Aptos (APT): A Game Changer in Blockchain Technology?

Aptos (APT) has recently surged into the spotlight, tripling its value in just a month. Initially overlooked due to perceptions of it being a venture capital-backed project, Aptos is now getting a second look from the crypto community.

Billed as a rival to Solana, a potential Ethereum disruptor, and a fresh Layer 1 (L1) blockchain suited for DeFi applications, Aptos is gaining attention for various reasons. In today's article, we delve deep into Aptos, exploring its capabilities, functionalities, and its efficiency in comparison to established players like Solana and Ethereum.

As the Layer 1 blockchain space braces for a new competitor, we take a closer look at what sets Aptos apart from other notable projects such as Ethereum, Solana, and Avax.

What Is Aptos?

Aptos, a Layer-1 blockchain network, was recently launched by Aptos Labs, a team composed of former employees from Meta's crypto division, Diem. This new blockchain is designed to address key issues in scalability, security, and reliability, making it a versatile platform for decentralized applications (dApps) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Aptos stands out with its innovative approach to blockchain technology, emphasizing safety, upgradeability, and decentralization.

The foundation of Aptos is its whitepaper, which highlights the blockchain's development over the past three years by a global team of over 350 developers. This extensive collaborative effort has led to significant advancements in consensus mechanisms, smart contract design, system security, and performance. Aptos uses the Move programming language, initially developed for Diem, which is known for its safety and reliability.

Aptos Labs, co-founded by CEO Mo Shaikh and CTO Avery Ching, former Meta employees, aims to redefine the Web3 experience. They are focused on developing dApps on the Aptos blockchain that bring the benefits of decentralized technology to a wider audience. The project officially launched on October 12th, 2022, with its main net going live five days later, following the release of Aptos Autumn. In just four months, Aptos achieved a market cap of $2.9 billion.

The project, recognized as the spiritual successor of the failed Meta stablecoin initiative Diem, has generated significant interest in the crypto community. Aptos has successfully raised over $350 million across two funding rounds, including a seed round of $200 million and a Series A round of $150 million led by FTX Ventures. This funding underscores the strong market confidence in Aptos' potential to make blockchains more trusted, scalable, and cost-efficient, positioning it as a promising player in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors.

How Does Aptos Work?

Aptos, the Layer-1 blockchain network, stands out in the crypto world with its groundbreaking approach to transaction processing, scalability, and security. At the heart of its innovation are three key components: the Move programming language, a parallel transaction processing system, and Block-STM technology.

The Move programming language, initially developed for Meta's Diem project, is a Rust-based language designed for safety and flexibility in smart contract development. It is an executable bytecode language with a secure global storage system, allowing users to define custom resources that are immune to duplication or deletion, enhancing the security of the Aptos blockchain.

In terms of transaction processing, Aptos distinguishes itself by using a parallelized approach, which is a departure from the sequential execution model used by major blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. This model enables the network to leverage all available resources to process multiple transactions simultaneously, significantly increasing throughput and speed. Aptos' engine, designed for efficient smart contract handling, utilizes Block-STM technology for parallel execution, ensuring that a single failed transaction does not disrupt the entire chain. This collaborative scheduler prioritizes transactions and manages validations effectively, potentially processing up to 160,000 transactions concurrently.

Aptos also adopts a Byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol, which decouples transaction ordering from processing, reducing latency and increasing speed. The BFT engine analyzes individual states on-chain and updates validators automatically, ensuring accuracy and reliability.

While Aptos has demonstrated impressive capabilities on testnet, achieving up to 10,000 transactions per second and aiming for 100,000 TPS, it is important to approach these claims with caution as they are yet to be proven under real-world network demand and congestion. Nevertheless, with its innovative technologies, Aptos is poised to redefine the blockchain landscape, offering a scalable, secure, and efficient platform for a variety of decentralized applications.

Aptos Blockchain tokenomics

APT, the native token of the Aptos blockchain, has experienced a rollercoaster journey since its inception. Initially trading at $4.76, half its all-time high of $10.05 reached in October 2022, APT's price has stabilized around $4. Despite being a young project, its foundation has been years in the making, making future price speculations premature.

Aptos faced controversy on October 17 when it launched its blockchain and APT token without disclosing total supply, distribution, or issuance rate. This led to a 40% price drop in initial trading hours. Attempting damage control, Aptos revealed its tokenomics, but this move sparked further outrage. The community was disappointed to learn that the majority of tokens were allocated to early investors and Aptos Labs and the Aptos Foundation, rather than being distributed more broadly.

Currently, the circulating supply of APT is 130 million, with a total supply of 1,000,935,772 and an uncapped maximum. The initial inflation rate is 7%, decreasing annually by 1.5% to an eventual 3.25%. Transaction fees are burned, but this may change through governance voting.

The Aptos ecosystem's token pool is earmarked for grants, incentives, and community growth initiatives. Of these, 410,217,359.767 tokens are with the Aptos Foundation and 100,000,000 with Aptos Labs, distributed over ten years. Investors and core contributors face a four-year lockup from mainnet launch, with a staggered unlocking schedule.

