The Ultimate Guide to the Move Programming Language (2025)

Move Has Become An Increasingly Popular Blockchain Programming Language

The Move programming language has emerged as a powerful force in blockchain development, offering unique features and capabilities that make it particularly well-suited for creating secure and efficient smart contracts. Today, Move is used by a variety of popular blockchains, including Sui, Aptos, Supra, Movement Network, Starcoin, and 0L Network. As of early February 2025, these blockchains had a combined market cap of over $18 billion. 

This comprehensive guide will explore everything you need to know about Move, from its core concepts to practical applications and future developments.

What is the Move Programming Language?

Move is a specialized programming language designed specifically for blockchain development, primarily focusing on security, efficiency, and digital asset management. Initially developed for Facebook’s Libra/Diem blockchain project, Move has since evolved into a versatile language adopted by several major blockchain platforms, including Aptos and Sui.

The History of the Move Programming Language

The Move programming language was created by the Diem Association, a group of companies led by Facebook, initially to support the Libra stablecoin project. The Diem/Libra project aimed to provide a global digital currency backed by a basket of major currencies and government debt instruments, like U.S. Treasury Bonds.

However, this ambitious approach drew significant regulatory scrutiny due to concerns over monetary sovereignty and financial stability, as the government and other corporations felt that Facebook would gain too much power over the global financial system. As a result, the Diem Association shifted its strategy to launch a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin in partnership with Silvergate Bank.

Finally, due to increasing criticism, the Diem project was canceled in 2022. However, Move’s development continued. Sam Blackshear, the creator of Move, who would later go on to found Mysten Labs, the organization behind the Sui blockchain, designed Move with a focus on safe and efficient coding practices, reinforcing its foundational design principles of ownership and scarcity.

Blockchains That Use Move

Sui

Sui was founded in 2021 by Evan Cheng and a team including individuals such as Sam Blackshear, Adeniyi Abiodun, and George Danezis, who created a new entity, Mysten Labs, to develop the Sui blockchain. Like Aptos, Sui was inspired by Facebook’s (now Meta’s) discontinued Diem/Libra blockchain and stablecoin project, with which all of the core founders were heavily involved. Like Diem, Supra, and Aptos, Sui launched its mainnet in May 2023.  

Aptos

Aptos was founded in 2021 by Mohammad Shaikh and Avery Ching to create a more democratized and scalable blockchain network. Aptos was inspired by Facebook’s (now Meta’s) discontinued Diem/Libra blockchain and stablecoin project, with which both Shaikh and Ching were heavily involved. Like Diem/Libra (and Supra). Aptos launched its mainnet in October 2022.   

Supra

Supra was established in 2018 by a team that includes current CEO Joshua Tobkin and Chief Business Officer Jon Jones. Originally known as SupraOracles, the company focused on building a cutting-edge blockchain oracle solution. In 2023, it rebranded as Supra to reflect its expanded mission of launching a groundbreaking, fully integrated Layer-1 blockchain. This new platform incorporates native oracles, verifiable random function services, automation, and trustless cross-chain bridging. Among the prominent members of Supra’s research team is Aniket Kate, a key contributor to Ethereum 2.0 and co-creator of KZG Commitments (also known as Kate Commitments).

Movement

The Movement Blockchain was first created by Movement Labs, an organization co-founded in 2022 by Vanderbilt University dropouts Cooper Scanlon and Rushi Manche. Scanlon and Manche say that their mission is to democratize and decentralize the growth of the Move programming language, making it accessible to a wide array of developers and applications. 

Under their leadership, Movement Labs has successfully raised significant funding, including a $38 million Series A round, to advance their vision of integrating the Move Virtual Machine with Ethereum and enhancing blockchain scalability and security. 

We should note that, unlike the other blockchains on this list, Movement is not a pure Layer-1 blockchain but is a Layer-2 blockchain on Ethereum. 

Starcoin

Starcoin was established in 2018, predating the announcement of the Libra/Diem project, and integrated the Move programming language in Q4 2019. 

