What Is Flow? The Blockchain Built For NFTs

When CryptoKitties, one of the first non-fungible token (NFT) initiatives, brought the Ethereum blockchain to a stop in late 2017 owing to high congestion, the developer Dapper Labs learned firsthand that current-generation blockchains were not meant to handle such demand.

Due to the growing demand for NFTs, which are verifiably one-of-a-kind tokens that can be associated with certain digital information, it was necessary to take action.

Instead of just looking for another host for its decentralized application (dapp) or waiting for Ethereum scaling solutions to emerge, Dapper decided to construct the kind of blockchain on which it and other developers could rely.

Flow is the product of this collaboration; it is a blockchain that was developed with the specific goal of supporting NFT collectibles and large-scale crypto games.

Shortly, CryptoKitties will move to Flow, and given the meteoric rise in popularity of Dapper’s NBA Top Shot, as well as the growing number of developers who have committed to working with Flow amid the surge in popularity of NFTs, it has the potential to become one of the most prominent blockchains for the creation of digital assets of this kind.

The following explains what Flow is, how it operates, and how one may obtain the FLOW token.

What is Flow?

What is Flow

Flow is a blockchain that is intended for large scalability without the use of sharding techniques. It offers quick and low-cost transactions suitable for decentralized applications (dapps), such as NFT marketplaces and video games incorporating cryptocurrency.

As was noted, Flow was developed by Dapper Labs. This company decided to tackle the issue of congestion on the blockchain head-on by creating a platform optimized for games and other interactive activities. Flow is currently being used for all Dapper’s projects, including NBA Top Shot, but it is also available for other software developers.

How does Flow work?

How does Flow work

Flow is a decentralized application that uses a consensus process called proof of stake, which requires validators to stake a particular quantity of FLOW tokens to participate in the network.

Flow, however, features a novel approach to the validation process. Unlike other blockchains, Flow divides validation jobs among four distinct types of nodes: consensus, verification, execution, and collecting nodes. All four types of nodes must validate each transaction before it can be processed.

According to Dapper, the ability to break out the duties makes the processing of transactions more efficient than it is on competing blockchains. It is an alternate approach to sharding, which refers to distributing a blockchain’s storage and processing requirements among a large number of nodes.

Because Flow does not utilize sharding, Dapper asserts that Flow maintains transactions in an ACID fashion (atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable) and enables developers to build on the work of one another.

Flow also has smart contracts that can be upgraded, which enables beta versions of smart contracts to be deployed, after which they can be improved or repaired before being finalized and made immutable.

The Flow was designed specifically for the collecting and interactive cryptocurrency experiences that are rapidly gaining popularity and have the potential to attract even larger audiences in the years to come.

NBA Top Shot has already proven that a blockchain-powered collectibles experience can garner significant public attention and produce enormous quantities of money. That’s just one of the experiences that can be developed on top of Flow; there will be many more in the future.

Blockchains are decentralized networks that have fundamentally altered how individuals arrange their assets, data, and financial resources since Bitcoin’s introduction in 2009. Blockchain technology makes possible what is being called the “Web3,” an evolution of previous iterations of the web that focused on distributing content to users via centralized storage.

The paradigm shift being ushered in by Web3 is one in which user-generated content is delivered to other users using user-owned platforms. Therefore, rather than social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram controlling content distribution networks, users of highly efficient composable peer-to-peer networks now own the rails themselves.

When discussing Web3, content refers, more generally speaking, to any data that can be transmitted. Whether the data in question is money, in-game products, profile pictures, or information regarding supply chain relationships makes no difference to the neutral user-owned network.

What is the connection between all this talk about Web3 and the Flow blockchain? Flow is a blockchain that was developed with the express purpose of serving Web3 assets and applications such as NFTs, crypto games, and DAOs.

Flow thinks blockchains will serve as the pillars around which the digital economy will be built. It is supplying the toolkit that will enable developers to realize this vision.

A description that can be used for Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, and other prominent blockchains is as follows: In point of fact, the majority of the flourishing new financial technology scene is built on Ethereum. The question now is, how is the Flow blockchain distinct from Ethereum?

Proof of stake-powered consensus that is quick and does not require sharding.
Almost instantaneous finality with no room for negotiation decentralization
Extremely scalable for great gameplay while maintaining a low cost of use
Smart contracts that may be updated, written in the dependable Cadence language
Instead of using keys and seeds, it uses recoverable smart accounts.

Coincidentally, the beginning of the Flow blockchain’s history can be traced back to Ethereum. In 2017, Dapper Labs developed CryptoKitties, which became the first blockchain game to garner widespread interest.

