What Is Aptos (APT): A Scalable Modular Layer 1 for Seamless Upgrades
Aptos has emerged as a standout in the blockchain space, raising $350 million in 2022 from such venture capitalists as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures, Apollo, Circle Ventures and Franklin Templeton to build its dream project promising a flexible and upgradeable blockchain structure. It lived up to its promises, with a successful mainnet launch on Oct 12, 2022. Two years later, Aptos has surpassed $1 billion in total value locked (TVL), an impressive feat showcasing its ability to achieve real-world adoption as it attracts millions of users worldwide.
Key Takeaways:
Aptos is a modular and scalable Layer 1 PoS blockchain that uses the innovative Move programming language for swift and secure transaction execution.
Aptos’s modular design and on-chain governance support constant upgrading, allowing its platform to adapt quickly to emerging new use cases as the crypto world evolves.
Its governance token, APT, can be bought on Bybit as a USDT or USDC Spot pair.
What Is Aptos?
Aptos is a Layer 1 blockchain that uses the Move programming language, giving users improved scalability, reliability, security and usability.
The Aptos genesis occurred on October 12, 2022, with Aptos blockchain's mainnet "Aptos Autumn" launched on October 17, 2022. Aptos is a Layer 1 blockchain built with a Rust-based programming language called Move. Its key features include a parallel execution engine, high-level security features and low transaction costs.
The Aptos blockchain is generating all this hype because of its intriguing past. The blockchain is based on the Diem blockchain initiative (from Meta) that was recently abandoned. Created by Diem developers, the Aptos crypto uses the programming language originally created for Diem. Its focus is on Diem's original goal of creating a scalable, fast blockchain.
Aptos’s flexible architecture means it can be constantly upgraded to support emerging new use cases as the web3 world becomes increasingly sophisticated. Currently, Aptos is capable of supporting decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), GameFi, social media, entertainment and even artificial intelligence (AI) on its blockchain. Its myriad use cases have drawn over 8 million users worldwide.
The Aptos network was created by Aptos Labs, while the Aptos Foundation focuses on nurturing the ecosystem through grants, education initiatives, events and partnerships.
Who Is Aptos Labs?
Aptos Labs is the team behind the Aptos project. They currently lead a diverse team of developers, engineers and strategists headed by co-founders Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching.
Shaikh and Ching met when they worked together on the Diem blockchain project at Meta. Shaikh specializes in scaling products, and has experience in the private equity and venture capital markets. Meanwhile, Ching was one of the principal software engineers at Meta and has led many exciting and innovative development projects in the past. When Meta chose to discontinue the Diem project, Shaikh and Ching decided to join together to create Aptos Labs.
Aptos Labs’ motto is Bringing decentralization to the masses. Besides the Aptos blockchain, Aptos Labs has a range of products that cater to bridging the gap between Web 2.0 and web3. These include Aptos Connect, a user-friendly web3 wallet that offers seamless access to DApps with no downloads required; Aptos names, a name service that allows users to convert their lengthy and complex wallet addresses into short, easy-to-read .apt names; and Aptos Assistant, a dedicated Aptos AI chatbot developed with OpenAI technology.
How Does the Aptos Blockchain Work?
The Aptos blockchain runs on a proof of stake (PoS) consensus algorithm, whereby token holders stake tokens to their selected validators to help maintain the network. Aptos can theoretically reach 160,000 transactions per second (TPS) while maintaining security and reliability. The following revolutionary concepts are at work behind Aptos's impressive performance.
Block-STM Technology
Block-STM technology creates an engine that efficiently handles smart contracts. The Aptos blockchain engine relies on parallel execution to handle multiple transactions at once. This makes things a lot quicker because a single failed transaction won't halt the whole chain. Instead, transactions can be processed concurrently, and all of them are validated post-execution. To further improve efficiency, a collaborative scheduler works to prioritize certain transactions on the Aptos blockchain and handle essential validations efficiently. Ultimately, up to 160,000 transactions per second (TPS) may be processed simultaneously.
Move Programming Language
One of the things that makes Aptos’s network so appealing is Move, a custom programming language for swift, secure transactions that was first designed for the Diem blockchain. Move is a type of executable bytecode language that’s used to implement smart contracts and custom transactions. It uses Move modules, which are grouped in upgradeable packages, to define the state of transactions.
It’s flexible enough to handle the unique needs of Aptos developers, and its global storage is more secure than the average programming language. Move lets users define custom resources that can’t be copied or discarded, making it much more difficult for malicious entities to control the Aptos blockchain.
Aptos has also made multiple improvements to the Move ecosystem to further enhance its security, such as the Move Prover, a formal verifier for Move smart contracts which boosts protection for contract invariants.
