Sui & Move Overview

Move is the secure and resource-oriented programming language for building on the Sui blockchain. It’s designed to manage digital assets safely and efficiently, giving developers fine-grained control over how assets are created, transferred, and stored.

Originally developed by Meta for Diem, Move was adopted and evolved by Mysten Labs to power Sui, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain built for speed, scalability, and smart contract safety.

Unlike traditional programming languages that treat data like generic variables, Move introduces a new concept: resources. In Move, resources are first-class citizens; they can’t be copied or accidentally dropped.

module 0x0::TokenExample {
    use std::signer;
 
    struct Token has key {
        value: u64
    }
 
    public fun create(account: &signer, amount: u64) {
        move_to(account, Token { value: amount });
    }
 
    public fun get_value(addr: address): u64 acquires Token {
        borrow_global<Token>(addr).value
    }
}

This is cool because assets like NFTs or tokens are handled with cryptographic-level safety.

Instead of garbage collection or manual memory management, Move uses ownership and move semantics. Each value in Move has exactly one owner at a time, and when that value is moved, the original reference becomes invalid.

This avoids double-spends and dangling references—two common bugs in smart contract development.

Sui Move Extends on Move

Sui Move is a variant of Move (different from the original version). Sui Move extends the core Move language with new features like object-centric programming.

On Sui, everything is treated as an object with a unique ID—a coin, a smart contract, or a game item. These objects live on-chain and can be passed between users, upgraded, or mutated using Move functions called entry functions.

module sui_example::token {
    use sui::object::{Self, UID};
    use sui::transfer;
    use sui::tx_context::{Self, TxContext};
 
    struct Token has key, store {
        id: UID,
        value: u64
    }
 
    public entry fun create(value: u64, ctx: &mut TxContext) {
        let token = Token {
            id: object::new(ctx),
            value
        };
        transfer::public_transfer(token, tx_context::sender(ctx));
    }
}

To get started with Sui Move, install the Sui CLI and initialize a new project with sui move new. Write your modules in .move files and define structs, functions, and resources.

Use the entry keyword to declare public entry points for your smart contracts. Then compile your code with sui move build and test it locally before deploying.

Sui Move has a powerful standard library and frameworks for handling complex operations, from capability-based access control to programmable transactions.

You’re ready to build a secure, asset-centric smart contract on one of the fastest blockchains. That’s Sui Move in 100 seconds.