Kevin Boon, President of Mysten Labs, on SUI, Walrus, Programmatic Storage, and Co-Creating with Brands | Ep. 453

In a wide-ranging conversation with Cryptonews.com, Kevin Boon, President of Mysten Labs, shared insights on building the SUI stack, navigating regulation, launching Walrus, and co-creating with brands to expand Web3’s reach.

Boon, who previously served as Mysten Labs’ Chief Legal Officer, now oversees strategy and operations alongside CEO Evan Cheng. With experience at Picsart, Block, Amazon, and Shearman & Sterling LLP, he brings both legal and product leadership to one of the fastest-growing Layer 1 (L1) blockchain ecosystems.

“From Day One, We Cared About Sustainability in Regulation”

Boon explained that Mysten Labs’ founders brought lessons from their work on Facebook’s Diem (formerly Libra) project — including an acute awareness of regulatory risk.

“From the very beginning, there was a healthy appreciation… of what it took to really get to mainstream understanding of what a protocol should be.”

Mysten Labs has been active in Washington, D.C., engaging with trade associations, other L1s, and legislators on sustainable market structure and stablecoin rules.

“If you write laws that are too extreme or have too many holes, they won’t have the durability the industry needs.”

Why Mysten Labs Chose the L1 Route

When SUI launched, the industry narrative favored Layer 2 solutions, but Mysten Labs took a contrarian path.

“The reason an L2 was never really in the running was because we take a problem-specific approach… The L1 was the only natural, inevitable answer.”

Boon emphasized that SUI was designed to address fundamental limitations discovered during the Diem project. The SUI stack follows a modular approach — starting with the L1 coordination layer, and expanding into complementary infrastructure like Walrus, a decentralized storage network.

Gaming: Still a Priority, But Not the Whole Story

While SUI is often associated with gaming, Boon was clear it’s not their only focus.

“Gaming has always been important for us… but there’s a misunderstanding that SUI is only about gaming. That’s not true at all.”

He stressed that successful Web3 games must be fun first — blockchain integration should enhance gameplay, not just serve as a fundraising mechanism.

“If you don’t need a blockchain, don’t have a blockchain… You’re dead on arrival if the token exists only to bootstrap development costs.”

Co-Creation as a Growth Strategy

Boon wants SUI’s brand to be understood through its flagship partners.

“I want to create something deep, tied together, where almost your brands become interchangeable.”

This approach, he says, mirrors lessons from his time at Block (Square), where the brand was reinforced through the success of its merchants.

Walrus: Decentralized, Programmable Storage

Walrus is Mysten Labs’ decentralized storage and retrieval network — the second major milestone in the SUI stack.

“Every blob stored on Walrus is manipulatable as a SUI object… This enables a whole universe of programmable storage.”

Unlike some decentralized storage networks, Walrus allows content deletion and offers cost efficiency through erasure coding. Its tight integration with SUI enables developers to program storage behavior using Move smart contracts — opening new possibilities for apps that require flexible, verifiable data handling.

The 2025–2026 Roadmap

For Walrus, Mysten Labs is focusing on three growth areas:

1. SUI ecosystem adoption – encouraging developers already building on SUI to use Walrus.
   
2. Platform partners – onboarding services like Tuskie and NamiCloud that integrate Walrus for their users.
   
3. Enterprise outreach – targeting industries with strict data compliance needs, like GDPR.
   

Outside of storage, Boon hinted at major upcoming partnerships in gaming, advertising, and institutional finance.

“We’ve received interest from people wanting to create a MicroStrategy-style approach for SUI… and we’re talking to a decentralized ad exchange where the addressable market is massive.”

Branding with Aquatic Mammals

On the whimsical naming conventions for Mysten Labs products, Boon laughed:

“One of the founders has a particular love for aquatic mammals… It’s great for marketing and branding — the creative team loves it.”

Kevin Boon’s message was clear: SUI isn’t just a blockchain, it’s an evolving developer platform. With Walrus, new enterprise partnerships, and a problem-driven approach to building infrastructure, Mysten Labs is positioning itself for the next wave of Web3 adoption.