Dialogue with Aptos Labs Co-founder: Ease of use does not mean technological leadership, Aptos has always been developer-centric

作者：JulianKin & Stoneberri，AptosGlobal

编辑：TechFlow 深潮

Product usability does not mean technological leadership; what sets Aptos apart is our developer-centric approach.

-- Mo Shaikh, Co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs

New L1/L2s are continuously emerging in the market, and according to incomplete statistics, there are still over 60 Layer 1s that have not launched their mainnet. As a highly popular MOVE-based Layer 1, Aptos has gradually begun its own development path after experiencing the market's frenzy.

TechFlow is fortunate to have collaborated with AptosGlobal to invite Mo Shaikh, Co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs, for an exclusive interview to discuss the progress of Aptos's ecosystem 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 local from 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 socio-economic value of being able to share value with those you care about, from your neighbors to people living on the other side of the world.

My journey with Aptos and Web3 has traversed the global financial sector; I have worked at BlackRock and the Royal Bank of Canada, BCG management consulting, and in the blockchain space, serving 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 the establishment of Aptos Labs is to bring economic value to people around the world through decentralized and user-friendly technology.

TechFlow: What do you see as the intersection of traditional networks and blockchain? How can Web3 kickstart mass adoption and attract the next billion users?

Mo Shaikh: Traditional networks are easy to use, which is their biggest advantage. But usability does not equate to user-centric technology; our team is quite different. At Aptos Labs, we place a strong 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 because the entry barriers have been too high for a long time. This is a problem our team is working to address with every resource, product, and upgrade we introduce. For example, to celebrate Aptos's first anniversary, the Aptos Labs team launched Graffio, inviting everyone inside and outside the Aptos ecosystem to contribute. The app quickly went viral, garnering 1.8 million views, drawing 75 million pixels on a 1 million pixel canvas, 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: It has been a year since the Aptos mainnet launched. How would you summarize the achievements of Aptos over this past year? Can you share the development of the ecosystem in the past year?

Mo Shaikh: A year ago, I thought numbers like 111 validator nodes, 24 active countries, and 43 active cities were unattainable. But since the mainnet launch, the ecosystem has achieved that and even more. Over the past 12 months, Aptos Labs has collaborated with Web2 giants like NBCU to create immersive fan experiences for blockbuster films such as "The Exorcist: Believer" and "Renfield"; and partnered with KYD Labs to create a groundbreaking, unprecedented music festival fully powered by Web3, featuring Pitbull.

If it happens in Web3, it also happens on Aptos—this reflects the impressive ecosystem built on Aptos.

The Aptos community has grown rapidly over the past year, expanding from 30 projects at mainnet launch to over 200 active projects now, covering DeFi, NFTs, dApps, gaming, and more, and this is just the beginning.

From the start, Aptos's developer community has been unique, continuously striving to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 through increasingly groundbreaking on-chain innovations—all of which are natively built on Aptos.

This year, the Aptos World Tour Hackathon took place in Seoul, Amsterdam, and Singapore, providing an international platform driven by Move for developers to showcase rich user experience projects, further expanding Aptos's global community. The Aptos Labs team has also enthusiastically supported 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 travel around the world to support developers in further developing the Aptos community.

TechFlow: There are already many Layer 1 platforms in the market. What do you think sets Aptos apart from other blockchain platforms?

Mo Shaikh: There are certainly some strong Layer 1 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 building process, and our ecosystem has a wealth of tools and a solid technical foundation to help developers easily turn their innovative ideas into reality. The key here is the built-in reliability, scalability, and security of the infrastructure layer. So far, Aptos is the blockchain with the lowest latency and highest throughput on the market, and this success is largely attributed to the advanced technology we use.

TechFlow: Can you briefly introduce the Move language to the readers and how Move 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 move from conception to production.

Aptos's Move language is continuously evolving to enhance the security and performance of its dApps and integrations, with upgrades occurring almost monthly to ensure 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 dialogue around the definition of "performance" and aiming for consensus.

By providing a parallel execution method, Move allows tasks to be completed simultaneously, making transactions on Aptos faster and cheaper than elsewhere, while also prioritizing security by preventing assets from being copied or destroyed through asset restrictions.

TechFlow: Your personal goal is to build 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 can't reveal too much, I can say this: In the coming years, Aptos Labs will remain steadfastly focused on user experience, interoperability, reliability, and scalability, continuously pushing Web3 closer to mass adoption. We are also constantly seeking various ways to grow our existing partnerships while making new impacts in regions like the Asia-Pacific that have massive adoption potential.

I am very grateful for the contributions Aptos Labs has made to the ecosystem and look forward to exciting moments in the future.

About AptosGlobal

AptosGlobal is a community focused on the Aptos ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific region, dedicated to developing the Aptos ecosystem by hosting events, developer education, building communities, and creating bilingual content. AptosGlobal has produced over 50 original articles and videos and hosted more than 10 Aptos ecosystem events.

AptosGlobal was established in July 2022 and is funded by the Aptos Foundation.