The GCC's Tech Vanguard: Mysten Labs' Kostas Chalkias
The co-founder and CEO of Mysten Labs was one of the 30 innovators celebrated in Inc. Arabia's December 2024 special feature, The GCC's Tech Vanguard.
Kostas Chalkias’ career in cryptography and big data began long before he co-founded Mysten Labs in 2022.
As a former lead cryptographer at Facebook, he led teams on Libra, Novi, and WhatsApp, and has over 20 years in software engineering across the US, the UK, and Greece behind him, during which he also published more than 50 scientific papers.
Today, as the co-founder and chief cryptographer at Mysten Labs, he and his team aim to help individuals and creators own their own data and content by creating a decentralized web stack that will unlock the benefits of Web3. This is essentially why Mysten Labs created the Sui blockchain, a network that supports the creation of rich and dynamic on-chain assets and makes digital asset ownership and management accessible.
Since it launched, Sui has experienced impressive growth – as Chalkias notes, “Sui’s ecosystem has achieved measurable success through global adoption, highlighted by over US$1 billion total value locked, and a 2,700 percent increase in the past year. Regionally, initiatives like SuiHub Dubai and developer-centric events such as Sui Connect have driven local engagement, training over 150 developers, and increasing participation in blockchain projects by 40 percent. Sui’s scalability has supported use cases across decentralized finance, gaming, and real-world assets, with measurable efficiency improvements in output.”
A Playbook For Success: Kostas Chalkias
What challenges does your innovation address in the GCC, and how effectively does it solve it?
“The Sui ecosystem, powered by the innovative Move programming language, addresses scalability, efficiency, and transparency challenges in the GCC’s growing blockchain landscape. By enabling developers to build decentralized applications with low latency and high throughput, Sui has directly supported projects in the region, including fostering blockchain adoption through partnerships like the American University of Sharjah's Blockchain Academy.”
How do you envision the future of technology in your field within the GCC?
"The GCC is poised to lead global blockchain innovation, with governments prioritizing blockchain strategies like the UAE Blockchain Strategy 2031. Decentralized systems like Sui will enable transformative applications across sectors, including DeFi, supply chain, and governance. By fostering local developer communities, building scalable and efficient infrastructure, and leveraging groundbreaking tools like Move, the GCC will shape the future of Web3 with enhanced transparency and efficiency.”
Mysten Lab's Kostas Chalkias was one of the 30 innovators celebrated in Inc. Arabia's December 2024 special feature, The GCC's Tech Vanguard. For the full list of The GCC's Tech Vanguard, please click here.
