What Is Aptos (APT) and How Does It Work?

What Is Aptos (APT)?

Aptos is a permissionless Layer 1 blockchain where developers can build smart contracts and decentralized applications.

Smart contracts are programs on the blockchain that automatically carry out rules. For example, think of an app that lets users send, borrow, or trade crypto without one central party manually handling every step.

APT is the native token of the Aptos network. You use APT for things like paying transaction fees, staking, and governance.

Staking plays an important role because Aptos uses proof-of-stake. Validators lock up APT to take part in the consensus process and help secure the network. The amount of staked APT also affects a validator's voting weight, among other things.

APT is also used for governance. Through governance, participants can vote on certain changes to the Aptos protocol.

The Aptos mainnet went live on October 12, 2022. In addition to proof-of-stake, Aptos uses BFT consensus to let validators agree on the order and validity of transactions.

One important technical part of Aptos is parallel transaction processing. For this, the network uses Block-STM, among other things. Instead of always processing transactions one by one, transactions that do not interfere with each other can be processed at the same time. This is meant to help the network handle large numbers of transactions more efficiently.

Key Takeaways

• Aptos is a Layer 1 network for smart contracts and decentralized apps.
• APT is the token for fees, staking, and governance.
• Validators secure the network with a proof-of-stake BFT model.
• Move and Block-STM are important technical parts of Aptos.
• Parallel processing helps especially when transactions are not competing for the same data.

How Does Aptos Work?

Aptos works with validators. These are participants who process transactions and reach agreement on the valid order of transactions and blocks.

Aptos uses proof-of-stake for this. Validators lock up APT as stake, and the amount of staked APT determines, among other things, how much voting weight a validator has in the consensus process.

For that consensus, Aptos uses AptosBFT, a mechanism based on Byzantine Fault Tolerance. BFT stands for Byzantine Fault Tolerance. In short, this means the network can keep reaching agreement even when some validators make mistakes or do not behave correctly.

Aptos also tries to run different steps in transaction processing as much in parallel as possible. The network uses a kind of pipeline for this. Spreading transactions, determining order, executing transactions, and storing the results do not always have to wait on each other completely.

Transactions can also be processed in parallel during execution itself. Aptos uses Block-STM for this, among other things. Transactions that do not affect each other can be executed at the same time. If transactions do work with the same data and conflict, the system can detect that and redo the relevant execution.

How Does Delegated Staking Work on Aptos?

APT holders do not have to run a validator node themselves to take part in staking. They can add APT to a delegation pool. Such a pool bundles the APT of multiple delegators and links this stake to a validator.

A delegation pool can be created with zero APT, but it must collect at least 1 million APT before the operator can let the validator join the active validator set. The change then becomes active at the start of the next epoch.

An epoch is a period in which, among other things, the active validator set is fixed. Delegators can receive rewards during staking, minus any commission for the operator.

Delegators can indicate at any time that they want to unlock their APT. However, the tokens can only actually be withdrawn once the delegation pool's lock-up period has ended.

The exact staking terms, such as the minimum stake and the length of the lock-up period, can be changed through governance.

Aptos (APT) Overview

What Is the Move Programming Language on Aptos?

Move is the programming language developers use to write smart contracts on Aptos. These smart contracts are made up of Move modules. A module includes things like data types and functions that define what can happen to data on the blockchain.

An important part of Move is the use of resources. A resource is a special type of blockchain data that can be stored at an account or object address. Resources can, for example, be used to record digital assets or other important data.

Move is designed so that these resources cannot just be copied, deleted, or changed. The module that defines a certain data type determines which rules apply and which functions get access to the data. Other programs therefore cannot just directly change private fields.

Data on Aptos is stored, among other things, in modules and resources under accounts and object addresses. Objects can have their own address to which multiple resources are linked.

Move also supports module upgrades. That means developers can later adjust a smart contract under certain conditions. A package can also be set as immutable, after which further upgrades are no longer possible.

Developers can also use the Move Prover. This is a tool for formal verification. It can be used to check whether certain properties of a Move program match predefined rules.

The Move Prover can help find bugs in smart contracts earlier, but it does not automatically guarantee that an application is completely free of bugs or vulnerabilities.

How Does Aptos Process Transactions in Parallel?

Aptos uses Block-STM to process transactions in parallel. Instead of always processing transactions one by one, Block-STM tries to execute multiple transactions within a block at the same time.

It does this optimistically. The system first assumes that transactions do not interfere with each other. After that, it checks whether different transactions still used or changed the same data.

When two transactions conflict, a conflict occurs. This can happen, for example, when both transactions want to change the same stored data. In that case, one of the transactions can be executed again with the most recent data.

Block-STM keeps multiple versions of changed data for this purpose. Even with parallel execution, the order of transactions in the block still determines the blockchain's final state. That way, validators can process the same transactions in parallel and still arrive at the same final result.

Example: Suppose two users are changing their own balances at the same time. Because both transactions work with different data, they can often be executed at the same time. But if many transactions all want to change the same shared data, conflicts happen more quickly and some transactions have to be executed again.

