A clash between blockchain companies Aptos and Sui at the MoveCon conference

Competition between well-known cryptocurrency projects is increasing.

Both Aptos and Sui come from the Diem and Libra projects that were supposed to build a cryptocurrency for Meta (Facebook). These are identical blockchains based on the same Move programming language.

Both ecosystems are currently competing with each other to become the market leader and displace the competitor. At ETHDenver, one of this year's biggest events in the digital currency industry, the strong tensions between the Aptos and Sui ecosystems became public.

The creators of the Pontem Network project, which is building a crypto wallet and liquidswap trading platform on the Aptos blockchain, hosted the MoveCon conference, which was held as a sideEvent to the main ETHDenver event. The main topic of the event was, as the name suggests, the Move language, which Facebook engineers developed in the past for Diem.

Initially, the Pontem team claimed that their conference was dedicated to both Move language ecosystems. For this reason, Sui representatives were also invited. “We are currently gathering the biggest projects from Aptos, Sui and the rest of the ecosystem for a three-day blockchain conference that is dedicated to Move language,” Pontem representatives wrote in a February 14 post about the event.

According to people familiar with the matter, Pontem asked Sui Foundation participants to leave. It turned out that Aptos was behind the hit on Pontem to "get rid of" Sui, even though some of the founders of the project confirmed their presence at the conference.

Sui representatives expelled from conference

A representative of Aptos said that the organization had absolutely no influence on the selection of Pontem speakers or the organization of the conference. Pontem founder Alejo Pinto declined to comment.

"The Sui Foundation is unable to attend MoveCon, March 3-5," stated Brian Hsieh, Head of Developer Relations. "The host has informed us that we are no longer invited."

Sam Blackshear, the father of the Move programming language and Sui Network CTO, posted on social media that he has been informed that Aptos intends to put pressure on Pontem Network and remove the Sui Foundation from the list of organizers of community events in the future. Sam Blackshear said, "At Mysten Labs, when I make decisions about the Move project, I put aside my role at Mysten and focus solely on what's best for Move and the long-term health of its community. Industry development, inclusion, curiosity and gratitude are important values at Move, so when people spend a lot of time preparing speeches and traveling to conferences, we should welcome them, listen to them and thank them, rather than canceling invitations at the last minute.”