptos' position in the market.

Sui also has strong backing from major investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Redpoint. In its latest Series B round, Sui raised an eye-popping $300 million, which, combined with the $36 million it raised in its Series A round, brings its total raised to $336 million. Huge financing and a high valuation of over US$2 billion underscore the market's interest and confidence in the Sui project. The participation of prominent investors has paved the way for strategic alliances and partnerships, contributing to Sui's growth and ecosystem development.

Additionally, both Aptos and Sui foster vibrant and active communities of developers, enthusiasts and users. These communities actively contribute to the ecosystem through app development, participating in discussions, and sharing ideas. These two platforms foster innovation, collaboration and adoption in a community-driven manner, creating a strong ecosystem for Aptos and Sui.

Concluding Thoughts

Although it is unclear which solution will be the winner to dominate the market, Aptos and Sui have made significant progress in their development, greatly advancing the current state of blockchain design. Aptos gained market share by entering the market relatively early and attracting a lot of attention, while Sui benefited from its innovative and security-focused approach. One thing is certain: with its enormous potential to improve the scalability and security of encrypted networks, Move-based technology is destined to have a lasting impact on the industry.