A former Facebook developer dreams of sending money by email using the Sui blockchain.

When four former Facebook engineers started Mysten Labs two years ago, one of their motivations was to complete the work they started while working at the social media giant started by Mark Zuckerberg.

The task involved finding a way to send money or cryptocurrency over the Internet, something as simple and basic as the most basic online communication.

“Our goal while at Facebook was to make sending money as easy as sending an email.” Mysten Labs Co-Founder Adenii birthday In an interview with The Block, he said: That dream birthday What was not a reality for Facebook (now Meta) may finally be a reality thanks to Sui, a layer 1 blockchain created by Mysten Labs.

Remove complexity from cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency believers form a vibrant community, but for some startups, especially unicorns like Mysten Labs, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars, adoption rates and onboarding new customers have been slower than expected.

Some companies, such as Mysten Labs, predict that making it easier for people to use cryptocurrencies is the ultimate solution.

“We have been able to develop technology that effectively allows anyone in the world to send money around the world using a standard Web2 ID,” he said. birthday, Mysten Labs added that through the Sui blockchain, they have found a way for people to send money to each other without having to have a cryptocurrency wallet. He said this was made possible in part through a verification system developed by Mysten Labs called “zkLogin.”

“It is the chain that performs the verification using two zero-knowledge proofs,” he added. “This means that any application in the world can effectively use Sui as a mechanism for transferring assets around the world without worrying about the complexities of cryptocurrency.”

Complexity has been a major obstacle.

People’s concerns about these complexities have become a major obstacle preventing widespread adoption of blockchain-enabled applications that would allow more people to send money cheaply and securely around the world. birthday.

According to his estimates, there are about 16 million active cryptocurrency wallets worldwide, while more than 5 billion people use web2 accounts online.

“The idea that as a user you have to download a wallet or buy gas every day (to transfer funds using cryptocurrency) is ridiculous. You have killed 99.9% of the world.” birthday said.

Moody’s said this week that Ethereum, like Sui, is layer 1 but “remains the dominant force” among public blockchains. “Speed, scalability and security issues have delayed adoption.”

Mysten Labs doesn’t seem to be the only company that believes it should be easier to buy and sell cryptocurrencies or send and receive funds using blockchain applications. Recently, a number of companies have announced new plans to make cryptocurrencies more accessible to consumers. Old school PayPal announced several new plans, and this week digital wallet provider Giddy announced: integrated Stripe aims to “make cryptocurrency more accessible to the general public.”

Coinbase, the largest U.S. exchange, last week launched a way for users to: You can transfer money to each other by sending a link through messaging apps like WhatsApp or social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

Avoid closed-loop systems

Coinbase’s initiative could help drive further adoption, but the Mysten Labs founder said it’s the type of centralized system that Facebook is trying to develop and that Sui wants to avoid. birthday.

“The problem they have is that it’s a closed-loop system. You have to participate in the Coinbase ecosystem and you have to be willing to participate in the Coinbase wallet,” he said. birthday “What we’re saying here is that you don’t need a wallet that’s not closed loop.”

Mysten Labs’ hope is that the use of Sui will expand exponentially as more and more companies and applications build on top of Sui. “We are not interested in creating apps that dominate the ecosystem.” birthday

Sui is considered an open standard. In other words, anyone can build on blockchain.

Corporate value exceeds $2 billion

Layer 1 space is particularly competitive, but Miss Teen Lab It was a huge success in terms of funding. Last September, the company closed a $300 million funding round at a valuation of more than $2 billion.

Mysten Labs backers are some of the largest VCs in the space, including Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z cryptocurrency unit, Jump Crypto, Apollo, Binance Labs, Franklin Templeton, and Coinbase Ventures.

furthermore Abiodun, Other former Facebook engineers who make up the original core of Mysten Labs include its CEO; Evan Cheng, Sam Blackshear and George Danezis. They founded the company in 2021.

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