Exclusive Interview with Movement Founder Rushi Collaborating with NTHU to Train Developers Mobile Devices and Gen Z Are Key to Widespread Adoption

In last week’s Binance Blockchain event, Chain News conducted an exclusive interview with Rushi Manche, the founder of the modular blockchain project Movement Labs. We discussed the origins, mission, and beliefs of Movement, touching on technical issues such as why they chose stake roll-up. We also talked about some Easter eggs in the testnet, and inquired about more details regarding their collaboration with Tsinghua University and future development directions.

Origin of Movement: Integrating the Advantages of EVM, Move, and Ethereum

The interview was held in the media room at the main venue, Coca-Cola Arena. We first talked about Rushi’s previous experience with the Move language, and asked about his impressions of the main languages concerning developer experience (DX).

Neo: You founded the educational project Ensemble and worked at Aptos. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your journey? How did you come across the Move language, and what led you to create Movement?

Rushi: Yes, I was an early Move engineer. I initially worked in network security for distributed systems. I have always been interested in Rust programming and enjoyed working in the Rust environment. In August 2022, I started building applications using Move and established the first decentralized exchange (DEX) on Aptos. Then in November 2022, we wanted to bring the Move language and its development experience to Ethereum, so we founded Movement. Movement is a combination of EVM, Move, and Ethereum, integrating the advantages of these platforms.

Neo: Some say that Solana’s development experience is not as good as EVM, while the Move language is more developer-friendly. As a developer, can you share your experience?

Rushi: I believe EVM has two main characteristics. The Move language places great emphasis on security, as more than $4.5 billion is lost to hackers each year, and Move focuses on security and stability. Additionally, we emphasize parallelism and high-throughput execution, which can avoid state conflicts between transactions.

(altVM or Next-Gen VM? An article analyzing why Movement founder Rushi is so fascinated with altVM)

Why Do Other Projects Peak at Airdrop? Rushi: The Key Lies in the Cohesion of Community Belief

We then asked Rushi why he chose stake roll-up, which differs from mainstream practices. At the same time, we were curious about how Movement plans to attract users and escape the fate of decline after airdrops.

Neo: Unlike typical zk-rollups or optimistic rollups, Movement uses stake roll-up, seemingly borrowing from the staking mechanisms of Proof of Stake or oracles. Can you explain the concept of stake roll-up? Why choose stake roll-up instead of zk or optimistic?

Rushi: Actually, it is a type of optimistic rollup, but we have what we call pre-confirmation or post-confirmation mechanisms. This way, some transactions on Layer 2 can achieve fast finality, completing transactions in seconds compared to the traditional need for hours or even days for confirmation.

Author’s note: The concept of pre-confirmations is where transactions are temporarily confirmed by nodes before being officially added to the block on-chain. Through this mechanism, users can pay extra fees to ensure their transactions will be executed in the next block. If proposers fail to fulfill their promises (pre-confirmed transactions are not executed), they may be penalized. This mechanism is not only applicable to L1 transactions but can also provide the same pre-confirmation guarantees for L2 transactions.

Neo: There are already hundreds of Layer 2 solutions in the market, many of which go silent after airdrops. How does Movement stand out? How does it continue to develop its ecosystem after airdrops?

Rushi: We have a community that truly supports Movement and believes in the system. Because we use MoveVM, we have many developers and applications that cannot be found on other EVM or Ethereum platforms. Movement aims to make an impact and promote active ecosystem development.

Neo: Movement combines the Move language and EVM, which seems more like attracting developers. What features does Movement have to attract users?

Rushi: There are two key points. First is security, where Movement protects DeFi applications and on-chain users from hacker attacks. Second is speed, with low gas fees and efficient transaction experiences, similar to using Solana and Aptos.

Imagine the Security of Move Combined with the Stability of Ethereum and the User Experience of Solana

Neo: As a Sui enthusiast, I am looking forward to the goals of Movement. The next question is, the testnet seems to have a storyline with roles like creators and explorers, which is interesting. Can you share the reason for this design?

