What is Flow (FLOW)?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 5 min
In short
Flow is a blockchain designed to handle NFTs and consumer applications at scale for large simultaneous audiences. It was built by Dapper Labs, the team behind CryptoKitties, after experiencing Ethereum congestion first-hand. Its distinctive elements are a node architecture that splits work by role and Cadence, a contract language that models assets at the language level.
Key points
- Splits nodes by role so not every node repeats the same computation
- Its language, Cadence, models assets as resources that cannot be copied
- Has hosted consumer applications such as NBA Top Shot aimed at non-crypto users
- An EVM-compatible environment was added later
Definition
A blockchain that pursues large-scale consumer applications through role-separated nodes and a resource-oriented contract language.
Flow started from the 2017 experience of CryptoKitties congesting Ethereum. Having watched one application drive network-wide fees up, the team set out to build a chain that could carry consumer-scale usage.
The answer was to split nodes by role. Where a typical chain has every node repeat the same work, Flow assigns collection, ordering, execution and verification to different node types. Dividing the labour raises total throughput without partitioning the network the way sharding does.
Contracts are written in Cadence, which represents assets as a special resource type that cannot be copied and must exist in exactly one place. The aim is to prevent classic bugs such as double-counting a token through language rules rather than developer discipline.
In practice it has hosted applications aimed at people unfamiliar with crypto, notably NBA Top Shot for NBA video moments. These combine card payments and custodial accounts so that wallets are not front and centre. An EVM-compatible environment was added more recently.
Watch out for
- · Usage centres on NFTs and consumer apps, so demand follows their popularity and partnership deals
- · Cadence is a bespoke language, so Solidity developers and tooling do not transfer directly
- · Where custodial accounts are used, the user may not be holding their own private keys
Frequently asked questions
Can it be used without setting up a wallet?
Some applications let you start with an email address and a card. In that case the operator holds the keys, so it is worth understanding how that differs from self-custody.