Sui co-founder Sam Blackshear leaves Mysten Labs for Anthropic

Sam Blackshear, co-founder of Mysten Labs and the man behind the Move programming language, is leaving the blockchain company to join Anthropic. There he will focus on defensive security research. Evan, who previously led technical teams at Apple and Meta, is taking over technical leadership at Mysten Labs.

In brief:

• Sam Blackshear, creator of Move and co-founder of Mysten Labs, is moving to AI company Anthropic.
• At Anthropic he will work on defensive security research.
• Evan is taking over the technical vision at Mysten Labs and remains involved in the Sui ecosystem.

From Move to Anthropic

Sam Blackshear has announced his departure from Mysten Labs via X. He is joining Anthropic, the AI company known for its work on safe and reliable artificial intelligence. His new focus is on defensive security research, a field concerned with protecting systems against attacks and abuse.

Blackshear is best known in the crypto world as the creator of Move, the programming language that underpins both the Sui and the Aptos networks. As co-founder of Mysten Labs, he played a central role in the technical development of Sui.

Evan takes over the reins

Blackshear speaks appreciatively about his time at Mysten Labs, calling it the strongest group of peers he has ever worked with. He will, however, continue to support the company and the builders in the Sui ecosystem as an adviser, and remains involved in the planned Move Foundation.

Technical leadership passes to Evan, who previously held leadership positions at Apple and Meta. Blackshear says he has confidence in the direction Evan will take and notes that he personally attracted many of the strongest technical people at Mysten.