Rushi: Yes, most testnets are boring with only single functions. Our testnet is like a game, a full-chain MMO where you can try different applications, use different testnet features, earn rewards and points, and even compete with friends. You can see it as a game where you can form guilds and gain different relics, which help in your development.

Neo: So it’s kind of like a social game? Rushi: Yes.

Neo: There are also several cross-chain dApps on the testnet. How does Movement’s structure integrate with cross-chain?

Rushi: We have support from LayerZero, providing cross-chain transfer capabilities and built-in cross-chain bridging. We believe in a multi-chain universe, so we have a shared sequencer to unify state and support cross-rollup and all bridging functions.

Neo: According to the documents, Movement combines the security of Move and the compatibility of Ethereum. What is your vision for Movement? In other words, what problem does Movement solve?

Rushi: Movement is the fastest and most secure Layer 2. Currently, Ethereum EVM Layer 2 is somewhat dull and slow, but Movement wants to be the fastest and most secure Layer 2 on Ethereum. EVM is currently not as good as Solana, so we want to bring Solana’s user experience to Ethereum.

Mass Adoption Will Explode from Gen Z, Movement Breaks the Circle with Mobile Devices

We then discussed the common industry issue with Rushi, the lack of breakout topics like NFTs, and how the overall market has become an internal capital PVP. For this problem, Rushi provided relatively specific and already-in-progress solutions. We also talked about the meme coin topic that has emerged with Movement, which I think has a significant correlation with the Gen Z mentioned by Rushi.

Neo: Currently, Web3 faces a lot of infrastructure but lacks new themes to attract Web2 capital. What kind of applications do you think can attract new users? Additionally, what is the most promising large-scale application on Movement?

Rushi: I believe the key to large-scale applications lies in serving consumers. Movement focuses on mobile applications, such as Up Phone, a DePin phone that allows users to support on-chain activities with dedicated mobile devices. Additionally, we have Sentiment, a wristband-like on-chain interactive device, along with many social and consumer applications. I believe the next wave of popularization will come from Gen Z, such as users on platforms like webtoon, TikTok, and Instagram.

UP Network Sells Phones with Lies? Movement Co-founder Exposes No Promises of Airdrops (Article Deleted)

Neo: I thought of SocialFi Movewiffrens, which is like Twitter on Movement.

Rushi: Absolutely correct.

Neo: Many people are discussing meme coins now. What are your thoughts on meme coins and their relationship with Movement? I just saw the first meme coin on Movement, Courage Dog, this morning.

Rushi: I think meme coins will be very popular on Movement because our transaction fees are cheap and fast, while also having Ethereum’s authority. Courage and Nova are among the first meme coins in the market, and more meme coins will be launched in the future.

Collaboration with Taiwan’s Tsinghua University to Cultivate Movers, Future Focus on Asia

Finally, we talked about several recent collaborations of Movement, particularly the partnership with Taiwan’s Tsinghua University. We also discussed the specific areas and routes Movement will focus on subsequently.

Neo: Recently, Movement collaborated with Gate to set up a fund. Can you introduce the main investment directions of this fund?

Rushi: We mainly invest in the Move ecosystem, including DeFi applications, lending applications, DePin applications, etc. We will invest heavily to meet these needs.

Neo: Movement announced a collaboration with Taiwan’s Tsinghua University. Can you share the background story of this collaboration? Or, how did this collaboration start?

Rushi: Both Cooper (Cooper Scanlon, co-founder of Movement Labs; the two met at Vanderbilt University) and I were part of Movement in college. One of our goals is to help more students and young people enter the crypto field. We work with developers from Tsinghua University to help them learn and develop the Move language, while also assisting the company in launching accelerator and incubator projects.

Neo: When this collaboration was announced, I happened to be at Tsinghua, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Rushi: Oh, really? Are you a student at Tsinghua?

Neo: No, but I was at a friend’s place then.

Neo: Finally, is there any particular region Movement wants to focus on in the future? For example, Aptos and Sui both have connections to the Asian region, and Movement also sponsored last month’s Korea Blockchain Week.

Rushi: We will particularly focus on Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Mainland China.

Neo: It was great to explore the vision of Movement with you; it was a very valuable conversation! Thank you very much! I hope to see you again soon and “Move to the Moon” together.