Despite the initial challenges, over 82% of APT tokens are staked across various categories, with most locked according to the distribution schedule and not yet available for release. Staking rewards, which are split between validators and stakers, start at a maximum of 7% annually, decreasing to 3.25% over 50 years. These rewards, along with transaction fee burns and potential governance changes, affect the total supply of the Aptos network, underscoring the evolving nature of APT's tokenomics.

Is Aptos the Next Ethereum?

The Layer 1 (L1) blockchain market is fiercely competitive, with major players like Ethereum, Solana, and AVAX all claiming groundbreaking solutions to issues such as scalability. Yet, no L1 blockchain has achieved perfection, including Ethereum, which struggles with slow transaction speeds during high network traffic.

Aptos is often promoted as a potential "Ethereum killer", a common term in the L1 space, suggesting it could enhance the efficiency of Web3 for investors. While Aptos introduces innovative features, its ability to fulfill its promises remains to be seen. However, its potential to differentiate itself in the L1 market is evident.

One key area where Aptos stands out is its transaction throughput, outpacing Ethereum by confirming transactions in seconds compared to Ethereum's longer processing time. Aptos also boasts significantly higher CPU core usage than Ethereum.

The real test for Aptos will be maintaining its performance under high network demand. Ethereum, despite its slower performance, is known for its reliability and consistent performance.

In many ways, Aptos is viewed more as a competitor to Solana within the crypto community. Both blockchains offer a lightweight framework supporting rapid and cost-effective transactions, with comparable speeds achieved through parallel transaction processing.

The main distinction lies in their reliability. Solana has faced several outages and disruptions, whereas Aptos, despite its shorter track record, has not experienced similar large-scale issues, indicating a potentially more stable user experience with its underlying technology.

Is Aptos the Next Solana Killer?

Even though Aptos has only been operational for a short period, it has quickly gained attention as a potential challenger to Solana, often labeled a “Solana killer”. This is largely attributed to its impressive capability of handling 100,000 transactions per second, surpassing Solana's capacity of about 60,000 transactions. However, Solana is known for experiencing frequent network outages.

Aptos not only boasts remarkable scalability but also mirrors Solana in aspects such as substantial venture capital support and a top-down strategy in ecosystem development. Starting with a significant funding pool and the appeal of being a novel platform, Aptos has the potential to eclipse Solana, especially with Austin Virts, Solana's former Head of Marketing, now spearheading Aptos' ecosystem growth.

However, Solana currently maintains a significant lead over Aptos in terms of ecosystem robustness and network adoption. Aptos's somewhat opaque tokenomics and the preferential allocation of tokens to early investors and company insiders have raised concerns within the crypto community, which may impact its long-term success. That said, if Aptos can deliver on even a portion of its technological promises, it stands a chance to carve out a substantial niche for itself among other smart contract-capable Layer 1 networks.

Why Aptos Has the Attention of VCs?

Recently announced, the Aptos blockchain has swiftly garnered significant financial backing, highlighting its potential in the blockchain space. In March 2022, Aptos secured its initial major investment, amassing $200 million from prominent venture capital firms like a16z Crypto, Multicoin Capital, Hashed, Tiger Global, Three Arrows Capital, FTX Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures. This momentum continued with an additional $150 million funding in June from FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto, with previous investors like a16z Crypto and Multicoin Capital participating in multiple funding rounds.

The robust support Aptos receives from these venture capital firms can be attributed to several key factors:

Experienced Leadership: Aptos Labs is steered by founders with a substantial track record in the crypto sector and venture capitalism. This blend of expertise and industry connections plays a pivotal role in attracting investor confidence.
Innovative Technology: Venture capitalists often seek out pioneering and unique technologies. Aptos stands out with its integration of Block-STM technology, the Move programming language, and a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism. This distinct combination distinguishes Aptos from other Layer 1 blockchains vying for investment.
Promising Performance Metrics: Aptos gained traction following its testnet releases, showcasing impressive transaction speeds and efficiency. Capable of processing up to 160,000 transactions per second (TPS) and finalizing transactions in under a second, Aptos demonstrates potential to surpass its rivals in performance.
Connection to Facebook's Diem Project: Aptos' roots can be traced back to Diem, an initiative originally launched by Meta/Facebook. This connection lends credibility and engenders investor confidence in Aptos' future prospects, particularly as it represents the evolution of a project backed by a tech giant.
Broad Market Potential: Aptos' focus on scalability, speed, and security positions it as a versatile platform for a wide range of applications, from decentralized finance (DeFi) to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and beyond. This broad applicability in the fast-evolving crypto market adds to its appeal for investors.

Aptos' combination of seasoned leadership, cutting-edge technology, promising performance indicators, and strategic background ties make it an attractive investment for venture capital firms, positioning it as a significant player in the blockchain industry.

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