Flow is a fast, decentralized, and developer-friendly blockchain. It was created in 2020 by Dapper Labs, the same team behind the popular CryptoKitties game which clogged up the Ethereum network in 2017.

As such, Flow was created specifically for such games, and the digital assets that power them. It has a unique, multi-role architecture designed to scale without sharding that allows for significant improvements in speed and throughput when compared with other blockchains.

What are Flow’s key features and how does it work?

Flow has four key features. The most fundamental of which is Flow’s Multi-role architecture. Flow’s design is unique, allowing the network to scale to serve billions of users without sharding or reducing the decentralization of its consensus mechanism.

It achieves this by dividing the validation stages of a transaction into four different categories of nodes. Collection nodes improve network connectivity and data availability. Consensus nodes decide on transactions and their order. Execution nodes perform required computation for a transaction, and verification nodes double-check work completed by execution nodes.

Furthermore, Flow makes use of resource-oriented programming. Smart contracts on Flow are written in Cadence, a relatively easy and safe programming language for crypto-assets and apps. Flow also has a dedicated website for developers to learn and practice Cadence.

In this way, Flow remains ergonomic for dApp developers. Smart contracts can be upgraded, in this way, dApps can be released in a beta mode whilst still being worked on. The platform also features built-in logging support to the Flow Emulator.

In the case of Flow it is worth mentioning that it is an “NFT blockchain” and it overtook everyone else in terms of NFT transfers (or NFT sales or smth like that). Also, some big brands partnered with Flow to create their NFT collections.

What can Flow be used for?

As mentioned, Dapper Labs created Flow to solve its own problem with scalability on other blockchains. As such, Dapper currently uses Flow for all of its own projects, including NBA Top Shot. However, it is also open to other developers to create crypto-enthused games or other platforms such as NFT marketplaces.

Where can you buy FLOW?

FLOW is available to purchase from the DEXs and CEXs as listed here.