aptos blockchain review

So far, 2022 has not been the best year for crypto. Indeed, recent events in the space have left retail investors spurned. From events such as the collapse of $LUNA-$UST to Solana’s wallets getting hacked, retail investors have been losing money in more ways than one.

Yet, privy investors are recognizing a problem here. Today, Layer 1 (L1) projects are not secure or scalable enough for widespread adoption. By seeing this, these privy investors, like yourself, go on the hunt for the next better L1 project. One such project is APTOS, which we will talk about today.

What is APTOS? 

Retail investors, like you and me, are not the only ones trying to find the next L1 gem. Venture capitalists (VCs) are doing so too. In fact, APTOS has raised a total of $350 million from notable VCs like FTX and a16z. So, what makes this project so unique compared to today’s L1s?

First, let’s go through its history. APTOS is a brand new Proof-Of-Stake L1 blockchain. Its founders are Ex-Facebook (or Meta) employees. Previously, they were tasked to build the Diem blockchain for Meta. This came to an end when regulators voiced opposition to Meta’s planned stablecoin issuance.

Aptos
Source: Aptos Labs

Now, its developers have stepped out to build APTOS, based on Diem’s technology. In doing so, they founded Aptos Labs and set out to achieve their vision without Meta’s help.

Now, let’s look at the project and its vision. APTOS was born on February 24th, 2022. In their first medium post, the team states their vision clearly. They hope to build their project:

  • As a Layer 1 project for everyone.
  • With a focus on absolute safety, extensible scalability, and credible neutrality.
  • To create universal and fair access to decentralized assets for billions of people.

Indeed, Aptos Labs has the correct mindset and technical know-how to bring APTOS to market. It is assuring that they’re starting off on the right foot.

APTOS’ Technical Features

Apart from its history, the project also has some impressive features. Let’s dive into these below.

Firstly, it uses a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol which promises high performance. From the original “Hotstuff” BFT consensus, Aptos Labs spent 3 years and 4 iterations building their BFT V4 engine. With that, APTOS has the following capabilities:

  • Zero downtime with a diverse set of operators.
  • Sub-second finality of transactions.
  • Immutability and Safety: The blockchain cannot be forked.
  • Suited for Decentralization: The project singles out unresponsive validators on-chain.

Indeed, the above features make APTOS a strong L1 for smart contracts to deploy on.

Secondly, it has a special feature known as parallel execution. With this, APTOS can run multiple chains at the same time. In comparison, today’s blockchains, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, use serial execution. Simply put, they can only process the next transaction once the previous one has been verified.

However, with AptosBFT V4 and parallel execution, APTOS can achieve high throughput. Below is a comparison of time-to-finality (TTF) and transactions-per-second (TPS),  other L1 projects.

Source: Medium

Thirdly, it uses a programming language called Move. In the past, Move was built specifically to develop Diem. Now, it helps developers build APTOS. MOVE’s programming language has several benefits, which are listed below:

  • Easy customization of digital assets.
  • Secure storage of information.
  • Easy resolution of bugs.
  • Quick code verification and testing.
  • Easy multi-chain development for applications.

In comparison to Solidity, Move has better features and more tools for developers to build their smart contracts.

Aptos Labs – The Team

As a crypto investor, it is important to research a project’s team members. For Aptos Labs, their 15 members are all fully doxxed with clear LinkedIn profiles. You can check the team out in their first medium post. Here, we highlight the 2 founder’s experiences below:

  1. Mo Shaikh – Previously director of Strategy at ConsenSys and CEO of Meridio. Today, he serves as an advisor and board member to multiple companies.
  2. Avery Ching – More than 10 years of experience in software engineering. Also served as VP of Apache Giraph.

Moreover, an in-depth look at the team does indeed reflect technical competence. However, we do have to note that the founder of APTOS is in a legal dispute over the equity of Aptos Labs. So, that is an issue that we have to keep an eye out for.

Notable Competitors

As with any L1 project, competition to sell blockspace is hot. Some notable competitors for APTOS include:

  • The original smart contract blockchain – is Ethereum.
  • Developed L1 projects – Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Avalanche, etc.
  • Young L1 projects – ASTAR, Moonbeam, etc.
  • L2 projects – Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, etc.
  • L1 projects yet to launch – Sui, Celestia, etc.

Indeed, there is a long road ahead for APTOS to stand out above its competition.

Upcoming Ecosystem Growth and Tokenomics

Sad to say, our review of APTOS is not complete. This is because Aptos Labs have not released tokenomics for their $APTOS token. Also, we do not have confirmed details of applications building on APTOS. However, teams are indicating their interest in the Twitter thread below.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is hard to deny APTOS’ promise as an L1. However, there are still many missing pieces for this puzzle, as to whether this will be a gem.

Moving forward, I’ll be keeping an eye out for the project’s ecosystem growth and tokenomics. I’ll also be looking at their roadmap and whether the team can deliver on its promises. As of now, they’re slated to release its mainnet on Q3-2022.

Only with the above, then can we determine if this is a solid investment or not.

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