After three years in Mainnet, Aptos still occupies an unusual position in the blockchain ecosystem. Born from the abandoned Libra Meta project with the support of the top -level VCs, he entered the market with high expectations and even higher valuations.
Appeals is known as a relatively cheap high performance chain, based on the movement programming language for greater security. However, although its technical abilities are undeniable, the path of the project towards generalized adoption remains less safe in an industry where the gap between technical superiority and real use often seems imminent.
Ash Pampati is a speaker in consensus 2025, which takes place in Toronto from May 14 to 16.
I sat down with Ash Pampati, head of the ecosystem in apt, to discuss how the project is sailing for these challenges, what distinguishes it from competitors and if their institutional DNA is an aid or an obstacle in the current market.
Before joining as an ecosystem head, Ash Pampati was a business leader at Metaplex Studios in Solana and spent seven years in the leading associations of the YouTube music industry. The youtube-to blockchain experience informs its approach to adopting apt.
“Our general thesis is that all assets in the world will come in the chain,” he said.
This interview has been condensed and slightly edited for clarity.
COINDESK: I have noticed fit that evolve towards a more base builder culture. What promoted this turn?
Pampati: The most scarce resource on web3, apart from time, are talented developers. All ecosystems compete for developers with great ideas motivated to send everything possible.
The community construction strategy begins with a fundamental question: how do we convince a developer not only to choose suitable on other chains but to choose web3 on web2?
His dissemination of developers in Southeast Asia has been remarkable. Is this a strategic approach because these markets are more receptive or because established developers have already committed to other chains?
We have built incredible base relationships with talented students worldwide: California, United Kingdom, Singapore, India, Hong Kong. We show you the value of web3 and how a high performance chain oriented to the consumer, as suitable, can help them launch DAPPs in a week if they have the ideas and infrastructure lists.
When you do well, you must be ready to invest in talented and motivated people immediately. We have an stubborn but effective subsidies program in which we train people through accelerators, we invent directly from the foundation or connect them with investors that share complementary visions.
Solana faced similar technical promises, but saw her ecosystem dominated by the pump. With your institutional approach, are you apt risk the opposite problem: impressive technology but not much speculation?
For apt, we do not have that luggage, for better or worse, from the frenzy of meme coins adding assumptions about our identity. We believe that tokens tokens and assets allow companies to arise that they otherwise could not in any other market, and allow users to enter companies that would not otherwise have.
Do I think 60,000 tokens should emerge daily in suitable? Not necessarily. But, do I want a consistent flow of quality projects that use tokens to align their communities or build products? Absolutely. Those are the types of builders that we want to attract.
What strategic areas are now focused on?
We have three central focus areas that help us overcome adoption challenges. First, asset token. Our general thesis is that all assets in the world will come in the chain. We are seeing that convergence now with RWAS, the institutional interest that converges with defi native, tokenized and stable cryptocurrencies. We want to create a network that allows the global commercial engine of these assets.
The second area is payments, which takes advantage of the technical advantages of suitables. We have integrated the first three stables in just three months, reaching approximately one billion dollars in total market capitalization. Aptos is more cheaper magnitude orders of a transaction cost base, for a thousand factor, compared to the next high -performance block chain. We also have the fastest purpose at the Subsecond speeds.
Our third approach implies a decentralized infrastructure that supports emerging technologies. With slight improvements up and down, you can unblock capabilities around storage and calculate is never seen with previous blockchains. This allows you to execute AI and ML infrastructure in totally decentralized networks, helps with the ability to discover data for banks and evolve content delivery frameworks.
Their examples often focus on institutional use cases. Is there a disconnection between the vision of apt and where is the market really?
Our PACT protocol exemplifies how we want the next five years to be seen. You are using rails in the chain in a high -performance block chain with Stablecoin integration to extend credit networks to people in markets that had never before access to credit.
For example, a Rickshaw driver in India who needs a loan to fix your vehicle can now get one. The democratization of access to financial markets gives me chicken skin, and I want to accelerate this even more.
In addition, within Defi, which has had an appropriate product market for several cycles and has been a pioneer within the Ethereum and EVM L2 communities, we are exploring how an ecosystem defi healthy in a high -performance block chain that abstracts much of the friction of web3 is seen.
Can my father, a doctor in Kentucky who saves all his passwords in the notes, park some stable in a reliable place to gain performance and participate in the chain economy with limited friction? Doesn’t you have to save a passation key while it still benefits from decentralization and self -ustody? Make it easier for people on board and earn money in the economy in the chain is very exciting for us.
We are in a period in which many cryptographic projects have reached their promises. What keeps you sure what apt can be successful where others have had problems?
Speaking widely with the founders industry: the macroeconomic environment is uncertain, and there will always be volatility in this market. But the bases like ours and others remain focused on the objective and are willing to invest in people to continue the mission. My greatest fear is the talented people who leave web3 for more stable environments. Anything we can do to retain talented people to continue the mission of decentralized networks, Autocustody and origin, we need to do it, not only from our side, but of any base or ecosystem.
We need to keep people building or, otherwise, we will never see the revolution in the world that we want to see in a time scale that matters. We must not assume progress. Work is needed to keep people building for the future.
