Rust excels at building high-performance, portable infrastructure because of its zero-cost abstractions and memory safety without a garbage collector. This makes it ideal for creating robust, cross-chain AA SDKs like Ethereum's Account Abstraction SDK and Starknet's Account Contracts, which must handle high-frequency operations securely. Its mature ecosystem, including libraries like ethers-rs and alloy, provides battle-tested tools for interacting with diverse EVM and non-EVM chains, enabling a single SDK to target a vast user base across networks like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon.
LABS
Comparisons
Rust vs Move for Account Abstraction SDK Development
A technical comparison for CTOs and architects evaluating Rust's mature ecosystem versus Move's blockchain-native safety for building client-side AA libraries, wallet SDKs, and bundler infrastructure.
Chainscore © 2026
introduction
THE ANALYSIS
Introduction: The Language Battle for Account Abstraction Infrastructure
Choosing between Rust and Move for building AA SDKs is a foundational decision impacting security, performance, and ecosystem reach.
Move takes a different approach by being a domain-specific language designed for secure resource-oriented programming, as seen in Aptos and Sui. This results in a trade-off: unparalleled on-chain safety and verifiability for native AA operations, but limited off-chain utility and ecosystem maturity. Move's linear type system and explicit resource semantics prevent reentrancy and asset duplication by design, a critical advantage for smart account logic. However, its tooling for off-chain clients and its developer pool are less mature than Rust's, constraining initial development speed and cross-chain deployment flexibility.
The key trade-off: If your priority is building a secure, high-performance SDK for a single Move-based chain (like Aptos or Sui) where the AA logic lives primarily on-chain, choose Move for its inherent safety guarantees. If you prioritize developing a versatile, cross-chain AA toolkit that needs to interact with multiple L1s and L2s, manage complex off-chain logic, and leverage a massive open-source ecosystem, choose Rust for its performance and portability.
tldr-summary
Rust vs Move for AA SDKs
TL;DR: Key Differentiators at a Glance
A direct comparison of the core technical and ecosystem trade-offs for building Account Abstraction SDKs.
01
Rust: Ecosystem & Flexibility
Massive multi-chain reach: Write once, deploy to Ethereum (via Alloy), Solana (via Anchor), Cosmos, and Polkadot. This matters for teams building cross-chain AA solutions or targeting EVM dominance. Leverage mature libraries like ethers-rs and alloy-rs.
02
Rust: Developer Velocity
Established tooling and talent pool: Tap into a language with 10+ years of production use, Cargo for dependency management, and a vast pool of developers (2.3M+ on Stack Overflow). This matters for fast iteration and hiring. The cargo audit and clippy tools provide superior security and linting out-of-the-box.
03
Move: Native Blockchain Safety
Resource-oriented and linear types: The language is designed to prevent double-spending and asset loss at compile time. This matters for high-asset AA wallets and protocols where security is non-negotiable. Used by Aptos and Sui, which secure billions in TVL.
04
Move: Protocol-Level Integration
First-class account abstraction: Move's object model (e.g., Sui's UID, Aptos' signer) makes AA primitives like sponsored transactions and session keys intrinsic. This matters for building deeply integrated, high-performance AA features without complex smart contract workarounds.
05
Rust: Maturity & Audit Trail
Battle-tested in production: Critical infrastructure like the Polkadot relay chain, Solana validator client, and Foundry/Forge are built in Rust. This matters for enterprise-grade SDKs requiring proven stability. The seahorse and cargo-geiger audits provide robust security analysis.
06
Move: Future-Proof Design
Built for parallel execution: Move's data model (independent objects) is optimized for parallel transaction processing, a key scaling vector. This matters for scaling AA to millions of users on chains like Aptos and Sui, which boast 100k+ TPS in test environments.
LANGUAGE COMPARISON FOR ACCOUNT ABSTRACTION
Head-to-Head Feature Matrix: Rust vs Move
Direct comparison of Rust and Move for building Account Abstraction SDKs and smart contracts.
| Metric / Feature | Rust (e.g., Solana, NEAR) | Move (e.g., Aptos, Sui) |
|---|---|---|
Native Account Abstraction Support | ||
Formal Verification Capability | Limited (requires external tools) | Native (via Move Prover) |
Transaction Parallelization | Runtime-dependent (e.g., Sealevel) | Native (via Move's data model) |
Gas Cost Determinism | Variable (depends on runtime) | Fully Deterministic |
Primary Use Case | General-Purpose Smart Contracts & Clients | Secure Asset-Centric Contracts |
Key SDKs/Frameworks | Anchor, Solana-Program | Aptos SDK, Sui Move |
Learning Curve | Steep (memory safety, lifetimes) | Moderate (resource-oriented paradigm) |
pros-cons-a
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Rust vs Move for AA SDK Development
Key strengths and trade-offs for building Account Abstraction SDKs and smart account tooling.
02
Rust: Performance & Safety
Zero-cost abstractions and fearless concurrency: Enables high-performance signer orchestration and gas estimation engines. The borrow checker eliminates entire classes of bugs critical for private key management and transaction bundling. This matters for SDKs requiring sub-second latency and bank-grade security.
