Overview
Aptos was launched in 2021 and is designed as a Layer-1, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain network. It was founded by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, both of whom have experience with Meta's Diem project. Aptos (APT) aims to deliver a secure, scalable, and upgradeable blockchain, addressing key issues in existing systems such as high fees and low throughput. It is known for its modular design and the use of the Move programming language, originally developed for Diem.
Technology and Underlying Blockchain
The Aptos (APT) technology stack was built with key principles of scalability, safety, reliability, and upgradeability at its core. It introduces innovative mechanisms across various components of the stack, enhancing the overall functionality and performance of the network.
Let’s explore the technology and underlying blockchain that drives this innovative project.
Consensus Mechanism
Aptos is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) Layer-1 blockchain that utilizes the AptosBFTv4 consensus protocol.
AptosBFT
AptosBFT, originally known as DiemBFT, has gone through four iterations during its development at Diem before being adapted for the permissionless Aptos blockchain. The initial version of AptosBFT was built on HotStuff, a consensus protocol derived from traditional practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT) protocols.
The latest version, AptosBFTv4, is now based on Jolteon, which reduces latency by 50% compared to HotStuff, thanks to a pBFT-style quadratic view change. To further address latency caused by faulty leaders, AptosBFT selects leaders based not only on their staking power but also on their performance, referred to as "reputation."
“A validator’s performance is evaluated by their success rate as a leader, which is how often their proposals are committed, and as a non-leader, which is how often they vote on proposals.”
Quorum Store
Aptos throughput was significantly enhanced with the introduction of Quorum Store in the Aptos V1.5 upgrade, completed on July 18, 2023. Quorum Store, an implementation of the Narwhal mempool protocol, optimizes consensus by decoupling data dissemination from consensus.
In testing, Quorum Store demonstrated significant improvements, increasing transaction per second (TPS) limits by 12x in a consensus-only test and 3x in an end-to-end test.
DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake)
In-protocol delegated staking was introduced on the mainnet on April 20, 2023. To participate as a delegator, users must stake a minimum of 11 APT.
This has significantly increased community participation in staking, as becoming a validator requires a minimum stake of 1 million APT (approximately $10.5 million as of December 26, 2023). Staked tokens are locked in a global 30-day cycle.
Validators on the Aptos network are compensated through inflationary staking rewards. Additionally, each validator sets their own commission rate, with the remaining rewards passed down to their delegators.
Staking rewards are also allocated based on a validator's reputation, which is determined by both their stake and performance. These rewards are distributed and automatically compounded at the end of each epoch, which lasts two hours.
Blockchain Features
Aptos (APT) introduces several key innovations to its blockchain architecture:
Parallel Execution
Aptos uses a parallel execution engine to process transactions more efficiently than many blockchains that rely on sequential execution. Instead of handling transactions one by one, Aptos processes multiple transactions simultaneously.
Unlike networks such as Solana, which require users to specify transaction dependencies, Aptos uses Block-STM to manage transactions without these requirements. Block-STM, based on Software Transactional Memory (STM) and Optimistic Concurrency Control (OCC), allows transactions to be executed optimistically.
Dependencies are checked afterward, and if conflicts arise, transactions are rolled back and retried. Aptos's approach improves on traditional OCC by using a preset transaction order to better estimate dependencies and reduce aborts.
In benchmarks, Block-STM achieved up to 170,000 transactions per second (TPS) with 32 threads, showcasing a significant performance advantage over sequential execution methods. This high throughput makes Aptos suitable for high-performance blockchain applications.
Move Programming Language
One of Aptos’ key differentiators is its Move programming language. Move is a bytecode language inspired by Rust, developed by the Diem and Novi teams.
It is specifically designed to provide greater flexibility, safety, and minimize errors for developers compared to Solidity and other Web3 programming languages.
Move operates with two types of programs, which are transaction scripts and modules. Transaction scripts are atomic and can only be executed once, while modules are published to the global state and persist indefinitely.
In addition to the bytecode verifier, developers can use the Move Prover, a formal verification tool that helps ensure correctness.
Storage
When a block is committed, its data is saved in the storage layer. While blocks are committed collectively, each transaction is stored individually after execution within a Merkle tree. This allows all activities on the blockchain, such as transactions, state changes, and events, to be cryptographically verified against a summary known as the "root hash," which is validated by the current validator signatures.
