The crypto world is awash in blockchains\u2014many of which serve no discernible purpose\u2014and so when a new one comes along, I\u2019m skeptical. Yet when I spoke with Adeniyi Abiodun, one of a team of Facebook<\/a> vets who recently raised an eye-popping $300 million<\/a> for a new chain, I was intrigued.<\/p>\n Abiodun is one of five veterans of Facebook\u2019s ill-starred crypto project<\/a> who left to found Mysten Labs, a company building something called the Sui blockchain that aspires to deliver Ethereum-style capabilities but with better design and tools for scaling. According to Abiodun, it\u2019s \u201cludicrous\u201d existing blockchains (including Ethereum) become much more expensive as more people use them\u2014an inversion of the economies-of-scale model that powers Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n He describes these blockchain issues as the \u201cthroughput problem\u201d and says the Sui blockchain has solved them by the same \u201cobject-based\u201d programming that\u2019s prevalent in other computer systems, including his former employers Oracle<\/a> and Facebook, which are adept at handling millions or billions or users. I lack the computer science knowledge to offer a proper assessment, but the idea seems to be that this style of programming can eliminate transaction chokepoints\u2014and soaring blockchain fees\u2014by having activities take place in parallel across many realms. The upshot, according to Abiodun, is that the forthcoming Sui blockchain can address a surge in demand simply by adding more hardware while the cost stays the same. He says it\u2019s the blockchain equivalent of going from dial-up Internet to fiber. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Abiodun says Sui is focusing on three killer apps: finance, digital commerce, and gaming. In the case of gaming, he says Mysten Labs is exploring partnerships with South Korean game giants to build blockchain-based experiences where fun is the first priority while token economics come later. He says this would amount to a reversal of the prominent crypto game Axie Infinity<\/em>, which he derides as \u201ca spreadsheet that looks like a game.\u201d<\/p>\n I have no idea if any of this will come to pass, especially as earlier high-profile projects such as Dfinity and PolkaDot raised huge buckets of money to deliver a faster, better blockchain experience but have so far had little to show for it. But as Abiodun notes, blockchain technology has changed little over the last five years, and the market may be ready for something like Sui whose primary focus is excellent user design and whose costs decline the more people use it. We\u2019ll see. In the meantime, find our rapid roundup of the latest crypto news below.<\/p>\n Jeff John Roberts<\/strong> If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em: After criticizing FTX’s proposal to let traders cut out middlemen and post collateral directly to CME’s Bitcoin futures exchange, CME is floating a similar service of its own<\/a>.<\/p>\n The founder of Celsius Networks<\/strong> withdrew $10 million<\/a> for himself in May\u2014only weeks before the company froze customer accounts and soon after declaring bankruptcy.<\/p>\n This weekend’s F1 race<\/strong> in Singapore featured no crypto ads around the track<\/a>, likely as a result of regulatory scrutiny, though cars and drivers’ uniforms still showed the ads.<\/p>\n Solana<\/strong> suffered another major outage<\/a> late Friday night, apparently due to a faulty node.<\/p>\n Ethereum<\/strong> creator Vitalik Buterin discussed his new book of essays and the idea of decentralized governance with popular columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein<\/a>.<\/p>\n A Zillow listing<\/a> for a “Crypto House.” Your guess is as good as ours.<\/p>\n
jeff.roberts@fortune.com<\/a>
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