Parallel processing therefore does not mean every app automatically gets the same capacity. How many transactions can be processed at once depends, among other things, on how many transactions try to read or change the same data.

How Does APT Tokenomics Work?

When the Aptos mainnet launched, the initial supply was 1 billion APT. Those tokens were distributed as follows:

• 51.02% for the community
• 19.00% for core contributors
• 16.50% for the foundation
• 13.48% for investors

The community and foundation allocations were partly available right away. The remaining portion was released according to a set schedule. For core contributors and investors, there was a four-year lock-up starting from the mainnet launch, with monthly unlocks beginning after the first 12 months.

In addition to this original supply, new APT can be created through staking rewards. Validators and stakers can receive such rewards for helping secure the network. How much a participant receives depends, among other things, on the amount of stake, the validator's performance, and any commission in delegated staking.

Against this new issuance, part of the transaction fees is burned. Execution and I/O fees are permanently removed from circulation. I/O fees are related, among other things, to reading and writing data during a transaction.

For long-term storage, Aptos also charges storage fees. These are also burned, but can be fully or partially returned when stored data is removed. For such a refund, the relevant APT are created again.

Does APT Have a Maximum Supply?

At launch, APT did not have a fixed maximum supply. However, in 2026 the Aptos community voted in favor of a governance proposal to set a hard cap of 2.1 billion APT.

That limit has therefore been approved through governance. However, technically putting it into place also requires implementation in the protocol. It is therefore important to distinguish between the original tokenomics, the governance decision, and the final technical implementation of the limit.

Who Founded Aptos?

Aptos Labs was founded in 2022 by Avery Ching and Mo Shaikh. Before that, both worked at Meta on blockchain projects around Diem.

At Meta, Avery Ching was involved in developing blockchain technology and led the crypto platform team, among other things. At Aptos Labs, he was first CTO and has been CEO since December 2024.

Mo Shaikh was a co-founder and the first CEO of Aptos Labs. He focused, among other things, on the business and strategic development of the project.

Other early Aptos Labs employees also came from the former Diem team. As a result, Aptos built on technical knowledge and ideas that had previously been developed within the Diem project.

What Are the Benefits of Aptos?

Aptos has a number of technical features that can matter to users and developers:

• Proof of Stake with BFT consensus: Validators use APT as stake and get voting weight in the consensus process based on that. APT holders can also use delegated staking without managing a validator node themselves.

• Parallel processing with Block-STM: Aptos can execute transactions that do not affect each other at the same time. That means not every transaction has to wait fully for the previous one.

• Pipeline for transaction processing: Different parts of the process, such as spreading, ordering, executing, and storing transactions, can work partly alongside each other.

• Move programming language: Move is designed around clear rules for ownership, storage, and access to data. Resources and module boundaries help developers define which parts of a smart contract can change data.

• No need to predefine read and write locations: Block-STM detects conflicts during execution. That means developers do not have to specify in advance exactly which data each transaction will read or change.

• Burning part of the transaction fees: Execution and I/O fees are permanently burned. Storage fees can be refunded when the related stored data is later removed.

What Are the Downsides of Aptos?

Aptos also has a few things to keep in mind:

• Conflicts can create extra processing: Block-STM first executes transactions in parallel optimistically. If it later turns out that transactions conflict over the same data, some transactions have to be executed again.

• Shared resources can become a bottleneck: When many transactions want to change the same stored data at the same time, more conflicts happen. Because of that, the benefits of parallel processing are not equally large for every app.

• A large part of the initial supply went to project-related parties: Of the original supply, 19% went to core contributors, 16.5% to the foundation, and 13.48% to investors. Together, that is 48.98% of the initial supply. This distribution does not automatically say how much APT is freely tradable or staked at a given moment.

• Staking rewards can increase supply: New APT can be created through staking rewards. At the same time, part of the transaction fees is burned. The final supply development therefore depends on several factors.

• Protocol rules can change through governance: Settings around staking, rewards, gas, and other parts of the protocol can be adjusted in the future.

• Historical network outage: On October 19, 2023, on-chain transaction processing was down for about five hours. The issue was fixed and the network then resumed normal operation. The incident does show that even a Layer 1 blockchain can face technical problems.

Conclusion

Aptos is a Layer 1 blockchain for smart contracts and decentralized applications. The native token APT is used for transaction fees, staking, and governance.

The network uses Proof of Stake together with AptosBFT. This lets validators reach agreement on transactions and blocks, while APT holders can take part through delegated staking without running a validator node themselves.

Technically, the Move programming language and Block-STM stand out most. Move gives developers clear rules for handling on-chain data, while Block-STM processes transactions in parallel whenever possible.

That parallel execution works especially well when transactions use different data. If many transactions want to change the same shared resources at the same time, more conflicts happen and transactions may need to be executed again.

Aptos tries to combine high transaction throughput with a programming model in which ownership and access to data are clearly defined. There are trade-offs, though, such as possible conflicts during parallel execution, changing protocol settings, and a token model in which staking rewards can add new APT.