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Move, a Rust-based programming language created by Facebook for the Diem Blockchain, has recently grabbed a lot of attention. With its focus on safety and security and the added possibilities it offers developers, we are gauging if the community wants Move supported on the Oasis Network.

This smart contract language is designed to maximize safety and security; it is designed such that assets cannot be cloned to ensure that digital resources can only have one owner at a time and can only be spent once.

Move technology shows a lot of promise regarding blockchain scalability and security and would be a good fit for the expanding Oasis Network. It would also be simple to implement if there is a desire, thanks to Oasis’ modular architecture design.

Understanding Move

Move is an executable bytecode language used to create smart contracts and custom transactions on the blockchain. It was created as a safe and flexible programming language for the Diem Blockchain. According to Diem’s whitepaper, this language focuses on two major digital assets: scarcity and access control.

Scarcity limits asset creation, preventing double-spending, while access control manages ownership and privileges.

It differs from other programming languages, like Solidity, because it uses resources drawn from the mathematical concept of linear logic. In linear logic, formulas are treated as fundamental resources that can only be used once.

In the case of Move, “a resource can never be copied or implicitly discarded, only moved between program storage locations,“ the whitepaper reads. Hence, the name “Move.”

Move’s safety and expressivity allowed significant parts of the Diem protocol to be enabled in Move, including the Diem coin, transaction processing, and validator management.

Move has also been implemented in other blockchains, including Sui and Aptos. The reason there is such a buzz around Move, and its implementation can be seen in Aptos where all transactions are processed simultaneously and validated afterward to help with speed and scalability. Any failed transactions are also aborted and re-executed, thanks to their STM libraries which detect and manage conflicts.

How Oasis can move with Move

One of the key features of the Oasis Network is its versatility and extensibility. The Oasis Network utilizes a modular architecture that separates consensus and smart contract execution into the Consensus Layer and the ParaTime Layer.

The ParaTime layer allows for creating various types of compute across dev environments. There is already an EVM-compatible runtime called Emerald and a WASM-compatible privacy-focused runtime called Cipher. Most recently, privacy and EVM compatibility were brought together in an industry-first confidential EVM runtime called Sapphire.

However, the versatile nature of the Oasis architecture makes extending support for additional runtime environments easy. If there is a desire from the community and a drive from developers, a new ParaTime that supports Move can be built on the network relatively easily.

The Oasis network can maintain its robust public ledger while having an ecosystem of separate ParaTimes that evolve with technological advancements, such as Move, allowing it to adapt and serve future use cases.

Building a Move ParaTime

At Oasis, we want to be the destination for Web3 builders. We appreciate that there is no one standard way to build the next evolution of the Web, and that is why we have our modular architecture, which allows anyone to create new build environments.

With Move’s potential to offer builders something different, we want to hear from you, our community, if you want to see Move supported on the Oasis Network. You can learn more about building a ParaTime, and what it takes to run a ParaTime here.

However, if you would like to discuss more with us about the possibility of building a Move ParaTime, please join our Discord. We would also like to offer grants to qualified teams to build a Move ParaTime on Oasis. If interested, please apply here.