Why We Chose Sui Over Solana for Our DePIN

Looking
at
crypto
news
headlines,
it
would
seem
initially
that
Solana
has
firmly
established
itself
as
the
home
of
DePIN.
From
Hivemapper
to
Helium,
some
of
the
most
well-known
DePIN
projects
are
built
on
this
blockchain.
But
when
we
explored
Solana
as
a
blockchain
on
which
to
build
our
project,
something
didn’t
quite
add
up.
So,
after
getting
our
analytical
hats
on
and
running
the
requisite
due
diligence
checks,
we
decided
to
go
with
Sui
over
Solana.

This
op-ed
is
part
of
CoinDesk’s
new



DePIN
Vertical,
covering
the
emerging
industry
of
decentralized
physical
infrastructure.

The
first
thing
that
gave
us
pause
was
the
prevalence
of
outages
on
Solana.
In
2022
–
an

annus
horribilis
for
the
crypto
industry
as
a
whole
–
Solana
seemed
to
be
going
down
every
other
month.
But
even
after
the
Firedancer
validator
client
went
live
(which
was
meant
to
put
a
stop
to
any
further
outages),
the
network
still
went
down
for
nearly
five
hours
in
February
2024.
It
may
have
been
a
fluke,
but
those
odds
didn’t
fill
us
with
confidence.

On
top
of
this,
Solana
seemed
to
be
struggling
to
handle
its
own
increase
in
popularity.
Several
times
this
year,
the
network
has
become
congested
due
to
memecoin
mania,
as
well
as
Bitcoin-like
Ore
mining,
which
quickly
grew
in
popularity.
In
the
last
few
months,
X
has
been
exploding
with
users
complaining
about
transactions
failing,
as
traders
of
memecoins
like
BONK
and
WIF
flooded
the
network.
This
sort
of
frenzy
is
a
good
test
of
a
network’s
ability
to
handle
real
trading
volume
–
and
I
can’t
tell
you
with
absolute
confidence
that
a
different
blockchain
wouldn’t
struggle
–
but
for
us,
this
was
another
red
flag.

When
it
comes
to
DePIN,
and
especially
projects
like
ours,
which
handles
huge
amounts
of
data
in
real
time,
the
two
main
things
we
require
from
a
blockchain
are
reliability
and
scalability.
When
Solana
first
emerged
as
an
“Ethereum-killer,”
this
was
the
most
exciting
thing
about
it
–
its
promise
to
reliably
process
upwards
of
50,000
transactions
per
second.
In
reality,
though,
it
is
of
course
far
less
than
that
under
real-life
conditions.
For
what
we
do
at
Chirp,
that
simply
isn’t
enough.

So
for
these
main
reasons,
when
we
began
our
search
for
“the
Holy
Grail”
of
DePIN
blockchains,
we
decided
to
look
beyond
the
obvious
choice
of
Solana.
We
knew
this
meant
venturing
into
somewhat
unchartered
waters.
After
all,
among
the
bigger
and
more
established
Layer1s,
Solana
really
would
be
the
top
pick
for
speed,
as
well
as
low
transaction
costs
(which
was
another
one
of
our
key
criteria).
This
search
led
us
to
Sui
–
a
blockchain
that
went
public
on
May
3,
2023.

We
believe
Sui
truly
improves
on
the
design
of
the
blockchains
from
the
last
bull
market,
in
our
view
getting
closer
than
any
other
Layer1
to
solving
the
infamous
Blockchain
Trilemma.
It
is
cost-efficient,
decentralized
and
secure.
It
boasts
100
validators,
distributed
across
the
globe,
and
its
throughput
has
ranged
from
10,871tps
to
a
whopping
297,000tps.
I’m
an
engineer,
so
I
know
not
to
expect
the
best
performance
all
the
time
–
in
fact,
I’m
far
more
inclined
to
anticipate
the
worst
result
in
real-life
scenarios.
But
even
10,000tps
is
still
pretty
exceptional.

