rewrite this content using a minimum of 1000 words and keep HTML tags We’re closing the book on 2025, the year when Bitcoin broke into the deepest layers of traditional finance and the world’s largest banks quietly became crypto service providers. In today’s interview with Josip Heit, Senior Strategy Advisor at Apertum Blockchain, we explore how Layer 1 took its first real steps from vision to a living, breathing ecosystem. Over the past year, Apertum has reached remarkable heights, connecting ordinary users, entrepreneurs, and developers to next-generation blockchain infrastructure. We look back at how Bitcoin and Ethereum started, especially their first mining years, and recall the defamations, insults, and arrogance of the big guys back then versus what they are doing today. Finally, we examine Apertum’s place in this story and the bold path it is charting for the future. In its latest security audit conducted by CertiK, the largest Web3 security services provider, Apertum achieved an extraordinarily rare result with zero vulnerabilities identified — a feat seldom seen for any Layer-1 blockchain. This outcome confirms not only the robustness of Apertum’s security, but also the integrity of its fully decentralized architecture, placing the project in the top 0.1% of blockchain projects globally for technical legitimacy. QuestionLet’s begin with a brief look back. How did the early years of Bitcoin and Ethereum shape the foundations of the industry, and in what ways does Apertum’s early phase differ from their origins?AnswerLet’s go back to 2009.Bitcoin launches. There is no price. No exchanges. No ETFs. No institutions. Just a PDF called a “whitepaper”, a few cypherpunks in forums, and a handful of crazy people running code on laptops.The first year of Bitcoin mining looked like this:• Block reward: 50 BTC per block• Block time: about 10 minutes• So roughly 7,200 Bitcoin per day being mined, almost all by a tiny group of early adopters.• Electricity cost? Almost irrelevant. Nobody cared.• Value? Basically zero. People were mining digital coins that the world considered a joke.Fast-forward to Ethereum’s first year in 2015:• Block time around 15 seconds,• Block reward about 5 ETH per block,• The network was busier, more “developer-friendly”, but still chaotic.• Gas fees were low at first, but nobody had any idea that one day people would pay $50 just to move a token during peak mania.Both Bitcoin and Ethereum had something in common in their early mining years:They were for the few.The technical, the nerds, the people who knew where to find GitHub links and forum posts.They were not built for your average person working 9–10 hours a day, supporting a family, afraid to make a mistake with the little savings they have.Now jump to Apertum’s early phase.We asked a totally different question:“What if the first years of a blockchain are not reserved for the elite miners, but are intentionally designed to onboard normal people, businesses, and communities — through tools they can actually understand?”So instead of:• “Download this weird software, open ports, join shady mining pools…”we said:• Connect to Apertum through platforms people already use.• Make staking, yield strategies, DeFi, and automation available through a clean, transparent environment.• Partner with third-party platforms, but keep our own chain as the transparent settlement and accountability layer.Bitcoin’s first year belonged to a tiny group of early miners.Apertum’s first years are designed to belong to builders, affiliates, entrepreneurs, and ordinary users — not just hardware farms.That’s the core difference. QuestionIn the early years of Bitcoin and Ethereum, many traditional financial leaders used notably harsh public rhetoric toward these technologies. How do you assess that wave of criticism?AnswerNow let’s talk about the fun part:How the world’s biggest voices tried to kill this entire industry.The defamation era: When Bitcoin was “fraud”, “rat poison”, and “money laundering index”In 2017, the CEO of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, publicly called Bitcoin a “fraud” and said it would “blow up” and “won’t end well.”He even said he would fire any trader at his bank who dared to trade Bitcoin, calling them “stupid.”In the same period, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, said that the rise of Bitcoin showed “how much money laundering there is being done in the world,” basically describing Bitcoin as an index of money laundering.And of course, Warren Buffett weighed in, calling Bitcoin “probably rat poison squared” in 2018.Let’s be clear:These are not anonymous Twitter trolls.These are the people who move trillions of dollars.They called Bitcoin a scam, a fraud, a bubble, rat poison, a tool for criminals.That is defamation level rhetoric — public humiliation of an entire emerging technology and everyone who believed in it.But here is the punchline… QuestionToday we see leading financial institutions actively integrating products based on digital assets. In your view, which phase is the industry currently in?AnswerNow we’re at the end of 2025.What does the landscape look like?The same “haters” are now selling the product!• BlackRock has one of the most successful Bitcoin ETFs on the planet, positioning Bitcoin as a kind of “digital gold” and an “alternative asset.” Larry Fink now openly says he had to “relook at his assumptions” and that crypto has a role similar to gold.• JPMorgan — after years of its CEO calling Bitcoin “worthless”, “a fraud”, a “pet rock” — now allows clients to buy Bitcoin through the bank and see it in their statements.• Several of the world’s largest banks and asset managers are offering Bitcoin and Ethereum exposure to their wealthiest clients, often via spot ETFs and structured products.Think about the irony:• In 2017, if you believed in Bitcoin, you were called stupid.