The collection and nurturing of virtual cats are at the heart of the CryptoKitties game. When CryptoKitties first became available on Ethereum, they quickly gained a significant amount of popularity, to the point that they effectively brought the Ethereum network to a halt.

Transactions on Ethereum nearly ground to a halt due to the massive level of activity associated with CryptoKitties; resolving these issues required multiple days and outrageous amounts of gas fees.

The fiasco inspired the engineers at Dapper Labs to create their version of the ideal blockchain for cryptocurrency games and collectibles. It needs to be scalable to minimize network congestion, like Ethereum, and transactions need to be inexpensive even when there is considerable system utilization.

The future of Flow

So, what does the future hold for Dapper Labs and Flow? In 2019, Dapper Labs planned to release a new version of the Flow framework that Ethereum will power.

The new platform will combine the features found in the previous versions and then some. As such, it’ll allow developers to use smart contracts while maintaining ACID consistency. It will also be capable of supporting large numbers of transactions per second.

The Flow framework can now be used to compile solidity contracts and deploy them to a test network. However, users will have access to the main net on a limited basis until it is extended to all developers later in 2019. Regardless of these limitations, Flow is already being utilized by numerous developers.

The market for NFT collectibles had a significant boom in the latter half of 2020 and the first half of 2021, and Flow has been one of the most successful businesses to capitalize on this upswing. In the first few weeks of 2021, Flow reported a considerable increase in developer requests.

In addition, Dapper Labs’ very own NBA Top Shot has been one of the most successful crypto dapps. In a nutshell, NBA Top Shot was a successful proof of concept for the custom-built blockchain that Dapper created. Now, other developers are interested in tapping into that infrastructure.

In June 2021, the NFT marketplace Rarible, which has, up to this point, concentrated on Ethereum-based NFTs, declared that it would broaden its offering to Flow by continuing its $14.2 million Tv show A fundraising round.

This interest from developers has been followed by interest from commercial entities. In addition, Dapper is hard at work developing its unique new collectibles platforms.

In addition to this, Flow is expanding its infrastructure. FUSD was advertised as the first U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin on Flow when Dapper Labs introduced it in June 2021. The stablecoin is backed one-for-one by U.S. dollars deposited with financial infrastructure provider Prime Trust.

This is one of the more expansive goals that Dapper Labs has set for Flow, which also includes the expectation that it will be utilized for more complex gaming experiences than only NFTs: It has been referred to by Dapper as the “blockchain for open worlds.”

On the one hand, “open” suggests decentralization; but it may only be a matter of time before it also serves as a host for large-scale crypto games.

FLOW Token

The Flow Token is the utility currency within the Flow network. It is required for paying the gas fees associated with utilizing its smart contracts, and it can be used to purchase NFTs. This token was previously known as FLO and was rebranded to Flow to reflect its true nature better.

Users can participate in what is known as an airdrop if they visit different websites associated with Flow. Airdrops are one of the ways that Dapper promotes the use of Flow, and they are a way to encourage development other than through its products.

How To Mine FLOW?

How To Mine FLOW

Flows is an ERC20 token and can be stored in any Ethereum-based wallet. Although the official Flow website does not suggest any specific options, here are some wallets that you can use to store FLOW tokens-

Flow is a community-based project which is gaining a lot of attention lately. It aims to solve the problems of scalability, high transaction costs, and poor accessibility to the blockchain, which are affecting Ethereum. In the flow blockchain, the consensus is reached using a modified proof-of-stake mechanism.

This implies that bitcoin transactions are validated instead of mined to create a new cryptocurrency. The flow network comprises nodes, each responsible for a specific function. In Flow’s blockchain, tasks that a single validator normally carries out are split up and handled by multiple participants across the network.

Flow is dependent on the following four types of nodes to process transactions involving cryptocurrencies and add new blocks to the blockchain:

These nodes are responsible for determining the presence of transactions on the flow blockchain as well as the order in which they appear.

Execution nodes are responsible for completing the computations necessary to finish flow transactions and validate their legitimacy.

Verification nodes: These nodes are responsible for monitoring and verifying the actions that are taking place at execution nodes.

Collection nodes: The primary purpose is to improve network connectivity and data availability along the flow blockchain.

Conclusion:

Flow’s blockchain is being utilized to build smart contracts. Applications built on the Flow network are expected to improve scalability, cost efficiency, and access to blockchain technology.

As the platform gains popularity, Dapper Labs will likely grow its product offerings to meet demand. The company plans to do this by creating a platform capable of supporting a lot of transactions per second. This will allow users’ networks to perform many more transactions than they can currently when utilizing other blockchains.