Aptos is a layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain infrastructure developed on a combination of system securities, smart contract design, decentralization, consensus & performance technologies. It uses a parallel execution engine (Block-STM)  — a Byzantine Fault-Tolerant (BFT) PoS consensus mechanism that provides a greater speed of processing transactions. ^[5][19][4]

History

Aptos was founded by Mo Shaikh (CEO) and Avery Ching (CTO) — two ex-Meta (formally Facebook) employees in 2021. Both founders previously worked together on Diem — a blockchain project at Meta and joined hands to develop Aptos Labs after the Diem project was discontinued by Facebook. ^[3]

Prior to Aptos' mainnet launch in October 2022, Aptos ran a testnet campaign - Aptos Incentivized Testnet (AIT) in May divided into four stages (AIT1, AIT2, AIT3, and AIT4). The campaign incentivized developers, node operators, and auditors to launch applications and stress-test the network. At the end of the testnets, Aptos onboarded over 100 projects, including Solrise Finance, Pontem Network, PayMagic, and MartianDAO. ^[19]

Aptos blockchain runs on Move — a smart contract programming language that was developed for Diem. ^[9]

Aptos raised up to 400 million dollars before its full launch on 17th October 2022, led by notable investors - Binance Labs, Jump Crypto, a16z, ParaFi Capital, Oak HC/FT, Circle Ventures, Apollo, Franklin Templeton Investments, Tess Ventures, Superskrypt, and Griffin Gaming Partners. ^[25]

The blockchain was tagged 'Solana killer' due to its potential to surpass Solana with its possible ability to create a blockchain well-suited to smart contracts. ^[6]

Aptos Technology

The Aptos data model enables flexible key management and hybrid custodial options. The blockchain leverages a pipeline and modular approach for key stages of transaction processing like block metadata ordering, transaction dissemination, parallel transaction execution, batch storage, and ledger certification which all operate concurrently.
Aptos parallel execution ensures that all transactions are performed simultaneously and validated later. The approach is different from a blockchain like Ethereum which processes transactions sequentially.

The blockchain is experimenting with future initiatives that would scale beyond individual validator performance: modular design and parallel execution engine support internal sharding ^[10] of a validator and homogenous state sharding provides potential for horizontal throughput scalability without introducing more complexity for node operators. ^[5]

Tokenomics

The initial supply of the governance token of the blockchain-APT ^[11] at the mainnet launch on October 12, 2022 was 1 billion tokens. The distribution is mainly between the Community which was allocated 51.02% of initial tokens, Core contributors; 19.00%, Foundation; 16.50% and Investors; 13.48% of initial tokens.

This makes up 49% of the total token supply allocated to the team and the investors of the blockchain and this fanned a controversy on crypto Twitter as the transparency of the blockchain was questioned. ^[13]

These tokens are anticipated to be distributed over a ten-year period:

• 125,000,000 APT to support ecosystem projects, grants, and other community growth initiatives now and in the future for the Community category.
• 5,000,000 APT to support the Aptos Foundation initiatives for the Foundation category.
• 1/120 of the remaining tokens for the community and the Foundation are anticipated to unlock each month for the next ten years.

The total token supply is estimated to grow to over 1.5 billion tokens in the next ten years. ^[12]

Aptos' Blockchain Explorers

Aptos' blockchain transactions and chain analytics can be explored with Aptoscan ^[14] or Apscan ^[15]. Similar to BscScan ^[16], Aptos' activities can be monitored by tracking transactions, validator activities, and account information. The total amount of APT staked, current supply, gas price, and FDV ^[17] can also be viewed.

Staking

Anyone can participate in the Aptos consensus process if they stake sufficient utility coins, i.e., place their utility coin into escrow. To encourage validators to participate in the consensus process, each validator's vote weight is made proportionate to the amount of validator's stake. In exchange, the validator is rewarded in proportion to the amount of validator's stake. The required minimum amount for staking is 1M APT tokens.

Minimum and maximum stake​

Stakers must stake the required minimum amount to join the validator set, and may not exceed the maximum stake amount. If their staked amount exceeds the maximum, their voting power and rewards will be calculated using the maximum amount. Stakers are allowed to withdraw part of the stake and leave their balance below the minimum, in which case their stake pool will be removed from the validator set at the start of the next epoch.

How to stake on Aptos

Aptos staking is possible by running a validator node or staking to a validator node. Aptos validators earn staking rewards for performing their duties, which they then share with their stakers. ^[12]

Governance

Aptos governance is a process where community members can create and vote on proposals that can reduce the cost of blockchain upgrades.

Scope of proposals on Aptos governance

• Changes on the blockchain parameters
• Changes to the core blockchain code
• Upgrades to the Aptos Framework modules for fixing bugs or enhancing the blockchain functionality
• Deploying new framework modules

To be able to propose or vote on the Aptos blockchain, the proposer or voter must stake and the proposer or voter's backing stake pool must have the minimum required proposer stake. ^[20]

Partnerships

On 15th November 2022, Aptos announced a partnership with Korean Triple-A gaming studio; NPIXEL. The partnership aims to improve gamer experience with features such as low-latency production blockchain, technical safeguards for gamers, high fidelity experience, and asset portability. ^[24]

On 17th November 2022, the Network announced another partnership with Google Cloud revealing that; Google Cloud is running a validator on Aptos, Aptos Labs will use Google Cloud for internal development operations and collaborate with Google Cloud to facilitate the running of Aptos nodes and decentralized applications (dApps) on the platform, Aptos Foundation and Google Cloud are launching an accelerator program to provide Web3 entrepreneurs and developers with APT and Google Cloud credits, Google Cloud will index the Aptos chain and provide the data to developers via BigQuery and lastly, the partnership will enable both parties co-host hackathons and events globally to help decentralized developer communities come together to collaborate and tackle shared challenges. ^[23]

The blockchain also partnered with Pontem Network on 25th October 2022, for Pontem to develop open-source products like AMMs, wallet, and developer tooling for the Aptos ecosystem.^[26][27]

Events

NPIXEL and the Aptos Dev Hub Korea hosted a physical event on 18th, November 2022 to mark the partnership with METAPIXEL and facilitate networking with ecosystem enthusiasts. ^[21][22]