Unlike other blockchains, which require tracing through a chain of blocks to verify past transactions, this method provides more granular and verifiable data access.
To manage the extensive data, Aptos employs two types of Merkle trees, namely the Jellyfish Merkle Tree for disk storage and the in-memory Sparse Merkle Tree for rapid updates. These trees are designed to efficiently handle data storage and support concurrent updates.
Read Also: Cold Storage vs. Hot Wallets: Which One Is Safe to Use?
Native Token Aptos (APT)
Aptos’s native token, APT, serves multiple purposes, which are to ensure security and Sybil-resistance through the validator and delegator staking, cover resource consumption via transaction fees, and facilitate on-chain governance. At its inception, 1 billion APT was allocated across different buckets with various lockup periods.
The token distribution for Aptos (APT) has been carefully crafted to support community growth, reward key contributors, and acknowledge the foundational role of the Aptos Foundation and early investors. The distribution breakdown is as follows:
- Community Initiatives: 51.02% of the total supply is allocated to community-focused activities, aiming to foster a proactive and engaged user base.
- Core Contributors: 19% of the total tokens are designated for individuals and teams essential to the blockchain's development and maintenance.
- Aptos Foundation: 16.50% of the total tokens are reserved for the Aptos Foundation, which plays a crucial role in the project's governance and structural support.
- Investors: 13.48% of the tokens are allocated to early investors who provided the initial funding necessary for Aptos's development.
Community and Foundation tokens are set to be distributed over ten years, with 125 million APT allocated to community initiatives and 5 million to the Aptos Foundation. This distribution will follow a monthly unlock rate of 1/120th of the remaining tokens, ensuring a controlled and gradual release.
In contrast, tokens assigned to core contributors and investors are subject to a four-year lock-up period, reflecting a commitment to long-term development and value growth. Currently, over 82% of the total token supply is staked, highlighting strong confidence and alignment within the Aptos ecosystem.
User Safeguards
Aptos (APT) integrates several features to enhance user experience and security:
Flexible Key Management: Aptos decouples private keys from public keys, allowing users to manage their keys more flexibly. Users can rotate their private keys if a compromise occurs without needing to move all their assets to a new account.
Transaction Outcome Transparency: To reduce phishing risks and improve transparency, Aptos supports transaction pre-execution. This feature enables users to view a readable explanation of a transaction's outcome before signing it.
Transaction Safeguards: Aptos incorporates expiration times and sequence numbers in transactions. Sequence numbers, akin to nonces in Ethereum, help prevent replay attacks by ensuring that each transaction is unique and executed in a specific order.
Light-Client Support: Aptos supports light clients, allowing users to verify blockchain state by downloading only block headers. This approach reduces trust assumptions and is particularly useful for high-performance blockchains like Aptos, which have higher hardware requirements for full nodes.
Use Cases and Adoption
Aptos (APT) is designed to be a flexible, multi-purpose blockchain with a wide range of applications across decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and enterprise solutions.
Let’s explore how organizations globally are leveraging the Aptos blockchain to solve complex issues and develop groundbreaking solutions:
Artificial Intelligence Integration
In August 2023, Aptos Labs announced a partnership with Microsoft aimed at enhancing Web3 accessibility. By merging Microsoft’s AI capabilities and advanced infrastructure with Aptos Labs’ technical expertise and innovative blockchain technology, the collaboration seeks to simplify the adoption of Web3.
“The intersection of AI and blockchain is one of the most interesting combinations of emerging technologies and can generate transformational use cases,” said Rashmi Misra, General Manager, AI & Emerging Technologies, Microsoft.”
The partnership promises a more user-centric and decentralized online ecosystem.
Gaming
With Aptos, creators can build immersive gaming experiences that offer true ownership, support free-to-play models, and explore GameFi opportunities.
In late February 2023, Aptos Labs released a gaming SDK for Unity, a leading game engine, and is developing a module for verifiable on-chain randomness, which is essential for gaming and other applications. Also, in late October 2023, the arcade-style shooter Aptos Arena launched, offering over $10,000 in prizes during its first week.
