Aptos and Sui Ecosystem Development

The Sui and Aptos ecosystems were launched last year, marking a significant milestone in the world of blockchain and decentralized finance.

Sui and Aptos have been well-received since their launch, with a growing community of users and developers attracted to their robust features and capabilities. Their launch last year has undoubtedly contributed to the ongoing evolution and growth of the blockchain and DeFi space.

In this article, we will review the dynamics of change and development of these ecosystems, as well as compare their existing metrics and market performance.

Launch overview

Aptos and Sui are two blockchain ecosystems built using the Move programming language, which was initially created as part of Facebook’s Libra project. The language is designed to enable secure and efficient global financial transactions and has evolved to facilitate the writing of secure smart contracts for a wide variety of applications.

Aptos at the moment of launch:

• Aptos was created by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, former Meta employees. After three years of research and development, the Aptos mainnet launched on October 17th, 2022.
• Aptos Labs, led by CEO Shaikh and CTO Ching, secured over $350 million in fundraising from Web3-focused funds like Andreessen Horowitz. The company actively distributes capital as grants to different projects on the network.
• Several innovative projects chose to build on the Aptos blockchain, leveraging its scalable and efficient infrastructure. Martian and Pontem are two projects developed on Aptos, the former’s being a self-custodial wallet for Aptos, while the latter aspires to build a scalable, user-friendly platform for dApps. Aptos Bridge, a project that enables seamless asset transfers between different blockchains, adds to the ecosystem’s interoperability. Topaz, although lacking specific details about its functionality, is a project that exists on the Aptos platform.
• The Aptos token (APT) was released following the mainnet launch with an initial total supply of 1 billion. Over 20 million APT was airdropped to 110,235 Aptos participants, with no indication of a second airdrop.

Sui at the moment of launch:

• Developed by Mysten Labs and created by former Meta employees who worked on the Libra project, Sui is built on the Move programming language with an entirely new foundation. The mainnet was set to launch in the second quarter of 2023 (May 3rd).
• Sui Labs, under the leadership of CEO Doe and CTO Smith, managed to secure over $400 million in funding, with a company valuation of over $2 billion. Prominent venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, FTX Ventures, and Binance participated in investment rounds.
• The Sui ecosystem hosts several innovative projects. SuiSwap, a decentralized exchange, allows swift, low-fee trading of SUI tokens and other digital assets. SuiNFT, a platform for NFT creation and trading, is known for its user-friendly interface and unique digital art. SuiFi, a DeFi platform, provides services like lending, borrowing, and yield farming, attracting many users and enhancing the SUI token’s liquidity and utility.
• Following the launch of the mainnet, the Sui token (SUI) was released with an initial total supply of 1.5 billion. Over 30 million SUI was airdropped to 150,000 Sui participants, with no plans for a second airdrop currently announced.

Complete overview on Aptos and Sui ecosystems may be found in previous articles from 3x Capital:

-?Aptos Ecosystem Overview

-?Sui Ecosystam Overview

Post-launch journey

Developers play a crucial role in the growth and success of new blockchain ecosystems. Their continuous innovation and problem-solving efforts help to expand the capabilities of the blockchain, attract more users, and ultimately determine the long-term sustainability and success of the ecosystem.

The significance of a community of developers cannot be overstated, as it plays a pivotal role in shaping and driving the growth, innovation, and sustainability of any ecosystem.

Aptos:

Knowing that Aptos mainnet happened on October 17th, 2022, we observe a significant decline in overall development activity even before the launch, with a peak occurring in September 2022.

During this period, the Aptos core team spearheaded the majority of development work, demonstrating their commitment and dedication to the project. However, following the successful mainnet launch, the involvement of other external parties witnessed a rapid decline.

The next peak happened after Aptos Unity SDK appeared, which enabled a .NET implementation of the Aptos SDK, compatible with .NET Standard 2.0 and .NET 4.x for Unity. The goal of this SDK is to provide a set of tools for developers to build multi-platform applications (mobile, desktop, web, VR) using the Unity game engine and the Aptos blockchain infrastructure.

As we can see from the chart, social engagement also fell after the launch. Only going up after a big update in the ecosystem — Unity SDK.

Sui:

We can take a look on the same metrics from SUI. However, even considering that Sui is less than 2 months in the mainnet and its hard to make any assumptions, we can already see a strong correlation between Sui and Aptos. Which can be explained by technical proximity and overall sentiment around projects.

Much like Aptos, the Sui blockchain project also witnessed a similar trend in development activity. However, Sui distinguished itself by attracting a higher involvement of external developers during its development phase. This wider participation indicates that the project was able to draw a more diverse pool of talent, potentially bringing in a wider range of perspectives and expertise to strengthen the project.

Despite this promising start, however, the aftermath of the Sui mainnet launch saw the involvement of these external developers dwindling down, reaching near-extinction levels. This pattern is quite similar to what was observed with Aptos, indicating a broader trend in the blockchain development landscape.

Summary

It is clear that both Sui and Aptos are not showing great results in terms of rapid ecosystem development. And here are some reasons:

1. Solana problem:?Aptos and Sui were entering the market as a “Solana Killers”. But, it seems that they have fallen into the same trap as Solana, which was “Ethereum Killer”. However, lack of technical development and community support had shown its results
2. Lack of new and prominent projects:?the deeper look in the ecosystems will show that majority of projects developed are not creating new solutions. They are creating needed basic infrastructure for the ecosystem.
3. Developers money rush:?Developers are looking forward to receive as much as they can. That is why young ecosystems as Aptos or Sui, who are eager to onboard experienced teams to develop their ecosystem with incentives of grants or paychecks. However, as soon as support from ecosystem will be weakened, the commitment of teams will follow.

The post-launch journey of blockchain projects Aptos and Sui reveals interesting insights into developer engagement trends. Both experienced an initial surge of development activity that peaked shortly before their respective mainnet launches, with Aptos’s mainnet going live on October 17, 2022, and Sui following suit a little later.

Overall, despite early promise, both Aptos and Sui are currently facing challenges regarding ecosystem development, attributed to factors such as lofty comparisons, lack of innovation, and the transitory loyalty of developers. Future success will hinge on addressing these issues and fostering sustained engagement from the development community.

Author: Viacheslav Y.