Movement Labs Raises $38M For Rollup Based on Facebook’s Move Language

Rushi Manche, age 21, and Cooper Scanlon, 24, dropped out of Vanderbilt University to establish Movement Labs. Their goal is to make blockchain security appealing through the introduction of Movement L2, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain built on the Move programming philosophy.

I discovered my fascination with Move a few years back while I was still in college. An intriguing article I came across detailed Facebook’s initiatives in the blockchain sector.

In an interview, Manche stated that the industry has historically placed little emphasis on security. Instead, we seem desensitized to high-profile cyber attacks, such as those costing $100 million or $20 million, when in fact, these incidents pose significant risks for retail businesses.

Move, well recognized for its collaboration with Aptos and Sui, two emerging layer-1 blockchains delivering affordability and swiftness in transactions, is planning to broaden its technology’s scope by integrating it with an Ethereum layer-2 solution. This second-layer blockchain processes data onto Ethereum while ensuring faster and more cost-effective transactions. The Move team aims to surpass the security and transaction speed benchmarks set by current layer-2 market leaders through this expansion.

During Movement’s funding round, several venture capital firms joined in as investors. Among them were Hack VC, Placeholder, Archetype, Maven 11, Robot Ventures, Figment Capital, Nomad Capital, Bankless Ventures, OKX Ventures, dao5, and Aptos Labs – the entity behind Aptos.

From 2022 to 2023, smart contracts were targeted by hackers who managed to steal over $5.4 billion. Notable victims included Curve and KyberSwap, which fell prey to frequent reentrancy attacks. According to Movement, their EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) empowers Move and Solidity developers to deploy code that undergoes real-time verification, thereby thwarting potential threats like reentrancy attacks.

Using embedded firmware application runtime, we can prevent 90% or more of potential attacks. Manche explained this to CoinDesk. Additionally, Move employs parallelization, a technique that handles multiple activity streams concurrently, as utilized in Solana and Move-based chains for enhanced transaction processing speed. This fusion of swiftness and security creates an exceptionally robust Virtual Machine (VM), according to Manche.

Meta’s foray into blockchain technology with the announcement of their cryptocurrency “Libra” (later renamed “Diem”) in 2019, stood out due to Move, an open-source programming language developed by Meta based on Rust. The intention was to streamline and secure the coding process for Diem’s blockchain using Move.

In August 2022, my colleague and I were both students at Vanderbilt University. While we were immersed in our college studies, an intriguing article caught my eye. The headline read: “Facebook is developing a novel programming language.” Reflecting on that period, I can recall the sense of excitement I felt as I read further. However, at that time, my go-to technologies were Cosmos and the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Yet, there weren’t many users adopting these tools, and the overall usage volume was quite low.

I noticed that Facebook, the leading consumer application, was making a move towards blockchain technology. They announced a fresh endeavor with new terminology and virtual machine. Intrigued, I decided to delve deeper into their plans.

Despite Meta abandoning its virtual currency projects due to regulatory interference, some of its staff members departed to establish the blockchain companies Aptos and Sui based in the Bay Area.

Prior to stumbling upon Move, Manche recounts his college days spent exploring cryptocurrencies, primarily within the Cosmos blockchain community. It was Cooper who initiated their collaborative efforts with Move – constructing a yield aggregator specifically for Aptos as their inaugural project.

At just the legal drinking age, Manche shares that their young age raised concerns among investors during their fundraising journey. Initially, they faced skepticism as investors questioned, “Who are these young individuals? What are they capable of achieving? Can we put our trust in them?” according to Manche.

Manche expressed his belief that he and Cooper have developed a strong bond of trust over the years due to our leadership positions in our respective categories. Our significant progress in development and community growth has been a key factor in this trust-building process. Initially, concerns about our age were a cause for hesitation, but now there is widespread optimism.

I’ve had the privilege of observing the pioneering work of Aptos and Sui as they were the initial ones to put Move through its paces in a real-world context. And it’s fascinating to note that Movement Labs is leading the charge by introducing Meta’s Move technology to a layer-2 network on Ethereum. This innovative network will be capable of accommodating programs coded using either Move or Solidity, Ethereum’s established programming language.

I, Manche, stated that Movement Level 2 would stand out as one of the initial major L2s focusing on decentralization and utilizing decentralized sequencers right from the beginning.

The Movement L2 will enter its testnet phase this summer.