04
Move: Verifiable & Upgradable Logic
Formal verification readiness: Move's bytecode is designed for static verification, making it easier to formally prove the correctness of AA modules like session keys or spending policies. Combined with on-chain package management, this matters for enterprises requiring auditable, upgrade-safe account logic.
05
Choose Rust For...
- Broad market capture: Building SDKs for EVM chains (Arbitrum, OP Stack, Polygon) or a multi-chain future.
- Leveraging existing tools: Integrating with ERC-4337 Bundlers, Gelato Relay, or Safe{Core}.
- Team velocity: Hiring from a pool of 2M+ Rust developers versus a niche Move community.
06
Choose Move For...
- Aptos/Sui-native projects: Deep integration with the chain's native account model and object-centric state.
- Maximizing security guarantees: Where asset custody within the smart account is non-negotiable.
- Innovating on AA primitives: Building novel key rotation or policy engines that benefit from Move's linear types.
pros-cons-b
Rust vs Move for Account Abstraction SDK Development
Move for AA SDKs: Pros and Cons
Key strengths and trade-offs at a glance for CTOs and architects choosing a foundational language for secure, high-performance AA SDKs.
02
Rust: Interoperability & Flexibility
Chain-Agnostic Core: Write a single AA SDK core (e.g., signature validation, user operation bundling) and compile to WASM or use FFI for bindings to any EVM or non-EVM chain (Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum). No VM Lock-in: Freedom to design custom account logic and state models, unlike Move's strict on-chain paradigm. Essential for hybrid architectures or novel signature schemes.
04
Move: Deterministic Execution & Formal Verification
Predictable Gas Costs: Bytecode verification and lack of non-deterministic features (e.g., dynamic dispatch) enable precise gas estimation for user operations, crucial for wallet UX. Formal Verification Ready: The Move Prover allows mathematically proving correctness of custom account logic (e.g., multisig rules, recovery flows), a key advantage for institutional-grade smart accounts.
05
Rust: Steep Learning Curve
Complexity Overhead: The borrow checker and ownership model can slow initial development, especially for teams new to systems programming. This increases time-to-market for MVP AA SDKs. On-Chain Limitations: While excellent for off-chain infrastructure, deploying to L1s requires additional tooling (e.g., CosmWasm, Solana programs) and does not inherit Move's native on-chain safety guarantees.
06
Move: Niche Ecosystem & Tooling Gaps
Limited Libraries: The Move package registry has ~1,000 modules vs. Rust's 100,000+ crates. You'll re-implement common utilities (JSON parsing, advanced cryptography) for off-chain components. Chain-Specific VM: SDK logic is tightly coupled to the Move VM (Sui, Aptos, 0L). Porting to other ecosystems (EVM, Cosmos) requires a complete rewrite, limiting addressable market.
CHOOSE YOUR PRIORITY
When to Choose Rust vs Move: Decision by Use Case
Rust for DeFi\nVerdict: The industry standard for multi-chain, high-performance infrastructure.\nStrengths: Unmatched ecosystem of libraries (Anchor, Solana-Program) and battle-tested frameworks for complex financial logic. Ideal for building high-throughput order books (e.g., Serum), cross-chain bridges (e.g., Wormhole), and custom VMs. Direct memory control enables extreme optimization for MEV bots and sequencers.\nTrade-off: Higher development complexity and audit surface area. Requires deep expertise in concurrency and memory safety.\n\n### Move for DeFi\nVerdict: Superior for secure, composable, and formally verifiable on-chain finance.\nStrengths: Built-in resource-oriented model prevents double-spending and reentrancy by design. Native asset abstraction makes secure multi-asset pools (like AMMs on Aptos, Sui) simpler. Strong typing and bytecode verifier reduce audit costs for protocols like Liquidswap (Pontem Network).\nTrade-off: Smaller, newer ecosystem. Limited to Move-based chains (Aptos, Sui, 0L).
verdict
THE ANALYSIS
Final Verdict and Decision Framework
A data-driven breakdown to guide your SDK language choice based on ecosystem maturity, security posture, and target blockchain.
Rust excels at ecosystem maturity and developer adoption for account abstraction. Its robust tooling—like the ethers-rs library and cargo package manager—and massive community (over 3 million developers) drastically reduce development time. For example, building a cross-chain AA SDK for Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum is significantly faster in Rust due to the availability of battle-tested RPC clients and wallet connectors. Its performance and memory safety also make it ideal for high-throughput relayer infrastructure.
Move takes a different approach by being a blockchain-native language with built-in resource-oriented semantics. This results in a trade-off: superior on-chain security and verifiability for smart accounts on Aptos and Sui, but a much smaller off-chain tooling ecosystem. Move's type system and linear types prevent common vulnerabilities like reentrancy by design, making it the preferred choice for protocols where the security of the account logic itself is the paramount concern, even if initial SDK development is more constrained.
The key trade-off is between broad interoperability and native chain optimization. If your priority is building a multi-chain AA SDK that integrates with dominant EVM ecosystems (collectively over $50B TVL) and leverages existing wallet standards (ERC-4337), choose Rust. Its libraries provide a direct path to market. If you prioritize maximizing security and performance for a native Aptos or Sui application, where the account logic is a core protocol component, choose Move. Its guarantees are unparalleled within its native environment.
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