Interview with the Head of Developer Relations at Sui: How to Start Developing on Sui from Scratch

This article features a conversation with Brian Hennessey-Hsieh, the head of developer relations at Sui, discussing topics such as open source, decentralization, and developer success. It explores how to support developers in using Sui and achieving success, as well as how developers can gain official support.

Journey of Blockchain

Brian has worked in the open source field for over 20 years, from GCC and Linux research to cloud computing projects like OpenStack. He has always been passionate about open source, believing that open collaboration and transparency are key to software development.

After joining Uber in 2017, Brian created the company's open-source project office. He then joined Coinbase Cloud and officially entered the web3 space. Currently, Brian serves as the head of developer relations at the Sui Foundation.

Threefold Perspective on Web3

1. Work perspective: Help establish more open collaboration and governance to achieve true decentralization.

2. Technical Perspective: Although Sui is a new technology, it needs to be broken down like any other technology, considering whether it can solve real-world problems.

3. Application Perspective: The breadth of current use cases validates the value of the technology, and Brian believes that web3 will ultimately become a pillar of the new internet.

Layer 1 Blockchain Developer Relations Work

The developer relations work of L1 mainly involves decentralization and interaction with developers. The core is to ensure the principles and methods of community building, including how to interact with developers and the community, empower the community, accept contributions, etc.

There is a need to establish a fair and inclusive improvement suggestion process, while also ensuring the best technical choices. Additionally, consideration should be given to how to educate new contributors so that they can ultimately make more substantial contributions.

Attract Developers to Use Web3

The early developers on the Sui Network are mostly visionary technical experts who have experienced multiple cycles in the industry and have their own ideas on how to improve web3 and Sui.

The key is to properly showcase this technology so that developers see it as a way to solve problems. Developers need to be taught appropriately so that they can evaluate web3 technology just like they evaluate other technologies.

How Mid-Career Developers Transition to Sui Development

1. Understand the basic theories, including distributed systems, cryptography, and relevant programming languages.

2. Determine the development direction: application developer or core protocol developer.

3. Dive deep into the codebase, try modifying and building the project.

4. Actively communicate with other developers and seek communities with a strong sense of belonging.

5. Participate in activities like Sui Builder House and communicate with engineers and builders of different experience levels.

Sui is developing an accelerated learning tool

1. Educational content tailored to different audiences, covering beginners to experienced developers.

2. Localization content to ensure wide accessibility.

3. Customized Builder Houses activities, and share related content.

4. Encourage the community to develop tools such as SDKs and IDEs, the Sui Foundation will provide support.

5. Sui core contributors are exploring ways to simplify the development process.

Exciting Developments in the Sui Community

Developers are exploring creative applications of Sui's new features, such as dynamic fields and programmable transaction blocks. People are gaining insights into Sui's potential from different perspectives and conducting practical tests.

Looking forward to developing applications on Sui

Brian particularly hopes to see a solution that can reward contributors in a fair, transparent, and verifiable manner. This includes how to verify contributions to the network or SIP, how to estimate the scale of contributions and reward them appropriately, and how to strike a balance between fairness and privacy. Achieving this goal will further promote the decentralization of Sui.