The game attracted over 12,000 addresses in its initial weekend and is working on updates based on early feedback. Currently, there are over 23 gaming projects on the blockchain with more to plan.
Furthermore, Aptos Labs and the Aptos Foundation have established partnerships with several prominent gaming companies and conglomerates, including:
- BlockGames: BlockGames is developing a cross-chain network for games and players and has recently announced plans to integrate with Aptos.
- GuardianLink: Aptos Labs has teamed up with GuardianLink to integrate its Jump.trade NFT marketplace, which will provide access to the Meta Cricket League NFT game.
- Lotte Group: South Korea's major retail conglomerate, Lotte Group, partnered with the Aptos Foundation at the end of August to bring the Bellyland universe from its subsidiary Daehong Communication to the Aptos blockchain.
NFTs
NFTs on Aptos have been applied to various real-life scenarios. For example, in late August 2023, Aptos Labs launched the Aptos Digital Asset Standard (DA).
The DA enhances NFT functionalities with features such as dynamic NFTs, soulbound tokens, reduced gas costs, the capability for NFTs to own other NFTs, and simplified airdrop support. This has led to the blockchain hosting about 14 NFT projects at the time of writing.
Read Also: NFT Statistics: Key Insights, and Future Projections
Additionally, Aptos has formed partnerships with several NFT firms including:
- KYD Labs: The Web3 ticketing company, has used Aptos for ticketing at events such as the WonderBus music festival and the SEOULBOUND event during Korea Blockchain Week.
- NBCUniversal: Aptos Labs has partnered with NBCUniversal on two occasions to create digital fan experiences for the films Renfield and The Exorcist: Believer.
- Seoul Land: In early November last year, the Aptos Foundation partnered with Seoul Land, a South Korean amusement park and media group. Their digital subsidiary, RXMeta, will introduce Bloom, a new festival experience using NFT ticketing and memberships on Aptos.
DeFi
Whether you're sending money to family, lending to a friend, or making a purchase, you want your money to reach its intended destination securely. Aptos and Web3 are enhancing this experience by ensuring transactions are faster, safer, and more transparent.
For example, in April 2023, Mastercard partnered with Aptos Labs as one of the blockchain network organizations that will help bring Mastercard Crypto Credential to application developers within its ecosystem. Through the collaboration, they aim to enhance verification processes across various sectors, including NFTs, ticketing, enterprise solutions, and other payment systems.
That's not all, Aptos DeFi protocols have garnered over $436 million in Total Value Locked (TVL) across more than 35 protocols, placing Aptos 17th among all blockchain networks in terms of TVL. This includes notable projects such as Thala Labs, Liquidswap, Aries Markets, PancakeSwap, and TruStake.
These platforms collectively contribute to the growing DeFi ecosystem on Aptos, showcasing its potential as a key player in decentralized finance.
Social
Imagine effortlessly sharing your content across all platforms—this is social media in the Web3 world. Aptos empowers users to take control of their social media experience.
Users can seamlessly sell merchandise, share updates, and maintain ownership of their data across various platforms, creating a more open and user-centered digital ecosystem.
For example, in early last year, Indian-based Chingari, the world’s fastest-growing on-chain social app with over 2.2 million users, announced its partnership with Aptos.
As Aptos co-founder and CEO Mo Shaikh noted:
"It’s time for companies and entrepreneurs to bring social media to Web3 in a user-centric, decentralized, and inclusive way."
There are currently about 16 social projects on the Aptos blockchain.
These developments highlight the ongoing dialogue between innovation, regulation, and the pursuit of sustainable and equitable blockchain partnerships.
Market Performance and Statistics
In this section, we’ll explore how Aptos (APT) is performing in the crypto market.
Market Capitalization
As of the time of writing, Aptos (APT) boasts an impressive market capitalization of about $2.9 billion, ranking it at number 25 out of cryptocurrencies globally. This significant market presence highlights the growing interest in Aptos as a reliable blockchain platform for both developers and investors.
Price Trends
Since its launch, Aptos has experienced significant price fluctuations. Initially listed at around $7 per APT, the digital asset lowest price was recorded on Dec 29, 2022, when it was trading at its all-time low of $ 3.08.
On the other hand, APT peaked at its highest price on Jan 30, 2023, when it was trading at its all-time high of $ 19.90.
