What is Aptos (APT)? • Extended distribution of tokens in 2023 • Benzinga

Have you come across APT in a hunt for the hottest cryptos of 2023 and wondering what Aptos is? Look no further.

Aptos is an innovative venture capital-backed crypto project that was built by former Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) engineers. Although still in their infancy, Aptos’ proposed features have already sent shockwaves through the crypto industry – generating life-changing wealth for savvy investors who arrived early.

Year-to-date, Aptos has skyrocketed over 500%, solidifying itself into the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Aptos aims to compete with Ethereum and other blockchain networks by supporting a scalable ecosystem that does not sacrifice reliability or security.

The following discussion will explore how Aptos works, how the project compares to competitors, and whether Aptos has the potential to support its growth in the future.

Introducing Aptos

Aptos is a layer 1 blockchain that uses a unique smart contract programming language called Move, which was developed by the same engineers who previously worked on the Diem (formerly Facebook) blockchain.

Layer 1 blockchains are the foundation or core layer of a blockchain network. They are responsible for maintaining network security, verifying transactions, and creating new blocks of data. As the underlying infrastructure, Aptos serves as the foundation upon which other decentralized applications (dApps) are built.

In technical terms, Aptos operates on a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism to power its blockchain. Aptos’ PoS design can achieve a theoretical transaction throughput of over 150,000 transactions per second (TPS). Currently, the team is aiming to hit 10,000 TPS in the near term and is making promising progress towards over 100,000.

APT is the native token of the Aptos network. Current use cases for APT include:

• Governance : Participation in the governance of the on-chain community (decisions made regarding the direction and development of Aptos)
• Network fees: Pay network transaction fees
• Validator staking: Participate in network consensus and secure the blockchain.

Why do people use Aptos?

Currently, there really isn’t any real use with Aptos. The project is still in its early stages of development and has not yet achieved many of the milestones set out in its roadmap.

The lack of activity on the Aptos blockchain is reflected in its meager $60 million in total value locked (TVL). Aptos’ TVL pales in comparison to several competitors, many of which have a lower market cap. Ethereum, the market leader, has a TVL of $28 billion, while Fantom, a project with half the market capitalization of Aptos, has a TVL of $500 million.

TVL is a metric that measures the value of assets that are locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on a blockchain. It’s a great way to examine the health and amount of money held on a blockchain.

History of Aptos

Aptos is the brainchild of Avery Ching and Mo Shaikh, both former Meta employees and current members of Aptos Labs – the diverse team of strategists, developers, and engineers behind Aptos.

Ching and Shaikh worked together on the Diem blockchain project at Meta. Ching was a senior software engineer, leading several of Meta’s innovative development projects. Shaikh specializes in scaling products and has extensive experience in the venture capital and private equity markets. When Meta decided to end the Diem project, Shaikh and Ching joined forces to build Aptos Labs.

Aptos Labs is on a mission to create the most secure and trusted network in the cryptocurrency industry. His commitment to creating an infrastructure with these qualities has garnered immense support. Although a relatively new player, the company has raised $350 million in funding, launched its developer testnet, and successfully processed millions of transactions across thousands of nodes.

Notable partners include venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), crypto heavyweights like Multicoin Capital and Tiger Global, and more recently, Binance Labs.

Where to buy APT

APT can be traded on major exchanges such as Gemini, Binance.US (or Binance for non-US investors), OKX, Crypto.com, and KuCoin. Many of these platforms allow you to purchase APT using your credit card, through exchange features, or through trading pairs such as APT/USDT or APT/BTC.

Aptos Blockchain vs other Blockchains

Aptos faces intense competition within the Layer 1 sector of the industry. Notable competitors include Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Tron, Cardano, Polkadot, Near Protocol and especially Ethereum – the second largest crypto by market capitalization (by a wide margin). It is for this reason that layer 1 projects on top of Ethereum are called “Ethereum Killers”.

Ethereum has over 50% of the Total Value Locked (TVL) across all Layer 1s, followed by Tron and Binance Smart Chain with 10% each respectively. Ethereum is the undisputed gold standard, boasting the largest ecosystem of dApps and a strong historical track record.

However, despite Ethereum’s dominant market share, many critics point to Ethereum’s lack of scalability as a fatal weakness – one that will likely grow as the cryptocurrency gains wider adoption. General public. This factor ultimately provides an opportunity for competitors to take market share and position themselves as long-term substitutes.

Aptos is positioned to compete with Ethereum by offering a much higher level of scalability. The Aptos team claims that the network has the potential to process over 150,000 TPS. In comparison, Ethereum aims to reach 100,000 TPS in the future.

Aptos’ high theoretical transaction throughput is made possible by a unique parallel execution engine. Its system allows Aptos to process transactions simultaneously and then validate them, which means that failed transactions can be either rolled back or re-executed without blocking the entire chain.

The most significant difference between Aptos and other blockchains is Move, Aptos’ native programming language. The Aptos team claims that Move offers several advantages to Solidity, Ethereum’s native programming language, including increasing private key modification, modular design, and verification. However, time will tell if these claims are true, as Aptos is still in the early stages of development.

How to Store APT Safely

APT can be stored using hardware wallets or software wallets. Software wallets, such as Exodus Wallet and Trust Wallet, allow users to easily manage their cryptocurrency, including buying, selling, trading and lending via the Internet. Conversely, hardware wallets, which keep private keys offline, are considered the safest way to store APT. Hardware wallets cannot be hacked by cyberattacks or phishing schemes.

Considering the increased security, it is recommended to store long-term APT holdings in hardware wallets. The Ledger Nano S Plus is an industry-leading hardware wallet that offers top-notch security and a user-friendly experience. It supports APT and over 1,800 altcoins such as Ethereum (ETH), Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (MATIC) and all ERC-20 (and BEP-20) tokens.

So, is Aptos a good investment?

As it stands, Aptos is a hot cryptocurrency project that still has a lot to prove. While the team has raised an impressive amount of capital and created a compelling narrative for the future, the reality is that Aptos is still quite small compared to blockchain giants such as Ethereum.

If Aptos Labs manages to continuously execute future milestones, increasing transaction speed and ecosystem size as promised, there is no telling where APT’s price will go.