• In 2018, it was “rat poison squared.”• In 2025, the same institutions are taking fees to sell it to their clients.They went from:“Stay away, it’s a fraud.”to“Here is our premium Bitcoin exposure product, sir, would you like the gold package or the platinum one?”This is the pattern I want everybody in the Apertum ecosystem to fully understand:1 Phase 1 – Defamation2 Phase 2 – Quiet adoption3 Phase 3 – Full integrationYou are living in the transition between Phase 2 and Phase 3 right now. QuestionWhen we look at Ethereum, its early history was marked by volatility, network congestion, and substantial criticism. What lessons have you drawn from Ethereum’s trajectory, and how did those lessons influence the design of Apertum?AnswerEthereum had a different kind of defamation.It wasn’t called “rat poison”.It was called:• “A bubble of useless tokens,”• “a playground for speculation,”• “expensive and slow,”• “a chain you can’t seriously build finance on because gas can explode.”In the ICO mania of 2017 and later the DeFi summer of 2020, people called Ethereum a casino, a bubble, a place where scams launch and disappear.And… a lot of that criticism had some truth in it.• There were scams.• There were rug pulls.• There were ridiculous gas fees.• There were projects with no real business model.But out of that chaos came:• Stablecoins,• DeFi primitives,• NFTs,• and the idea that anything — not just money — can live on a blockchain.The Ethereum story taught us something important:Raw innovation without structure creates huge opportunity and huge confusion.Apertum exists in the generation after that.We are not trying to reinvent the wheel.We are trying to connect real businesses, real users, and real strategies to blockchain infrastructure in a way that is understandable, transparent, and fair. QuestionYour concept of Apertum appears to represent the next step beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. Could you clearly define what Apertum is and which specific problem it aims to solve within the global blockchain ecosystem?AnswerIf Bitcoin showed the world that money can be digital, scarce, and borderless,and Ethereum showed that logic and assets can live on-chain,then Apertum is about something else:Connecting people to this world without needing them to become full-time quants, coders, or day traders.Apertum is:• A blockchain backbone designed to be a settlement and transparency layer.• An ecosystem that integrates with third-party platforms — like exchanges, OTC desks, staking pools, and automated strategies — while keeping all the accounting and proof on-chain.• An environment where membership systems, affiliate structures, bots, and DeFi tools can plug in — but where the rules are visible, not hidden.Where Bitcoin’s first miners printed coins on CPUs,Apertum’s early participants validate, stake, contribute, and build:• They might run nodes,• participate in staking pools,• use automated strategies connected to Apertum,• or join memberships that give them access to tools – with all flows tracked transparently on-chain.The idea is simple:Make sophisticated strategies and infrastructure accessible to people who do not have the time or knowledge to build everything themselves — but who still want sovereignty and transparency. QuestionHow would you compare Apertum’s participation model with the early mining models of Bitcoin and Ethereum? And in what ways is your distribution framework more equitable or accessible for participants?AnswerLet’s compare the models in simple terms.Bitcoin – First Year• Mining = run software + have hardware + almost no competition.• Reward = 50 BTC per block.• Energy = proof-of-work, increasingly industrialized.• Distribution = concentrated in the hands of those who understood very early.If you started in 2009 or 2010, you had an unfair advantage for life.Ethereum – First Year• Mining again = hardware, GPUs, technical knowledge.• Gas = cheap at first, painful later.• Use case = launching tokens, ICOs, DApps.• Distribution = still technical heavy, plus early whales from the ICO.Both networks slowly moved toward:• More institutional dominance,• Larger players running more of the infrastructure,• And professional miners / validators taking the majority share.Apertum – Early YearsApertum’s approach is different by design:1 Accessibility over hardware dominance2 Hybrid ecosystem3 Incentives aligned with contribution4 Proof-of-Transparency cultureWe are learning from 15+ years of crypto history — and refusing to repeat the same mistakes. QuestionAlmost every new blockchain faces FUD — fear, uncertainty, and doubt from the market. Why do you think this effect recurs cycle after cycle, and how does Apertum approach this challenge?AnswerI want you to notice a pattern:• When Bitcoin was young and weak, it was easy to attack.• When Ethereum was chaotic, it was easy to call it a casino.• Today, when any new chain appears, the first instinct of the old world is still FUD.We should expect defamation.We should expect skepticism and doubt.But we now have a playbook:1 Document everything on-chain.2 Work with partners, but keep the ledger of truth on Apertum.3 Be radically honest: no guaranteed returns, no magic promises, no “get rich in three clicks.”4 Educate people with real comparisons, real data, real history.The same way Bitcoin outlived being called a “fraud”,our job is to outlive whatever label people try to stick on Apertum. QuestionThe year 2025 was a pivotal moment for digital assets. What did it signify for Apertum, and which results or achievements do you consider most significant?AnswerLet’s summarize what 2025 meant for us.You can insert your exact numbers here, but I’ll phrase it conceptually:• We went from an idea to a functioning ecosystem.