Since then, Aptos (APT) has shown a strong upward trend, attracting both short-term traders and long-term investors.
Security and Stability
Aptos (APT) places a strong emphasis on security, integrating advanced cryptography and consensus protocols to ensure the safety of user funds and data.
Security Measures
The Aptos platform employs a unique Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus algorithm to maintain security and resilience. BFT is designed to tolerate a certain number of faulty or compromised nodes, allowing the network to continue functioning even in the event of node failures.
Alongside BFT, Aptos integrates advanced cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs to enhance the privacy and security of its users.
Additionally, Securr, a leading Web3 bug bounty platform, is committed to supporting Aptos projects by providing critical security solutions. Given the constant upgrades and adjustments within Aptos's evolving vision, maintaining security while ensuring smooth transitions is essential to the network's success.
Stability
While Aptos (APT) is not a stablecoin, its PoS consensus mechanism and liquidity partnerships help maintain network stability. The blockchain's transaction processing capabilities and developer activity are designed to ensure consistent performance even under heavy network usage, reducing the likelihood of congestion or downtime.
Currently, the Aptos network has about 147 active validators spread across 27 countries and 54 cities. This number has steadily increased since the network's launch, which initially supported approximately 100 validators.
Read Also: Gas Fee Dynamics in Crypto Transactions
Transaction Fees and Speed
This section covers Aptos (APT) blockchain transaction speed and its fee structure.
Fee Structure
Any transaction executed on the Aptos blockchain incurs a processing fee, which is composed of two distinct parts:
Execution & IO Costs
- This covers the use of temporary computational resources, such as processing the transaction and distributing the validated record across the mainnet's decentralized network.
- It's measured in Gas Units, and the gas price can fluctuate based on the network load. When the network is less congested, the costs remain low.
- This portion of gas is burned permanently after the transaction is executed.
Storage Fees
- This fee covers the permanent storage of the validated record in the blockchain's distributed storage system.
- It's measured in fixed APT prices, ensuring stable storage costs regardless of fluctuations in gas unit prices due to network demand.
Note that storage fees are refundable. If a storage slot is deleted, the fee paid for that storage slot can be refunded. Currently, the entire storage fee is refunded over the slot’s lifetime.
To simplify the system, the storage portion of gas is burned initially and then reminted when a refund occurs. These two components ensure that both temporary computational resources and long-term storage are accounted for while offering flexibility and cost efficiency for users.
Transaction Speed
Aptos' ability to handle transactions is indeed impressive. According to Chainspect, the blockchain has a throughput of about 13.49 transactions per second (TPS), achieved at 0.9 seconds finality in real-time.
Additionally, the project has achieved a maximum throughput of over 13 thousand TPS, while the theoretical maximum TPS is projected to be 160,000 under ideal conditions. To date, the network has processed more than 1.7 billion transactions, showcasing its capacity to handle substantial activity.
Community and Development
Aptos boasts a strong online presence with hundreds of thousands of followers, reflecting the growing interest and engagement around the Aptos ecosystem.
Developer Activity
Aptos boasts a robust development team with regular updates and feature releases. The project’s roadmap is actively followed by a growing developer community, contributing to both the core protocol and application layer development.
This is made easy due to Aptos providing tools to make Web3 development easier than ever. Furthermore, developers have access to grants from the Aptos Foundation to get their projects moving.
Some of the projects that have been developed on the blockchain by developers include Aptos Ascend, Petra Wallet, Aptos Explorer, and many more.
Community Support
Aptos enjoys strong community support across various social media platforms. This includes over five thousand followers on Github, 250 thousand plus on Discord, over 138 thousand on Twitter, a modest following of about 16 thousand on Medium, and over 110 thousand on Telegram.
Its growing user base consists of both developers building on the platform and investors interested in the project’s long-term potential. The community is highly engaged, often participating in governance decisions, hosting events, and testing new features.
Read Also: Power of Blockchain Marketing: Transparency and Trust
Future Prospects and Roadmap
Aptos is banking on the upgradeable feature of its blockchain to enhance its network with new features, functionality, safety, and scaling improvement.
