You will agree that the blockchain ecosystem has been experiencing tremendous growth as new and scalable blockchain technologies keep popping up. Leading in scalability and security, Aptos blockchain offers a compelling alternative to Ethereum, leaving the limitations of traditional blockchains behind. On the other hand, Move is the programming language for building smart contracts on the Aptos blockchain.
Understanding Aptos Blockchain
Aptos is a layer 1 blockchain that is built to be secure, scalable, and reliable. It is a relatively new blockchain technology that is massively gaining traction as a major player in the blockchain ecosystem as it also supports smart contracts and dApp development similar to platforms like Ethereum, but aims to improve scalability issues faced by older blockchains. To fully understand the Aptos blockchain, we will break it down into the following subheadings:
Background
Aptos was created by former Meta/Facebook employees to build a fast, scalable, and developer-friendly blockchain while working on the Diem project, a blockchain initiative formerly known as Libra which was launched in October 2022.
Technical Features
Aptos utilizes a special type of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus called AptosBFT, which is designed to offer high transaction throughput and scalability without compromising decentralization and security. It aims to process thousands (up to 160, 000) of transactions per second (TPS), addressing the scalability issues faced by older blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and it is designed to have low transaction latency which makes it more efficient for both users and developers.
Being a blockchain that supports the development of smart contracts and dApps, Aptos uses Move programming language for smart contract development. Move is designed to make it easier to write secure smart contracts while offering flexibility.
Use Cases of Aptos
Aptos is a blockchain that supports smart contracts and dApp development, making it a versatile platform with a wide range of potential uses as there is no limit to what can be built on its chain. Here are some of the areas Aptos will make a great impact.
Decentralized Finance: Decentralized finance refers to financial products that are built on the blockchain. Due to Aptos' high transaction throughput and low latency, it will be a better platform for building DeFi products and services such as decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and staking platforms.
Gaming: Aptos' scalability and low fees make it a perfect platform for building blockchain games. Engaging games that are highly performant and affordable can be built.
Social Media: The ability to handle large volumes of data and transactions makes Aptos the suitable platform for developing decentralized social media applications. This gives users the ability to control and manage their data while interacting with each other.
Data Storage: Aptos can have a competitive advantage when it comes to storing data, due to its high performance and security. Users can comfortably store their data on the blockchain, ensuring its integrity and availability.
Internet of Things: IoT applications can be built on the Aptos blockchain because of its scalability and security features.
Machine Learning: Aptos can handle large datasets, which makes it a suitable platform for building applications in machine learning and artificial intelligence, giving developers the ability to train models on the blockchain.
Why Build on Aptos Blockchain
Choosing a blockchain to build on can be a strategic decision that can make or mar the success of the project being built. Building on Aptos can offer some advantages such as technological capabilities and perks of a growing ecosystem such as early adoption benefits. The following are some of the reasons you should consider building on the Aptos blockchain:
High Scalability and Efficiency
Aptos is designed to handle large volumes of transactions per second which makes it very ideal for applications that require high throughput and low latency. Aptos makes use of a parallel execution engine which is very efficient for processing transactions for high-demand applications like gaming platforms and decentralized exchanges.
Enhanced Security
Aptos uses a consensus mechanism called Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) which ensures that all the nodes in the network agree on the state of the ledger. This consensus mechanism makes it resistant to malicious attacks and data tampering.
Growing Ecosystem
Aptos has a growing community of developers which can serve as a ground for collaboration, support, and innovation. Being an early adopter in the new blockchain gives you an edge, and places you in a position to be the Aptos go-to person for bugs or consultation. This implies that you can mentor and guide others in that niche as an industry master.
Innovations
New blockchains allow developers to build amazing applications that already exist in other blockchains. Take Uniswap and Pancakeswap for example, which are the leading decentralized exchanges in the Ethereum and Binance smart chain respectively, early developers can quickly build similar unicorns on the Aptos blockchain.
Others
The list of reasons why you should build on Aptos is non-exhaustive, some other reasons include: lower transaction fees, developer-friendly programming language (move), and versatile use cases
Overview of Move Programming Language
Move programming language is one of the components of the Aptos blockchain which was originally developed by Meta/Facebook for their Libra project. The move is a resource-oriented language based on Rust, which is specifically designed for safe and efficient transaction scripting and smart contract development.
Features of Move
The following are some of the unique features of the Move programming language:
Memory Safety: Because Move is built on Rust, it automatically inherits the memory safety feature of Rust. Move’s memory safety feature prevents common errors relating to memory such as memory leaks and dangling pointers. This helps to enhance the security and reliability of smart contracts and also reduces the risk of bugs and potential exploits.
Resource Model: Move uses a resource-oriented paradigm where digital assets like currency and storage are treated as distinct resources. To further explain, in the resource model, resources (digital assets) have the same properties as physical assets; they cannot be duplicated or destroyed, but can only be moved between accounts.
Read-Write Isolation: Move uses a read-write isolation mechanism that prevents concurrent access to shared state variables. This concurrency control mechanism prevents data corruption and ensures the integrity of smart contracts
Benefits of Using Move
You may be finding it difficult to decide on learning Move programming language because there are way too many programming languages to learn and this can be overwhelming sometimes. Nevertheless, the following are some benefits of learning and using Move:
Early Usage Benefit: Move innovative design and continuous improvement is no doubt going to make it a highly sought-after programming language in the future. Learning and mastering the language and its syntax has huge benefits.
Enhanced Security: The main focus of the move is safety and security which is crucial for blockchain applications where transactions are irreversible. Its resource-oriented paradigm, memory safety features, formal verification support, and read-write isolation mechanism contribute to making move a more secure programming language, suitable for smart contract development.
Scalability: move is a highly scalable language that enables the development of decentralized applications with high transaction throughput.
Support for Multiple Blockchains: Move is not only used on the Aptos blockchain, it can also be used to write smart contracts on the Sui blockchain. The good thing about this is that you can write a smart contract that runs on more than one blockchain. Given that the move is quite new, upcoming blockchains might choose to use it as their preferred programming language for smart contract development and this will increase the demand for move developers.
Move is a powerful and secure programming language that is designed specifically for building reliable and efficient smart contracts on the Aptos and Sui blockchain. Its security features make it a developer-friendly environment for building decentralized applications.
Components Required for Building on Aptos Blockchain
Every blockchain requires its developers to have some tools and dependencies installed on their PCs for an efficient development process. Similarly, some basic requirements must be in place for a developer to conveniently build applications on the Aptos blockchain.
Aptos Wallet
This is a software application (digital wallet) designed specifically to interact with the Aptos blockchain, just like there are wallets like Metamask for Ethereum-compatible blockchains. With the Aptos wallet, you can connect and interact with dApps (decentralized applications) built on the Aptos blockchain. For this article, we will be installing and setting up the Martian Wallet extension.
Aptos CLI
Aptos CLI is a command line interface tool designed for interacting with the Aptos blockchain. It provides a variety of commands used by developers to perform different tasks related to blockchain development and management. This is the tool that is needed to scaffold a Move project, create an account, deploy smart contracts on the Aptos blockchain, and interact with deployed smart contracts.
VSCode
Visual Studio Code is an open-source lightweight code editor used for software development and is very popular among developers.
Move-analyzer Extension
This is a VSCode extension that provides language support for the Move programming language. It enables syntax highlighting, commenting, and uncommenting, simple context completion suggestions while typing.
Proceed to the next article to build your first Move smart contract on the Aptos blockchain here.