The network is developed by Hong Kong-based Westar Labs and managed by the Starcoin Foundation, which operates under the oversight of the Governing Council. The most prominent figure representing Starcoin is Tim Yang, CEO and co-founder of Westar Labs and former deputy head of R&D at Weibo.

0L

0L stands out among Move-based blockchains as a unique, community-driven initiative. Unlike others, it operates without a formal team listed on its website, a foundation, or venture capital backing. Instead, 0L relies on decentralized governance and contributions from a diverse group of volunteers, including former Meta engineers. 

Despite its grassroots approach, the project has notable connections to the blockchain community. One prominent figure associated with 0L is Zaki Manian, co-founder of Sommelier Finance and Iqlusion, a former director at Tendermint Labs, and a key contributor to Cosmos. The 0L Network launched in October 2021.

Core Features and Components of Move

Key Features

1. Resource-Oriented Programming

At the heart of Move’s design philosophy is the concept of resources. Resources are core constructs that represent digital assets like currencies or NFTs. These resources have specific properties that ensure:

• Assets cannot be copied
• Assets cannot be implicitly discarded
• Clear ownership and transfer rules
• Scarcity preservation

2. Safety and Verification

Move incorporates robust security features that make it particularly suitable for financial applications. These include:

• Built-in support for formal verification
• Mathematical proof capabilities for contract correctness
• Comprehensive bytecode verification before deployment

3. Strong Static Typing

The language implements a robust type system that helps prevent common programming errors and security vulnerabilities. Key aspects include:

• Compile-time type checking
• Prevention of type confusion
• Reduction of runtime errors

Core Components

1. Modules

Modules serve as the primary organizational unit in Move. Move programs are organized into modules that share resources and functionality, promoting code reuse and facilitating upgrades. This modular design enhances the overall development workflow by allowing independent verification of code modules. A Move source file can contain multiple modules and scripts, enabling developers to organize their code effectively.

Modules act as libraries defining types and functions for managing Move’s global storage. This structure lets developers manage and transfer assets efficiently, enhancing Move’s programming flexibility.

Modules contain:

• Related functions
• Struct definitions
• Constants
• Access control rules

2. Scripts

Scripts are used for one-time execution logic, typically handling:

• Transaction-specific operations
• Temporary computational needs
• Interaction with modules

Development Environment and Tools

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

Move developers have access to several specialized development environments:

IDE	Features	Best For
Move Studio	Sui-focused development, web-based interface	Sui blockchain development
Move Intellij IDE Plugin by Potntem	Syntax highlighting, code completion, error detection	JetBrains IDE users
Visual Studio Code	Extensions support, flexible environment	General development

Essential Development Tools

1. Core Tools

• Move Compiler: Essential for converting Move code to bytecode
• Move Prover: Validates code correctness
• Move CLI: Command-line interface for project management
• Move Playground: Web-based testing environment

2. Libraries and Frameworks

• Move Std: Standard library modules
• Move Account Library: Account management utilities
• Move Transaction Library: Transaction handling tools

Real-World Applications and Use Cases

Financial Applications

Move has been successfully implemented in various financial applications, with a few examples in the chart below: 

Application Type	Description	Key Features
Lending Protocols	Decentralized lending and borrowing platforms	Interest rate management, collateral handling
NFT Marketplaces	Digital asset trading platforms	Asset ownership, transfer mechanisms
Stablecoins	Price-stable cryptocurrency implementations	Price stability mechanisms, supply management

Move vs. Other Smart Contract Languages

In the two charts below, we’ll map out how Move compares to other common smart contract languages, Solidity and Rust:

Comparison with Solidity

Feature	Move	Solidity
Safety Features	Built-in resource orientation, formal verification	Basic safety features, requires external tools
Learning Curve	Moderate	Lower (JavaScript-like syntax)
Ecosystem Maturity	Growing rapidly	Well-established

Comparison with Rust

Feature	Move	Rust
Primary Focus	Blockchain-specific	General-purpose
Performance	Optimized for smart contracts	High performance across all use cases
Memory Management	Resource-oriented	Ownership-based

Advanced Features of Move

Move boasts several advanced features that enhance security and efficiency in blockchain programming. Its design emphasizes ownership and scarcity, mirroring concepts from the physical world. Additionally, Move allows for safe data composability, enabling dynamic adjustments to object fields.

