Product ease of use does not mean technological leadership, what sets Aptos apart is that we are developer-centric.
-- Mo Shaikh, Co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs
New L1/L2 solutions continue to emerge in the market, with incomplete statistics showing that there are still over 60 Layer1 solutions that have not yet gone live. As a once red-hot Layer1 solution, Aptos has gradually begun to carve out its own path after experiencing the market's tumult.
TechFlow had the honor of inviting Mo Shaikh, Co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs, for an interview to discuss Aptos's ecosystem progress and future plans over the past year.
TechFlow: Can you briefly introduce your background? What led you to learn about blockchain and enter this industry?
Mo Shaikh: I am Mo Shaikh, Co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs. I am a native of Brooklyn and a first-generation Pakistani-American. My parents immigrated to New York in 1989, raising five children to become compassionate and hardworking Americans. I learned a lot from them, including the social and economic value of sharing values with people you care about, from your neighbors to people living on the other side of the world.
My journey with Aptos and Web3 spans the global financial sector. I have worked at BlackRock and Royal Bank of Canada, as well as at BCG Management Consulting, and in the blockchain field, I have served as an advisor to the World Economic Forum, and as CEO of Meridio, supported by Consensys, before joining Meta's blockchain team.
The vision behind Aptos Labs is to bring economic value to people around the world using decentralized and user-friendly technology.
TechFlow: What do you think is the intersection between traditional networks and blockchain? How can Web3 initiate mass adoption and attract the next billion users?
Mo Shaikh: Traditional networks are easy to use, which is their greatest advantage. However, user-friendliness does not mean that the technology is user-centric, which is exactly what sets our team apart. At Aptos Labs, we place great emphasis on improving the developer experience. By doing so, we are helping developers create truly great things for end users.
Despite the incredible advantages of Web3, it has not yet achieved mass adoption due to the historically high barriers to entry. This is a problem that our team is working to address by introducing upgrades to every resource, product, and recommendation. For example, to celebrate Aptos's first anniversary, the Aptos Labs team launched Graffio, inviting contributions from everyone inside and outside the Aptos ecosystem. The app quickly gained popularity, garnering 1.8 million views, drawing 75 million pixels on a 1 million pixel canvas in minutes, and attracting over 331,000 new Graffio art users. This activation broke barriers due to Aptos's unparalleled transaction speed, security, and innovative use of the Move programming language.
TechFlow: Aptos mainnet has been live for a year. How do you summarize Aptos's achievements over the past year? Can you share the development of the ecosystem over the past year?
Mo Shaikh: A year ago, I believed that figures like 111 validator nodes, 24 active countries, and 43 active cities were unattainable. However, since the mainnet launch, the ecosystem has achieved this and more. Over the past 12 months, Aptos Labs has collaborated with Web2 giants such as NBCU to create immersive fan experiences for films like "The Exorcist: Believer" and "Renfield," and partnered with KYD Labs to create a groundbreaking, unprecedented music festival fully supported by Web3, featuring Pitbull.
If it's happening in Web3, it's happening on Aptos—reflecting the impressive ecosystem built on Aptos.
The Aptos community has grown rapidly over the past year, from 30 projects at mainnet launch to over 200 active projects covering DeFi, NFTs, dApps, games, and more, and this is just the beginning.
From the start, Aptos's developer community has been unique, continuously bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 through increasingly groundbreaking on-chain innovations—all built natively on Aptos.
This year, the Aptos World Hackathon was held in Seoul, Amsterdam, and Singapore, providing an opportunity for international developers to showcase rich user experience projects driven by Move, and further expanding the global Aptos community. The Aptos Labs team also enthusiastically supports hackathon projects (such as the recently launched Aptos Arena) and looks forward to supporting more projects in the future.
In the coming year, I look forward to continuing to support developers around the world to further develop the Aptos community.
TechFlow: There are many Layer1 platforms in the market. What do you think sets Aptos apart from other blockchain platforms?
Mo Shaikh: There are certainly some powerful Layer1 platforms, but what sets Aptos apart is our developer-centric technology. Its true purpose is to provide developers with the guidance and support they need throughout the entire building process. Our ecosystem has rich tools and a solid technical foundation to help developers easily turn their innovative ideas into reality. The key here is the reliability, scalability, and security built into the infrastructure layer. So far, Aptos is the blockchain with the lowest latency and highest throughput in the market, and this success is largely attributed to the advanced technology we use.
TechFlow: Can you briefly introduce the Move language and how it will play a role in the future development of smart contracts?
Mo Shaikh: Move is Aptos's groundbreaking programming language designed to help developers securely and quickly go from concept to production.
Aptos's Move language continues to evolve to enhance the security and performance of its dApps and integrations. It undergoes upgrades almost every month, ensuring that Aptos developers are automatically and continuously equipped with the latest and best technology to advance their projects. Move also helped Aptos propose the first fully reproducible performance benchmark, sparking an industry-wide conversation around the definition of "performance" and focusing on achieving consensus.
By providing parallel execution methods, Move allows tasks to be completed simultaneously, making transactions on Aptos faster and cheaper than elsewhere, while prioritizing security by restricting the duplication or destruction of assets.
TechFlow: Your personal goal is to establish a financial system that everyone can use, which is crucial for blockchain. What exciting developments can we expect from Aptos in the future?
Mo Shaikh: While I cannot reveal too much, I can say this: in the years to come, Aptos Labs will steadfastly focus on user experience, interoperability, reliability, and scalability, continuously driving Web3 closer to mass adoption. We are also constantly seeking various ways to develop our existing partnerships and generate new impacts in regions with potential for mass adoption, such as the Asia-Pacific region.
I am very grateful for the contributions Aptos Labs has made to the ecosystem and look forward to exciting times ahead.
About AptosGlobal
AptosGlobal is a community focused on the Aptos ecosystem based in the Asia-Pacific region, dedicated to developing the Aptos ecosystem through events, developer education, community building, and creating bilingual content. AptosGlobal has produced over 50 original articles and videos and hosted over 10 Aptos ecosystem events.
AptosGlobal was founded in July 2022 and is funded by the Aptos Foundation.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AptosGlobalHQ
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