XP.NETWORK to integrate Aptos, one of the fastest and safest L1 chains

XP.NETWORK to integrate
Aptos, one of the fastest
and safest L1 chains

XP.NETWORK to integrate
Aptos, one of the fastest
and safest L1 chains

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Aptos is the most talked-about new blockchain of 2022 – and one of several chains we will soon connect to our NFT bridge. Here’s what you should know about this L1 capable of processing over 100k tps with subsecond finality – and its exploding NFT ecosystem.

aptoslabs.com

What is Aptos?

Aptos is a blockchain and smart contract platform that can support any types of dApps, similar to Ethereum, BNB Chain, or Solana. The key difference is that it uses a new programming language called Move, which has a focus on security and clarity.

Blockchain developers do need to learn Move before they can design a dApp for Aptos – but once they do, they usually find working with Move a pleasant and refreshing experience, unlike working with Solidity.

Aptos was created by a group of engineers and executives who used to work on Meta’s grand blockchain project, Diem (originally called Libra). Both Move and Aptos’ new consensus algorithm were developed at that point and then implemented by the Aptos team once Diem’s assets were sold by Meta to a crypto bank called Silvergate.

Aptos’ founders are Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, who formerly worked for Meta. The project has raised $475 million dollars from such famous investors as Binance Labs and Jump Crypto.

However, it’s quite possible that what we have now – Aptos – is better for the global blockchain ecosystem than the strictly regulated Diem would have been. It’s not by chance that already at mainnet launch Aptos had more node operators than any other network except for Ethereum. It even has more nodes than Solana – a good sign of decentralization.

Speed, performance and security

Aptos can potentially process up to 160,000 transactions per second, and can certainly achieve 100,000 tps (of course, once there are enough users in the network to reach these numbers). However, it’s not TPS that matters by time to finality – the amount of time for a transaction to be confirmed on-chain. In Aptos, this takes less than 1 second.

The fees are really low, too. The standard gas fee for most transactions (including sending NFTs) is 0.002-0.003 APT, which is less than $0.02. Even minting an NFT won’t cost you more than $0.10 in fees. This is because NFTs are native to Aptos, treated just like fungible tokens – rather than an extra class of assets slapped onto the blockchain later the way it happened on Ethereum.

Because of the way assets and interactions between them are structured in Move, some common Solidity vulnerabilities and exploits can hardly happen in Aptos dApps. For example, a user needs to approve a token before they can receive it and interact with it, so scammers can’t send you a malicious fake token under the guise of an airdrop. The same goes for collectibles: you first have to allow receiving NFTs from all senders.

The NFT boom on Aptos

For such a young network (the mainnet was launched in October) Aptos has a remarkably large and lively NFT scene. There are three big marketplaces (Topaz, Souffl3 and BlueMove) with near-daily mints of new collections. The most prestigious drops happen on Topaz, though users without a WL don’t have much chance to participate in them.

The 10 top-ranking Aptos NFT collections by volume as of December 2022 were these:

The trading volume on Topaz exceeded $2 million just days after launch, by the way - yet another sign of interest.

The GameFi niche on Aptos is only just emerging, but there are also a few games in development, such as Aptos CODM and KeplerHomes.

It’s worth noting that Aptos has over 150 dApps in its ecosystem (DeFi, infrastructure, etc.). It’s no. 33 by TVL among all chains on DeFiLlama, ahead of Moonriver, Cardano and Tezos – not bad for a blockchain that is less than 3 months old. Actually, when Aptos ran its incentivized testnet campaign, over 30,000 people submitted applications to a single round.

Why is the XP.NETWORK team working so hard to integrate Aptos?

Near-instant transaction processing, security, very low fees on NFT transactions, a huge developer community, hundreds of NFT collections, and an enthusiastic audience: all these are valid reasons to add Aptos to the list of blockchains supported by the XP.NETWORK NFT bridge.

We are simultaneously working on looping in several chains: Aptos, Solana, Cardano, Secret – but Aptos is one of the priorities for now. We are sure that many NFT collections hosted on other blockchains can benefit from an expansion into this lively ecosystem with lots of circulating liquidity and a constant inflow of new users. And conversely, there are many original NFT projects on Aptos that deserve to be known outside of its ecosystem.

Once the integration goes live, you’ll need to be aware of a few things:

Aptos is not an EVM chain, and you can’t add it to MetaMask. Instead, you’ll need to use a dedicated Aptos wallet, such as Pontem Wallet, Petra, or Martian. These wallets have dedicated NFT sections (similar to Solana’s Phantom), making it much easier to view your NFTs than in MetaMask.
You’ll need some APT before you can mint NFTs and perform any other transactions. The easiest way is to buy APT on KuCoin, Binance, Coinbase, etc. and withdraw it to your Aptos wallet.
Even though token addresses look similar on Aptos on EVM chains (they start with 0x), they are not compatible. You can’t directly send an asset from Ethereum, Polygon etc. to Aptos.
The NFT ecosystem on Aptos has its own share of low-quality collections, rugpulls and scams. There are conmen luring users in with promises of NFT WL spots, APT airdrops, etc. Exercise the same level of caution as you would on any other blockchain – even if Aptos is safer by design, ultimately only you can keep your assets safe.