Here is all you need to know about the Aptos blockchain and why everyone is talking about it

Temitope Akintade
The project is developed by Aptos Labs, a blockchain startup led by two former Meta engineers, Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching…
Aptos Blockchain

Despite running for exactly a week today, Aptos has already been tagged as one of the potential ‘Solana Killers’.  Also, Crypto community members came to understand the stuff Aptos blockchain is made of last week when it airdropped $APT tokens worth thousands of dollars to early testnet participants. 

But away from that hype and buzz. What exactly is the Aptos blockchain? What does it do differently and why should you pay attention?

Let’s get to it. 

Related post: 3 upcoming project airdrops you can make money from this week

What is the Aptos blockchain?

Aptos is a scalable Proof-of-Stake Layer 1 blockchain that uses Move, a novel smart contract programming language.

The project is developed by Aptos Labs, a blockchain startup led by two former Meta engineers, Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching. This is why it is considered in some quarters as the technological successor of Meta’s abandoned blockchain project – Diem.

Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching founded Aptos and are continuing their work with a team of other ex-Meta (formerly Facebook) employees
Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching founded Aptos

Aptos blockchain uses a combination of parallel transaction processing with the earlier mentioned smart contract language (Move) to achieve a theoretical transaction throughput of over 100,000 transactions per second. The ecosystem first made waves in the industry in March after raising $200 million in a seed round led by venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz.

Also in July, Aptos raised another $150 million at a $1.9 billion pre-money valuation in a Series A funding round led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto, before its valuation hit $4 billion two months later in a venture raise led by Binance Labs.

Notably, Aptos did all that before launching its blockchain, which only went live on the mainnet last Tuesday.

To reward the early users of its testnet and distribute the initial token allocation, Aptos airdropped 150 APT tokens (worth approximately $1,237 on launch but surged as high as $7,000 subsequently) to 110,235 eligible addresses. 

The Aptos’ selling point 

A special force behind Aptos blockchain is Move, the Rust-based programming language independently developed by Meta, and the network’s unique parallel transaction processing abilities.

The Move is a smart contract programming language that emphasises safety and flexibility. Using Move, the Aptos blockchain is built to theoretically achieve high transaction throughput and scalability without sacrificing security. 

Image Source: Medium

To put that into context, most high-profile blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions use smart contracts in sequence. In simpler terms, this means that all transactions in the mempool (where all submitted transactions await confirmation by the network’s validators) must be verified individually and in a specific order. 

This means that the network computing power doesn’t foster faster transaction processing because it is doing the same thing and acting as a single node.  

In its technical whitepaper, Aptos says:

“To maximize throughput, increase concurrency, and reduce engineering complexity, transaction processing on the Aptos blockchain is divided into separate stages. Each stage is completely independent and individually parallelizable, resembling modern, superscalar processor architectures. Not only does this provide significant performance benefits, but also enables the Aptos blockchain to offer new modes of validator-client interaction.”

Aptos network leverages all available physical resources to process many transactions simultaneously. This results in a higher network throughput and transaction speed, amounting to lower costs and a better experience for the blockchain users. 

Read also: DAOs: All you need to know and why you should join one

Should you invest in the Aptos token?

$APT’s price hit a peak of $13 last week but it has now corrected a little to $9. The token seems like a potentially great investment, especially in the short run, due to its novel, unique architecture and its proven success on its testnet. 

Additionally, the solid reputation of the Aptos developers gives credibility to the project. The reason why it has been listed on all major crypto exchanges. 

Here is all you need to know about the Aptos blockchain and why is everyone talking about it

Ultimately, it appears to be a solid investment to consider adding to your crypto portfolio for the short term. However, it is important to remember that every cryptocurrency, including Aptos, is extremely volatile.

N.B: Remember to always do your own research before investing.

Conclusion

Although Aptos claims to have already achieved 10,000 transactions per second on testnet and aims for 100,000 transactions per second as the next milestone, users should be cautious. 

Other Layer 1 networks and sidechains like Solana and Polygon making similar claims have suffered numerous network outages since their inception. 


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