Flow: A blockchain by Dapper Labs, creators of CryptoKitties

06.05.2023

Blockchain Flow is a project of Dapper Labs, the creators of the NFT marketplace NBA Top Shot, UFC Strike, NFL ALL DAY, La Liga Golazos, and, most importantly, the famous blockchain game CryptoKitties. At the end of 2017, the game caused a serious Ethereum congestion and led to an overall increase in fees on the network. CryptoKitties was the first of its kind and the success of the game paved the way for blockchain games to emerge. Based on the problems in the Ethereum network, the Dapper Labs team launched Flow, which is a blockchain focused on NFT transactions.

What is Flow blockchain?

Flow is a decentralized blockchain platform that allows developers to create and run their own digital assets, smart contracts and decentralized applications. The blockchain architecture is designed with scalability, transaction processing time, and high performance in mind, making it ideal for blockchain games and NFTs.

The blockchain is also distinguished by the Cadence smart contract language and a reliable virtual machine.

Native token of Flow blockchain

Flow is powered by its native $FLOW token, which is used as a token for on-chain staking, transaction fees, and governance.

At the time of 2023, the native token of the Flow network is in the top 60 cryptocurrencies with a capitalization of more than $742 million, skipping ahead of the native $XTZ token of the Tezos network. At the same time, the cryptocurrency is included in the TOP of the best NFT coins for investment. The blockchain has 1,036,200,000 coins in circulation. The current rate of the native token is 1 FLOW = $0.717

How does the Flow blockchain work?

The Flow blockchain works with high performance due to the sharding architecture. To do this, the network validators are divided into high-performance and low-performance ones. High-performance validators process transactions for objective, more complex tasks, while low-performance validators process transactions for subjective requests. Due to this, validators avoid wasting resources for transaction processing.

There are also four types of node groups in the Flow sharding architecture:

Collection nodes that perform the function of a packer. They package transactions and only hashes are passed to the consensus nodes. The rest of the nodes are sent information about transactions.
Validators, they are consensus nodes. Validators form blocks and process transactions at the hash level using Proof-of-Stake consensus.
Execution nodes that process transactions determine the state of the network. After that, the final version of the blocks is created. To process transactions, execution nodes receive information from collection nodes.
Verification nodes. Verification nodes check transactions for correctness selectively. This type of nodes eliminates conflicts of interest.

The above principles of Flow operation allow increasing its throughput by several tens of times compared to other blockchains.

NFT smart contract standards for the Flow blockchain

The NFT smart contract standards for the Flow blockchain are ERC-721, ERC-1155, and Flow’s own FungibleToken and NonFungibleToken standards.

ERC-721 is a non-fungible token standard that is widely supported by Flow,
ERC-1155 is a multi-token standard that allows more efficient and flexible use of blockchain resources.
FungibleToken and NonFungibleToken are Flow’s own standards adapted to their unique smart contract system. These standards provide developers with a framework for building and managing NFTs on the blockchain, ensuring interoperability and ease of use.

What consensus mechanism does the Flow blockchain use?

The Flow blockchain uses the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This mechanism is energy efficient and allows validators to stake their tokens as collateral to validate transactions and create new blocks. Validators are selected based on their share of the network, creating a more decentralized and secure blockchain.

What are the main applications of the Flow blockchain?

The areas of application of the Flow blockchain are as follows:

Games;
DeFi;
Collectibles;
Gambling;
NFTs;
Social;
Web 3.0.

The list doesn’t end there. Above are the most popular blockchain applications.

Ecosystem of Flow blockchain

The Flow blockchain ecosystem consists of more than 40 dApps of different categories:

Games,
DeFi,
Social,
Marketplaces and others.

Popular dApps on the Flow blockchain

The most popular dApps on Flow are:

Dimension X,
Solitaire Blitz,
Trickshot Blitz,
The Football Club,
Gamma Strategies.

What is Flow NFT?

Flow NFTs are NFTs created on the Flow blockchain. It is most commonly used for Gaming NFTs, Virtual Worlds, Sport NFTs due to its lower gas and speed fees, as well as the location of the network specifically for the needs of NFTs.

Top Flow NFT Collections

The most popular projects in the Flow network are:

Collections on NBA Top Shot,
Ballerz,
Dimension X.

NBA Top Shot

NBA Top Shot is a trading platform for collectible NFTs with videos of NBA basketball game moments. This marketplace ranks first in terms of trading volume among all projects on the Flow blockchain.

And the most expensive NFTs on the NBA Top Shot platform are videos of LeBron James playing moments.

Ballerz

Ballerz is a kind of blockchain game that is completely controlled by the community.

The game itself is a basketball league.
In the collection of more than 10,000 NFTs in the form of pixelated PFPs of the basketball team.
At the moment, the volume of sales of the collection in the secondary markets exceeds 12.5 million dollars.

Dimension X

Dimension X is a collection of over 12.9k NFTs that are pixelated PFP humans and various creatures. The project itself is a strategic role-playing game, the action of which develops in a certain metaverse of comics. The volume of sales of the collection in the secondary market exceeds 2 million dollars.

Which wallets are suitable for holding Flow NFTs?

A lot of wallets are suitable for storing NFTs Flow. The most popular wallets are:

Dapper (created by Dapper Labs),
Blocto,
Ledger.

How to buy Flow NFTs?

Remember that initially you need to connect your crypto wallet with self-storage to the marketplace of your choice.
Next, find the official collection using the search bar on the marketplace.
Analyze and choose the NFT you want to buy; click on it and then on the “Buy” button.
When buying, consider the cost of transaction fees.