Aptos Gains Popularity with 'Meta Alumni' Title... Challenging Blockchain Popularization

Aptos Coin's Sharp Rise
Increased Interest Due to Meta-Origin Project Participation
Aiming for Blockchain Popularization Through Scalability

Aptos logo [Image source=AptosLab Twitter]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Aptos Coin surpassed a market capitalization of $1.1 billion (approximately 1.5741 trillion KRW) just eight days after its listing. According to CoinMarketCap, a cryptocurrency market data aggregator, its market cap ranking soared to 48th place. The reason Aptos was able to rapidly grow in scale reflects market expectations that it can prove blockchain usability based on improvements in scalability and speed.

The project participants aim to build the Aptos mainnet, which allows anyone to freely access digital assets. Aptos Coin is used on this mainnet as a means of payment, staking (depositing coins in the blockchain network to operate, participate in trust verification, and receive rewards), and more.

Aptos gained fame as a mainnet created by key personnel formerly from Meta (formerly Facebook). Previously, Facebook led the Libra project, which included the stablecoin Libra pegged to several safe assets such as the dollar and euro to reduce volatility. The plan to enable remittance and payments without going through banks was announced in June 2019 but faced regulatory opposition. Eventually, the project was changed to issue stablecoins linked to individual fiat currencies and renamed Diem, but this too was abandoned. In this context, Aptos was highly anticipated as it effectively succeeded the Diem project.

Although Aptos became a hot topic in the second half of this year due to the label "Meta alumni," its real strength lies not in fame but scalability. Aptos is expected to solve the slow speed and high fee issues of existing Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum that support smart contracts (blockchain-based contract execution).

To enable this, Aptos adopted a programming language called Move. Move is an open-source language developed by Meta for use on the Diem blockchain. It is known for its excellent expressiveness for digital assets and high-level security. Additionally, developers can use a verification tool called Move Prover to ensure the code operates as intended.

Ponyo, a researcher at the cryptocurrency evaluation and disclosure platform Xangle, explained, "Security-related issues continue to arise, so the demand for languages with fewer vulnerabilities is greater than ever. Advantages like the security that Move emphasizes are particularly attractive to developers."

Furthermore, Aptos adopted the AptosBFT consensus algorithm, which features low network load and fast consensus speed. In blockchain, the minimum time unit for decision-making according to the consensus algorithm is called a round. Validators communicate only with the leader during each round, reducing network round trips to two. This decreases the number of transmitted messages compared to validators communicating with each other, enabling speed improvements.

The BlockSTM (Block Software Transactional Memory) technology is also analyzed to impact speed enhancement. Existing blockchains like Ethereum use a serial architecture engine. This processes transactions sequentially even if they are unrelated, which can lead to network performance degradation.

However, parallel processing allows only transactions with interdependencies to be processed together, enabling speed increases. BlockSTM is used to efficiently perform parallel processing by executing transactions in a pre-processing then verification manner, rather than verifying before processing.

The Aptos mainnet maintains an ecosystem utilizing Aptos Coin. Aptos Coin is used for transaction fees, payments for digital assets such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and staking. Participants in staking receive additional Aptos Coins as rewards for blockchain validation and gain voting rights when deciding on identity maintenance, upgrades, and other governance matters.

However, the Aptos mainnet is not perfect in every aspect. Issues have been pointed out regarding the creation and allocation of Aptos Coin. The initial issuance amount of Aptos Coin is 1 billion, with no maximum issuance limit. Despite lockup (vesting) measures, about 48.98%?nearly half?of the initial 1 billion coins were allocated to the development team and investors, which has been criticized as excessive. Among the initial issuance, core contributors, the foundation, and investors hold 19%, 16.5%, and 13.48%, respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.