On
top
of
this,
Sui’s
Mysticeti
upgrade
–
which
recently
went
live
on
testnet
–
is
set
to
make
the
network
even
faster,
bringing
consensus
latency
down
80%
to
390
milliseconds
(ms).
For
those
without
the
technical
background
to
give
this
number
context,
suffice
to
say,
it’s
really
fast.
In
fact,
I
believe
this
will
make
Sui
the
fastest
blockchain
in
the
DeFi
space.
I’ll
give
credit
where
credit
is
due,
though:
Solana
already
boasts
a
consensus
latency
of
around
400ms,
so
the
difference
between
the
two
will
be
tiny.

What
Sui
does
still
hold
over
Solana,
though
–
apart
from
transaction
processing
speed
–
are
the
lower
costs
and
its
ultra-secure
programming
language,
Move.
Cost-wise,
the
average
gas
fee
on
Sui
for
the
last
30
days
is
just
0.003932633
SUI
(with
SUI
price
currently
sitting
at
around
$0.86),
while
average
fees
on
Solana
have
been
as
high
as
$0.03
at
various
points
during
recent
months.
Still
a
fraction
of
the
fees
on
Ethereum,
of
course,
but
these
things
do
add
up.

Read
more:
Max
Thake
–



DePIN:
It’s
Time
for
Crypto
to
Get
Real

Of
course,
we’re
not
quite
comparing
apples
with
apples
here.
Though
the
number
of
active
wallets
on
Sui
and
Solana
is
actually
comparable
(despite
Solana
being
a
more
established
blockchain),
Sui
hasn’t
experienced
anything
similar
to
Solana’s
memecoin
trading
frenzy.
But
we
can
only
draw
conclusions
from
the
facts
we
have
before
us,
and
so
far,
Sui’s
lower
gas
fees
have
really
helped
us
keep
a
lid
on
costs.

And
last,
but
not
least,
Sui
was
a
good
fit
because
of
the
wide
range
of
tools
it
offers
to
support
our
growing
Internet
of
Things
(IoT)
network.
For
example,
the
Sui
Name
Service
(SNS)
–
a
naming
system
that
assigns
unique
identifiers
to
blockchain
addresses
allowing
for
naming
and,
therefore,
easy
tracking
of
on-chain
IoT
devices
–
goes
a
long
way
toward
creating
a
more
transparent
and
efficient
system
of
interconnected
devices.
This
allows
us
to
achieve
our
vision
of
building
a
network
that
is
device-agnostic
to
connect
as
many
devices
to
the
blockchain
as
possible.

In
a
nutshell,
those
are
the
key
reasons
we
chose
Sui
over
Solana.
That’s
not
to
say
that
Solana
doesn’t
offer
many
of
the
attributes
required
for
a
strong
and
resilient
DePIN
network.
It’s
still
among
the
fastest
blockchains
in
the
industry
and
has
been
implementing
upgrades
like
Firedancer
that
are
designed
to
make
it
more
reliable.
It
is
also
an
established
Layer1
that
has
already
weathered
one
bear
market
(and,
in
fact,
rose
from
the
ashes
after
the
collapse
of
FTX).
So
it’s
a
solid
choice
for
future
DePIN
projects.

However,
in
an
ecosystem
that
innovates
as
quickly
as
blockchain
does,
there
will
always
be
innovative
developments
that
improve
on
existing
offerings
and
surpass
them.
We
believe
Sui
is
exactly
that
–
a
sort
of
Solana
2.0,
if
you
will.
And
if
an
early-stage
DePIN
project
comes
to
me
in
search
of
advice,
I
won’t
hesitate
to
recommend
Sui
as
the
top
choice
for
a
robust
and
scalable
network.

Note:
The
views
expressed
in
this
column
are
those
of
the
author
and
do
not
necessarily
reflect
those
of
CoinDesk,
Inc.
or
its
owners
and
affiliates.