Sui is a layer-1, proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. 

The Sui platform was developed by Mysten Labs, a Web3 infrastructure group which was co-founded by five ex-Meta engineers. 

The Sui blockchain is designed to support immediate settlements, claims to allow infinite scalability through the use of parallel agreements, and aims to become an attractive platform for mainstream developers building in the Web3 space.

As per Sui’s official website in May 2023, the project foresees three major use-cases for its blockchain: gaming, peer-to-peer payments, and allowing creators and users to verify and own social content.

All Sui smart contracts are written in ‘Move’,  a user-friendly programming language which was originally developed at Facebook by some of Sui’s founders to power the Diem blockchain.

Rival blockchain Aptos also uses the Move programming language.

The Sui mainnet launched on May 3rd, 2023 at 12 pm UTC.

SUI - in their own words

The blockchain was named after the water element in Japanese philosophy, swē. Their website explains that ‘the power of the sui element lies in its fluidity—its ability to easily adapt to and transform any environment’ - and that ‘similarly, the Sui platform seeks to provide a flexible network that you can leverage to shape the web3 landscape’. 

Sui’s marketing material places considerable emphasis on the idea of ownership - Sui bills itself as an ‘innovative, decentralized Layer 1 blockchain that redefines asset ownership’.

It boasts of ‘infinite scalability’, claiming that the blockchain’s use of horizontal scaling allows fees to stay low even as demand increases or spikes. 

The blockchain’s speed is heavily marketed too - Sui’s use of ‘parallel processing’ allows straightforward transactions such as asset transfers to ‘finalize in real-time, without sacrificing security’.

Sui also promotes its ‘novel’ ‘object-centric’ model, which supposedly makes the blockchain more efficient, and allows digital assets to ‘live on-chain and outside of smart contracts’. 

The blockchain’s security, speed, and ease of use for developers and users alike, are all emphasized. 

SUI token utility?

SUI is the blockchain’s native asset, and its supply is capped at 10 billion tokens. 

It has four major use cases:

• Staking: users can stake SUI to participate in the proof-of-stake mechanism
• Gas fees
• All on-chain transactions
• Governance

For more information about Sui, check out their official documentation.