When we think about DePIN platforms, Solana often comes to mind as a top choice. Many well-known DePIN projects like Hivemapper and Helium are built on Solana, making it seem like the obvious choice. However, after digging deeper into Solana, we found some concerning issues that led us to choose Sui instead.
One major concern was the frequent outages on Solana. Throughout 2022, Solana experienced multiple incidents where the network went down, causing disruptions for users. Even after implementing the Firedancer validator client to prevent future outages, the network still went down for nearly five hours in February 2024. This lack of reliability made us hesitant to build our project on Solana.
Additionally, Solana struggled to handle its growing popularity, leading to network congestion. With the rise of memecoin trading and Ore mining similar to Bitcoin, Solana faced challenges with processing transactions efficiently. This congestion resulted in users experiencing failed transactions and delays, highlighting scalability issues that were a red flag for us.
For our DePIN project, reliability and scalability are crucial factors when choosing a blockchain. While Solana initially promised high transaction speeds, the reality fell short of expectations. This led us to explore other options beyond Solana’s popularity. Our search led us to Sui, a blockchain that launched publicly on May 3, 2023.
Sui impressed us with its improvements in blockchain design, addressing the Blockchain Trilemma by offering cost-efficiency, decentralization, and security. With 100 validators distributed globally, Sui achieved impressive throughput ranging from 10,871tps to 297,000tps. The recent Mysticeti upgrade on Sui’s testnet further enhances network speed, reducing consensus latency to 390ms.
In comparison to Solana, Sui stands out for its lower costs and ultra-secure programming language, Move. The average gas fees on Sui are significantly lower than Solana’s fees, helping us manage costs effectively. Sui’s focus on supporting IoT networks with tools like the Sui Name Service (SNS) also aligns with our project’s goals of creating a transparent and efficient interconnected device network.
While Solana remains a solid choice for DePIN projects, we believe Sui offers innovative advancements that make it a superior option. Sui’s lower costs, faster transaction speeds, and robust tools for IoT networks make it a compelling choice for our project. As blockchain technology continues to evolve rapidly, Sui represents a new and improved version of Solana, making it our top recommendation for early-stage DePIN projects seeking a reliable and scalable network.