Data Model
Aptos employs a modular data model, in which a ledger state records the interaction of transactions and accounts. Accounts are representations of users’ control over their assets, from on-chain currency to NFTs, and must be created before they can execute transactions. Transactions submitted by any user modify the ledger state and trigger events coded via Move modules. These events, uniquely identified by keys, are then stored as data within the ledger. This design also ensures flexibility and user privacy, as it supports flexible key management and hybrid custodial options, and allows users to create multiple pseudonymous accounts via cryptographic key pairs.
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) Consensus Protocol
Instead of using a consensus protocol that has to follow the order of transactions, Aptos decouples the two processes and lets them run parallel to each other. This reduces latency (the time it takes to confirm network transactions) while increasing speed. To ensure accuracy, Aptos has created a Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) engine that analyzes individual states on-chain and then automatically updates validators as needed.
Aptos Ecosystem
The Aptos ecosystem is robust, with over 190 projects in the realms of DeFi, GameFi, NFTs, social media, education, AI, infrastructure and more.
Some of its top projects include:
PancakeSwap (CAKE) — a multichain decentralized exchange (DEX) built on BNB Chain, the third largest automated money maker (AMM) platform behind Uniswap and SushiSwap.
Tether (USDT) — the top stablecoin and the third largest crypto by market cap at $127.49 billion.
Ondo Finance (ONDO) — a blockchain finance system that provides users with tokenized versions of U.S.-based, institutional-grade securities.
Rarible (RARI) — an aggregated NFT marketplace built on Ethereum’s chain.
Tapos (HEART) — a play-to-earn game in which you can easily earn token rewards by clicking on virtual cats to tickle them. Tapos attracted 63,000 users over its three-day launch campaign, and contributed to a new Aptos record of 326 million transactions in a single day.
LayerZero (ZRO) — an omnichain interoperability protocol facilitating seamless data transfer across over 70 supported blockchains.
Chingari — among the fastest-growing web3 audio and video live streaming platforms, with over 125,000 daily on-chain users.
The Aptos Crypto Token (APT)
The Aptos token (APT) is a governance token. Once an APT holder stakes their APT tokens to a validator node, they’re eligible to vote for various protocol changes, such as blockchain upgrades and changes to blockchain parameters. There was an initial total supply of 1 billion APT tokens, distributed as follows:
51.02% — Community (80.38% held by Aptos Foundation and 19.62% by Aptos Labs, while 125,000,000 APT were made instantly available for community growth initiatives and 5,000,000 APT for Aptos Foundation initiatives. The remaining amount will be distributed over a 10-year period.)
19% — Core contributors
16.5% — Aptos Foundation
13.48% — Investors (subject to 4-year lockup schedule, with no APT available for the first 12 months).
Staking isn’t merely used for governance, as APT token holders can also stake their tokens to a validator to help secure the network while earning rewards, which can be received at every epoch.
There’s a minimum stake of 1 million APT and a maximum of 50 million APT, with the staked tokens automatically locked for a fixed duration. The maximum annual reward rate, evaluated at every epoch, began at 7% in 2022, with an annual decline rate of 1.5% (until it eventually reaches 3.25%, which Aptos estimates will take over 50 years).
To further facilitate decentralization, Aptos also started offering delegated staking for users from April 2023. Delegated staking features a low minimum staking requirement whereby users with as little as 11 APT can collectively stake in a trusted validator node. This move encourages more active participation, allowing more users to stake and earn rewards while helping to sustain a stable and efficient network.
Staking rewards raise the total supply, making APT an inflationary token. However, the rewards mechanism may be modified via on-chain governance.
Where to Buy Aptos
Aptos is available on Bybit’s Spot market as a swap pair with USDT (APT/USDT) or USDC (APT/USDC).
3 Simple Steps to Buy Aptos on Bybit
Sign up for a Bybit account.
Buy USDT or USDC via Bybit One-Click Buy or P2P Trading Platform.
Trade APT/USDT or APT/USDC with Bybit Spot market.
Aptos Crypto (APT) Price Prediction
As of Nov 19, 2024, APT’S price is $11.68, which is 41.4% lower than its ATH of $19.92 on Jan 26, 2023 and 279.2% higher than its ATL of $3.08 on Dec 29, 2022.
Price prediction experts generally have a positive outlook on the APT token. Changelly, while predicting a slight dip to $9.85 in 2025, anticipates APT will exceed $100 by 2030 and hit an astonishing average of $4,727 in 2040. CoinCodex is more conservative in its predictions, forecasting APT will trade at an average rate of $31.22 in 2025 and $37.05 in 2030.
Is Aptos a Good Investment?
There are several factors working together to make Aptos crypto seem like a great opportunity. First of all, the venture is a continuation of a Meta-founded project that was already getting positive results before it was canceled. Furthermore, the developers working on it are experienced, highly-trained people who've worked on exciting projects in the past.
