Technical Alpha: Innovations Coming to the Aptos Blockchain
The event celebrated key innovations—and the visionaries behind them—that are shaping the future of Web3 on Aptos.
One common theme was clear: the future on-chain is bright, and the Aptos ecosystem is making it real through technical solutions for payments, DeFi, loyalty and advertising.
Here’s your guide to the groundbreaking tools, features and products unveiled at Aptos Experience that are set to make Web3 more accessible and scalable.
The Future of the Move Programming Language
The next era of the Move programming language is here thanks to contributions from builders across the Aptos ecosystem. The just-announced extension of the Move programming language, Move 2, brings several new features designed to make writing DeFi applications even easier.
Aptos Labs CTO Avery Ching says, “We believe the Web3 developer experience hasn’t fundamentally changed today—Move is a chance to solve that from the ground up. Our team is proud to take charge of innovation in that space.”
What’s new?
Enum types to flexibly evolve the data managed by a smart contract for DeFi applications to meet new requirements and application logic.
A new Move compiler complete with unified architecture with Move Prover to power Move 2 and enable faster innovation cycles
Move Formatter & Move Linter which support the existing tool set for increasing security and readability of Move code.
Dynamic Dispatch for Fungible Assets to support applications like DEXes when registering asset-specific transfer functions.
Improved Syntax in terms of receiver-style function calls, index notations and more.
Wolfgang Grieskamp, Head of Move Language and Tools at Aptos Labs, describes Move as having “everything you'd expect and a little more.” More updates—such as Aptos Intents, a critical component for DeFi applications—will be announced soon to further cement Move on Aptos as the most advanced smart programming environment.
Introducing the Endgame for Blockchain Consensus
A proposal to enhance performance could give Aptos a major upgrade with Raptr—which has the potential to be the next-generation BFT consensus protocol. Dubbed by Aptos Labs’ Head of Research Sasha Spiegelman as the "endgame for blockchain consensus," Raptr is set to transform blockchain infrastructure while maintaining sub-second latency and high-throughput performance—even under heavy network loads.
As the world's largest payment and DeFi use cases flock to Aptos, Raptr has the potential for scalability and stability for the next 100 years. Doing so opens the door for entirely new use cases, such as streaming and autonomous payments which are vital for scaling the global economy on Aptos.
Leading Parallelism with the Next Generation of Block‑STM
"Dynamic parallelism is based on two things: Block-STM and pipelined infrastructure, both of which we pioneered," said Avery Ching. “Today, with the arrival of Block-STM v2, we’re reinforcing our commitment to advancing parallelism and scaling Web3.”
v2 of the industry-leading parallel execution Block-STM is designed to scale efficiently across 256-core machines while improving parallel transaction processing and boosting throughput. This dynamic infrastructure allows Aptos to maintain low gas fees (~$0.00005/tx), even under massive network pressure. Block-STM has already set the standard for safe and simple parallel execution—in the Aptos ecosystem and beyond—having been adopted by Polygon, Sei, Monad, Starknet, Flow and others that recognize this innovation for scalability and performance.
Simplifying Access to Web3
Three key innovations aimed at simplifying the Web3 user experience took center stage at Aptos Experience: Aptos Build, Aptos Card and the evolution of the Petra wallet.
For example, Aptos Build is a comprehensive toolkit for developers of all levels to launch and scale dApps on the Aptos network quickly and efficiently. Developed by Aptos Labs, this one-stop suite empowers builders to generate API keys, create NFTs and build secure identity solutions. Avery noted, "With Aptos Build, you can create 10K NFTs with a click of a button. It's your one-stop shop to scale applications without complexities."
Meanwhile, a suite of new features designed by Aptos Labs to revolutionize user engagement is coming soon for the Aptos-native Petra wallet. Users and artists can expect new features such as:
Petra Earn: Simplifies access to stablecoin DeFi lending pools for non-US users
Petra Pay: Facilitates quick, peer-to-peer payments
Petra Nudge: Sends reminders to friends who owe you money
Petra Groups: Enhances user interaction with smooth payments and community‑building
Petra Drop: Streamlines fan engagement for artists
Likewise, Arculus announced the Aptos Card: a cold-storage hardware wallet built for secure and seamless crypto management. The wallet facilitates global transfers with just one tap—contributing to Aptos' mission to make blockchain user-friendly and secure. Coupled with innovations Aptos features like social logins and Passkeys—where no passwords or traditional keys are needed—these innovations aim to further streamline the Web3 user experience.
Paving the Way for the Future of Blockchain
The Aptos Experience reinforced Aptos' mission of connecting the new global economy via low-cost, high-efficiency transactions that power everything from streaming payments to DeFi.
As Avery summed up, “2024 has been about shipping fast, deploying amazing infrastructure and scaling DeFi [within the ecosystem].” And the technical innovations presented at Aptos Experience are primed to pave the way for the next trillion-dollar economy—built by the people, for the people—on Aptos.