Formal Verification Tools

Move allows for formal verification of contracts, which helps to mitigate bugs and vulnerabilities. The Move Prover utilizes a formal model and mathematical reasoning to validate that Move programs meet specified properties. This built-in formal verification helps ensure code correctness and reliability.

Move provides off-chain static verification tools to analyze the correctness of the code. These tools enhance the security and reliability of Move smart contracts, making it a robust choice for developers.

Limited Mutability

Move’s approach to limited mutability restricts value changes to single mutable move reference, enhancing security. This approach prevents unintended side effects, making Move a secure and efficient tool for developing smart contracts.

Parallel Transaction Support

Move’s resource-centric design enables simultaneous processing of multiple transactions. This architecture supports parallel execution, significantly boosting blockchain throughput.

This ability to process multiple transactions at once leads to improved scalability and efficiency in blockchain systems utilizing Move.

Securing Move Smart Contracts

Securing Move smart contracts is crucial to maintaining the integrity and trustworthiness of blockchain applications. Move places a strong emphasis on safety. It achieves this through on-chain verification of bytecode, focusing on memory safety, resource management, and type enforcement. Developers should follow best practices, such as formal code verification and regular audits, to secure Move smart contracts.

On-Chain and Off-Chain Verification

On-chain verification ensures transaction correctness and security directly on the blockchain. Move’s formal verification tools help ensure code adheres to specified properties and behaves as expected, allowing participants to validate operations and enhance security.

Off-chain verification provides a complementary approach, allowing validation of transactions and contracts outside the blockchain. Techniques for off-chain verification can include the use of external validators, testing frameworks, and simulation tools that help assess smart contract performance without incurring blockchain transaction costs.

Security Audits

Security audits are essential to ensure that smart contracts are secure and function as intended before deployment. Conducting thorough security audits can help detect vulnerabilities such as reentrancy attacks, integer overflows, and underflows that could be exploited. The process generally involves reviewing code quality, conducting automated scans, and manual assessments to ensure comprehensive coverage.

Regular security audits enhance the trustworthiness of smart contracts and can significantly reduce financial risks associated with vulnerabilities.

Common Vulnerabilities

Reentrancy and improper access control are among the most frequent vulnerabilities found in Move smart contracts. Reentrancy vulnerabilities occur when a contract calls an external contract, allowing the latter to re-enter the calling contract before the first invocation completes. Identifying and mitigating these vulnerabilities is critical to enhancing the security of Move smart contracts.

Improper access control can lead to unauthorized access or modifications, posing significant security risks. Preventing these errors requires diligent code review and adherence to best practices in smart contract development.

Different Implementations of Move

There are several implementations of the Move programming language, with the two most popular being Sui Move and Aptos Move. We’ll describe each in the sections below.

Sui Move

Sui Move distinguishes itself from standard Move through several technical innovations: 

Key Technical Features

1. Unique Object IDs: Unlike standard Move, Sui implements globally unique object identifiers.
2. Module Initializers: Sui introduces specialized module initializers (init) not present in standard Move.
3. Custom Input Parameters: Entry points in Sui Move accept object references as input, differing from standard Move’s approach.
4. Enhanced Storage Model: Sui implements its own object-centric global storage system.
5. Advanced Address Representation: Addresses in Sui Move represent Object IDs, marking a departure from standard Move’s implementation.

The Importance of Sui’s Object-Centric Model

Sui Move is highly object-centric. According to a Cointelegraph report on Sui Move: 

“Unlike the traditional account model, where transactions change balances, or the UTXO model, where transactions have simple inputs and outputs, Sui’s object model treats assets (as well as smart contracts) as complex objects.”

This object-centric model allows for additional access controls and permissions, which can prevent reentrency attacks, which we mentioned in an earlier section of this article. A reentrancy attack occurs when a function makes an external call to another smart contract before updating it’s state. This can allow an attacker to repeat an action, such as a transaction, that is only supposed to happen one time, which can allow the attacker to drain funds from a smart contract or engage in other manipulative behaviors. 