Aptos’s innovative technology has captured the interest of many venture capitalists, making it one of the top-funded blockchain projects at a total of $350 million (split into two rounds). Aptos accepted its first big set of investments in March 2022. Several large venture capital groups, including a16z Crypto, Multicoin Capital, Hashed, Tiger Global, Three Arrows Capital, FTX Ventures and Coinbase Ventures contributed a total of $200 million. Aptos then went on to receive another $150 million in June from FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto. Previous investors, such as a16z crypto and Multicoin Capital, have contributed to multiple rounds of funding.
Thanks to its unique architecture, which separates consensus from execution, and its use of Move as a programming language for added security, Aptos certainly stands out from the crowd of Layer 1 projects. In a mere two years, Aptos has achieved a TVL of over $1 billion and attracted over 190 projects, including top DeFi platforms like PancakeSwap, Ondo Finance (the biggest stablecoin by market cap) and USDT.
Aptos has also secured partnerships with industry giants and global asset management leaders, such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, and entertainment titan NBCUniversal, further contributing to its credibility as one of the top Layer 1 blockchains.
All of these factors point to a bright future ahead for Aptos. Nevertheless, the crypto market is inherently volatile. As with any other cryptocurrency, before buying APT, please make sure you do thorough research and are clear about the risks involved.
Aptos vs. Other Layer 1 Blockchains
Aptos, often dubbed the “Solana killer,” possesses plenty of features that help it stand out among other Layer 1 chains — including a highly active community, strong partnerships, and access to unique engines and programming languages.
Aptos vs. Solana
One of the Aptos blockchain's main competitors is Solana, which is currently the hottest high-performance Layer 1 available. Theoretically, Solana can support up to 65,000 TPS, while Aptos is capable of supporting 160,000. While the actual performance of both blockchains falls far below their theoretical speeds, they’re still considered high-speed blockchains, with Solana averaging up to 4,000 TPS and Aptos averaging over 2,200 TPS and peaking at 5,000. Apart from their fast speeds, both Aptos and Solana also appeal to many users due to their meager transaction costs, which average around $0.0001 per transaction.
However, Solana has been fairly prone to failure, having had notable outages and downgrades. Meanwhile, the Aptos blockchain adds redundancy to its network, rendering it less prone to failure. Each block in Aptos is synced with leader nodes and nearby nodes. In case the leader node fails, one of the other nodes can take over. This results in slightly more computational requirements, so Aptos' hardware needs are a little larger than Solana's. Ultimately, Aptos offers more reliability than Solana in exchange for slightly higher hardware requirements.
Aptos vs. Sui
Both Aptos and Sui use Move programming language, though Sui’s version is modified into an object-centric model, unlike Aptos’s account-centric model. Additionally, Aptos records its ledger on a blockchain, whereas Sui stores and organizes its data in a directed acyclic graph (DAG).
Both Aptos and Sui are built to be scalable, with Aptos presenting a high throughput of 160,000 TPS in its testnet days and Sui’s test throughput achieving 120,000. When both networks are launched on the mainnet, however, their maximum throughputs over the past 30 days have fallen to 13,367 TPS for Aptos and a mere 634 TPS for Sui (as of Nov 17, 2024).
While the two networks’ scalability allows for varied use cases, Sui’s focus is on NFT games, with a recent expansion into DeFi. In contrast, Aptos is built to be more general purpose, encompassing a diverse range of applications from DeFi, GameFi and NFTs to social media, entertainment and even AI.
Aptos vs. Ethereum
The Aptos blockchain has already managed to outperform Ethereum in terms of speed. While Ethereum's time to finality is over a minute, Aptos can finalize transactions in less than a second, due to both hardware and design differences. Ethereum only has one CPU core, while Aptos operates on 16.
However, Ethereum’s reliability is undeniably superior. While Aptos doesn't have many problems with outages, it can't compare to Ethereum's stability: Its performance is almost impossible to disrupt. As long as users are fine with paying more fees and waiting longer times, Ethereum still remains the more popular choice.
Closing Thoughts
The Aptos project promises to increase blockchain scalability and reliability. Indeed, thanks to its innovative technology, Aptos has proven its credibility in just two short years, drawing over 190 projects to join its ecosystem and enabling it to scale rapidly and evolve to match market demand.
While it remains to be seen whether Aptos will really be a “Solana killer,” its network is rapidly catching up to Solana’s popularity, as evidenced by its growing ecosystem and partnerships with industry leaders.
The addition of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, to the Aptos blockchain further cements its position as the top blockchain of choice for users and developers seeking a scalable, secure and user-friendly platform.
With its focus on modularity and upgradeability, Aptos continues to attract significant attention from the web3 community, revealing itself to be a formidable player in the race for blockchain dominance.
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