Meta workers want to create the next big blockchain, taking advantage of the work they did on the Novi wallet.
Avery Ching and Mo Shaik, two former Meta employees have founded Aptos Labs, a company dedicated to the development of blockchain and Web3 technology. Former Meta employees have presented the idea of creating a layer 1 blockchain, called Aptos, that will use Diem's open source software.
Aptos Labs has received 200 million dollars of financing from major investment funds such as a16z, Katie Haun, FTX Ventures and others, for blockchain development.
Aptos will be a general purpose scalable layer one blockchain, which can be used for the creation of decentralized social media, NFT or decentralized finance (DeFi).
Using Diem open source, the Aptos Labs project will use the “Move” programming language developed by Meta, which will be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
The blockchain is finished and is being tested by developers, with plans to launch before the end of the year. However, Aptos Labs has not yet published any whitepaper or information about what the project's tokenomics will look like.
Two former Meta workers and Meta technology
Shaik and Ching met while working on Diem, the cryptocurrency designed by Meta to be a digital currency to transfer money internationally free of charge and quickly. Along with cryptocurrency, Meta also developed its own wallet, Novi, with specific functionalities for Diem.
However, the project was not well received by regulators and Meta was only able to develop a pilot project for Novi, the digital wallet, which will also be closed shortly.
The project will officially ended when Silvergate Bank bought all of Diem's assets to use them in the blockchain they are working on. In this sense, although Aptos will use Diem's technology for its own blockchain, it will not be able to use any of the intellectual properties currently owned by Silvergate.
On the other hand, Aptos is not the only blockchain to emerge from the ashes of the Diem project. Mysten Labs, another company formed by former Meta employees, is developing its own blockchain, using the Move language, with which they intend achieve performances greater than 200.000 transactions per second.
Aptos, a blockchain focused on scalability
Aptos will use Diem technology to create a blockchain focused on scalability, transaction speed and low fees. Like other similar layer one blockchains emerging in the crypto space, Aptos will seek to compete with Ethereum for attracting decentralized finance-related projects.
Typically, Ethereum developers advocate the use of layer 2 solution systems, also called “roll-ups,” as well as sharding, which consists of breaking the chain into smaller blocks.
However, the Aptos team is critical of this approach and believes that adding such complex elements, increase latency and contribute to application fragility chain crossed through bridges.
The Aptos team wants focus blockchain on business use. In particular, they seek to attract companies in the social media sector to build the first decentralized platforms.
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