Mysten Labs co-founder Sam Blackshear joins Anthropic to focus on defensive security research

Sam Blackshear, co-founder of Mysten Labs, said he is stepping down from the company to join Anthropic as part of its defensive security research team. In announcing the decision, Blackshear said he wanted to return to hands-on technical work while addressing emerging cybersecurity challenges as AI reshapes the balance between attackers and defenders. The software engineer is best known for creating Move, the smart-contract language originally developed for Meta’s Libra/Diem blockchain project. Following Meta, Blackshear co-founded Mysten Labs in 2021 with several former Diem engineers, including Evan Cheng. As chief technology officer, he helped architect layer 1 blockchain Sui, while also contributing to related infrastructure projects such as Walrus. Cheng, CEO of Mysten Labs, will assume responsibility for the company’s technical vision following Blackshear’s departure. Despite leaving his operational role, Blackshear said he would continue serving as an advisor to Mysten Labs and remaining engaged with developers building on the Sui blockchain. He also showed an intent to support the upcoming Move Foundation, which aims to advance the development of the Move programming langua...