Sui Move’s object-oriented model makes sharding and parallelization on the Sui’s blockchain easier, which partially contributes to Sui’s high speed, as the blockchain has reached up to 297,000 TPS in testing. 

Sui Move’s object-centric design also has benefits for NFTs, particularly when compared to Ethereum’s model. Ethereum NFTs are linked to specific smart contract addresses, which can make transfers and updates complex and expensive. Unlike Ethreum NFT’s Sui’s object-centric, Move-based programming allows an NFT to be treated as a distinct object. Therefore, transfers and other changes to an NFT can be done in a simple “atomic operation” instead of requiring multiple steps and gas fees. 

Aptos Move

Likewise, Aptos Move also distinguishes itself from standard Move through several technical innovations: 

Key Technical Features

• Traditional Architecture with Global Storage: Aptos uses traditional linear blockchain architecture with global storage.
• Parallel Transaction Execution: Aptos Move implements Block-STM for parallel transaction execution.
• Efficient Consensus: Features AptosBFT consensus with leader-based coordination.
• Sequencing: Sequential transaction processing within blocks.
• Gas Fees:100% gas coverage for accurate resource pricing.

Future Move Developments and Trends (2024 Updates)

According to The Move Book by Sui, the most popular guide to Sui Move (itself the most popular version of Move), Move 2024 edition introduces several key features: 

1. New Syntax Features

• Mutable bindings with `let mut`
• Edition specification requirements
• Enhanced type system capabilities

2. Ecosystem Expansion

The Move ecosystem continues to grow with:

• Increased adoption across blockchain platforms
• Enhanced IDE support
• Expanded tool chains

However, Aptos has its own version of the Move Book, specific to Aptos Move, which contains slightly different updates. 

Getting Started with Move

Various online platforms offer both free and paid introductory courses tailored to beginners learning Move programming. The Move programming language offers a syntax similar to Rust, facilitating easier adoption for developers familiar with that language. 

Paid Courses

There are several paid courses on the Move Language, with one of the most popular being “Complete Move Programming 2025: Zero to Expert” by Metaschool, which is currently offered on Udemy.

Free Courses 

In addition to paid courses, there is a lot of free information on the Move programming language. Some of this information can be found on YouTube channels like PC Crypto, while a lot more free Move info can be found on GitHub, the Sui and Aptos Move Books, and Sui and Aptos’s documentation guides for developers. 

A few examples include: 

• Creating Your First Aptos Move NFT 
• Sui’s Guide to Move Concepts
• GitHub’s Free Move Tutorial 
• OriginByte NFT Protocol (Move)
• Starcoin Advanced Move and NFT Tutorial 

Conclusion

Move represents a significant advancement in blockchain programming languages, offering a unique combination of security, efficiency, and usability. Its resource-oriented approach and intense focus on safety make it an excellent choice for developing secure smart contracts and blockchain applications. As the ecosystem continues to evolve and mature, Move is positioned to play an increasingly important role in the future of blockchain development.

The popular blockchain security firm Halborn says this about the Move language: 

“Move’s design prioritizes security, asset safety, and efficient blockchain operations, making it a promising language for developing secure and reliable smart contracts and custom transaction logic on blockchains.” 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Move Programming Language?

Move is a strongly typed, resource-oriented programming language designed to create smart contracts, emphasizing simplicity and developer-friendliness. Its features cater to developers looking for an efficient and secure coding environment. 

2. Is Move Better Than Rust?

With its object-oriented programming, Move is often considered a superior language for blockchain development. However, there are far fewer Move developers than Rust developers, which can sometimes lead to challenges with project development and interoperability. In addition, Rust may have higher performance and versatility for non-blockchain applications. 

3. Is Move a Good Programming Language?

Move is an excellent programming language, especially for blockchain applications, mainly due to its resource-oriented design and strong typing that enhances security and error prevention. Its modularity and support for formal verification further contribute to its reliability and effectiveness for developers. 

4. How Does Move Ensure the Security of Smart Contracts?

Move ensures the security of smart contracts by employing a resource-oriented design, formal verification support, and strict typing, combined with both on-chain and off-chain verification methods for enhanced code correctness and reliability.