• We connected real users to on-chain infrastructure via partners, memberships, bots, and DeFi components.• We built the foundations of a community that doesn’t just speculate, but wants to use the tools, understand the flows, and build long-term.While the giants were busy turning their old insults into new ETFs,we spent this year building something more important:A bridge between the old world of “I trust the bank statement” and the new world of “I trust the chain.”In 2025, Bitcoin became a respectable asset on Wall Street.In 2025, Apertum started becoming a respectable infrastructure for people outside of Wall Street. QuestionWhat priorities have you set for Apertum in 2026 and the years beyond? Which standards or areas of development will form the foundation of your strategy?AnswerHere’s how I see the next years:1 From tools to standards2 From early adopters to mainstream users3 From defensive posture to confident leadership4 Interoperability and being the backboneWe are not competing with Bitcoin as “money”.We are not competing with Ethereum as “developer playground”.We are building infrastructure for everyone. QuestionWhat key message would you like to convey to the Apertum community — to those who believe in the project and recognize its potential?AnswerIf in 2009 I told you:“One day the CEO BlackRock of the world’s biggest asset manager will promote Bitcoin as an alternative to gold,and the biggest banks will sell Bitcoin products to their richest clients…”…you would have laughed.Yet here we are.The same people who called it fraud, rat poison, a money-laundering index — are now integrating it into the heart of the financial system.History’s message is very simple:Early defamation is not a sign that something is wrong.Early defamation is often a sign that something is too right for the old system to tolerate.Apertum is still in its early chapters.We haven’t written our full story yet.But we know the pattern.So as we finish 2025, I want to say this to every builder, every early adopter, every partner in this ecosystem:• Don’t be surprised when they attack.• Don’t be shocked when they call it names.• Don’t expect the old world to clap for you while you build the new one.Instead:• Know your history — Bitcoin and Ethereum went through the same fire.• Know your mission — Apertum is here to make advanced infrastructure accessible and transparent.• Know your responsibility — no hype, no lies, no guarantees. Only hard work, clear rules, and on-chain truth.One day, if we do this right, the same people who laugh today will quietly adopt our standards tomorrow.And when that day arrives,you will be able to look back at these early calls and say:“I was there when Apertum was a vision.I helped turn it into infrastructure.I didn’t wait for the banks to approve it.I was an example. Others followed.”Thank you for being part of this journey.Thank you for surviving the noise.Thank you for building, even when it would be easier to just consume.This is the end of 2025 for Apertum —but it is not the end of the story.It’s just Block 1 of something much bigger.Shaping the Future of ApertumIn 2025, Apertum achieved unprecedented milestones, transforming from a vision into a fully functioning ecosystem. Now, it stands ready to shape the next chapter of blockchain infrastructure. Every participant, every builder, and every partner contributes to a future where sophisticated strategies are accessible to everyone, trust is anchored in on-chain transparency rather than empty promises, and technology empowers rather than intimidates.The journey is just beginning. Apertum is poised to set new standards for what a modern, inclusive, and resilient blockchain ecosystem can achieve, and the coming years promise innovation, growth, and impact on a global scale.About ApertumApertum is a rapidly growing Layer-1 blockchain built on Avalanche’s subnet technology, providing a secure, scalable, and cost-efficient foundation for the next generation of the Web3 ecosystem. With DAO-based governance, deflationary tokenomics, EVM-compatible, and seamless smart contract integration, launched by the Apertum Foundation on January 30, 2025, and built without VC or institutional backing, the project focuses entirely on organic growth and genuine decentralization.Its native coin, $APTM, is listed on major global cryptocurrency exchanges including MEXC, BingX, BitMart, P2B, BitexLive, LBank, WEEX, and Poloniex, reaching more than 120 million traders worldwide. Apertum has been recognized with the Top Layer-1 Blockchain Award at the FinanceFeeds and Crypto.News Awards 2025. Apertum DEX and native blockchain fully integrated with CoinMarketCap, supports over 300,000 unique wallet addresses, and has processed more than 7 million transactions, reinforcing its position as a rapidly advancing and widely adopted blockchain ecosystem.A recent audit by CertiK found no vulnerabilities in Apertum, an achievement rarely seen in any Layer-1 blockchain. The results underscore the security, robustness, and fully decentralized architecture of the network. Disclaimer: This article is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein should be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading or investing in cryptocurrencies carries a considerable risk of financial loss. Always conduct due diligence. If you want to catch up with more conversations like this one, visit DeFi Planet and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and CoinMarketCap Community.Take control of your crypto portfolio with MARKETS PRO, DeFi Planet’s suite of analytics tools.” and include conclusion section that’s entertaining to read. do not include the title. Add a hyperlink to this website [http://defi-daily.com] and label it “DeFi Daily News” for more trending news articles like this
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