Upcoming Features
One of the key advancements that allowed Aptos to reach higher performance levels during the Previewnet testing is storage sharding, which splits state storage across multiple “RocksDB” instances. This upgrade is scheduled for mainnet deployment in 2024.
In addition to storage sharding, Aptos Labs has also introduced improvements to the execution engine, state synchronization algorithm, and network stack, details of which will be shared by Aptos Labs in the future.
Likewise, performance improvements in NFT minting have been achieved through a new solution called Aggregators. Traditionally, limited supply NFT mints required sequential execution due to the sequential naming of tokens (e.g., “Cryptopunk #4317”).
Aggregators, however, are a conflict-free counter mechanism that allows for parallel execution of these mints, dramatically improving performance. Aptos Labs has published a blog post that further elaborates on this technology.
Aside from those, Aptos Labs is now aiming for 100,000 TPS as part of its journey toward exceeding 1 million TPS. A major upgrade includes a new consensus mechanism called Raptr, which blends DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) and BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) features to reduce latency and increase throughput.
Also, Aptos Labs is working on a new Aptos Move Compiler V2 with an array of enhanced language features designed to streamline coding processes and extend functionality. The compiler is expected to function with the upcoming Move 2.0 and its features include Receiver Style Function Calls, First Class Higher Order Functions, and User-Defined Abilities, among others.
Lastly, we can expect the Move 2.0 Language release in the near future, as indicated in the recent Aptos Experience event held in Seoul. According to the documentation, Move 2.0 is supposed to come with new features like Index Notation, Receiver Style Function, Positional Struct, and many more.
Growth Potential
Aptos is well-positioned to continue growing in the future, thanks to its unique features, strong development team, and engaged community.
Since its mainnet launch, Aptos has continually introduced technical innovations aimed at enhancing both scalability and the developer experience. A testament to this progress is the nearly 100 Aptos Improvement Proposals (AIPs) that have been implemented to date, with more than 20 proposals added since May 2024 alone.
In July 2024, Aptos introduced Aptos Connect, a self-custodial crypto wallet that provides users with an advanced way to manage their assets within the Aptos ecosystem. This aligns with the blockchain’s goal of achieving a throughput of up to 160,000 TPS and sub-second latency, while maintaining a high degree of security and decentralization.
Also, AptosBFTv4—the blockchain’s Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanism—has undergone four iterations of rigorous testing without revealing any major flaws, demonstrating the robustness of its design and implementation. The team is also continuously improving Shoal++, a cutting-edge DAG-BFT (Directed Acyclic Graph-Byzantine Fault Tolerant) consensus mechanism that further enhances Aptos’ speed and performance.
In addition to Aptos' advancements, Block-STM technology has gained traction beyond the APT ecosystem. Polygon's R&D has incorporated Block-STM parallelization for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which has been operational on Polygon PoS for some months.
Likewise, APT now hosts a diverse array of core onchain financial primitives, making it a key player in the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape. Beyond DeFi, Aptos is increasingly becoming a platform of choice for web3 gaming advancements. For instance, Supervillain Labs integrated Aptos accounts to manage in-game inventories.
These applications are often not feasible on many other layer-1 blockchains, positioning Aptos as a compelling choice for web3 innovations.
Read Also: How Hashing Safeguard Blockchain Technology
Conclusion
Aptos stands out as a highly innovative and promising blockchain platform with its combination of scalability, security, and developer tools. With strong community support, active development, and a focus on solving real-world problems, Aptos is a significant player in the evolving cryptocurrency landscape.
For investors and developers alike, Aptos offers a compelling opportunity with substantial growth potential in the years to come.
FAQs
Aptos is a Layer 1 blockchain platform designed to be the safest and most production-ready blockchain available. Its mission is to provide universal and equitable access to decentralized assets for billions of people.
The Aptos team consists of the original creators, researchers, designers, and developers behind the Diem Blockchain. Although the Diem project did not reach the public, the team continues their work with Aptos, striving to achieve their vision.
Aptos provides a highly efficient environment for developers with its low latency, high throughput, minimal gas fees, and sub-second finality, ensuring both speed and effectiveness.
Aptos stands out by operating parallel execution rather than the serial transaction processing used by traditional blockchains. This enables multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously, by taking a snapshot of the current state and handling them in parallel.
