On Monday, layer-1 blockchain Aptos launched its highly anticipated Mainnet with a mission to provide the safest and most scalable layer-1 blockchain. This launch is the culmination of four years of technical development and a $1 billion valuation. The leading cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which is an Aptos investor, has already announced that it will list Aptos’ APT token on the 19th of October.
Aptos is the latest high-profile try to create the perfect blockchain for smart contracts, and it is a code that will support the sprawling world of DAOs, NFTs, and Defi. Ethereum has also taken a major step forward following the merge, and Solana is also making inroads with much faster transaction speeds. Despite these challenges, there are some opportunities for newer players like Aptos.
In 2019, Facebook, now called Meta, was working on its blockchain project called Libra, but it later changed the project name to Diem. But with the pressure from government regulators and plenty of criticism from the crypto community, Meta stopped their project. Now, Aptos developers found a method of ordering and combining transactions to accelerate the process rapidly.
In a test, Aptos claimed that it had handled over 130,000 transactions per second, whereas on Ethereum, it does 30 per second. Aptos ecosystem is based on move programming language, which prioritizes access control and scarcity.
During the launch, Aptos closed a $200 million strategic round from Andreessen Horowitz back in March, and earlier this summer, it closed a $150 million Series A round by FTX. Aptos gathered this money in a short time, which created a narrative among some Web3 circles. Due to Aptos this achievement, investors were ditching Solana for Aptos.
Last month, Aptos chose Anchorage Digital as one of its preferred institutional custodians, which previously served on the Diem technical steering committee.
Aptos called their today’s launch a milestone and a movement aimed to bring the masses to Web3. Aptos wrote on Medium that they are proud to arrive here together, for the people. Moreover, they said that this is step one in a long journey to create universal and fair access to decentralized applications for billions of people through a safe, upgradeable, and scaleable blockchain.
