Blockchain technology is revolutionizing all walks of life. We see it being used in supply chains for the manufacturing and food industries. There are even uses for blockchain in the healthcare space.
But, the most famous use of blockchain technology has been in the investment and FinTech spaces. Millions of people know about investments occurring “on the blockchain”.
Bitcoin was the first. Ethereum and Ripple followed shortly after. Now, fast forward nearly a decade and we have crypto art, NFTs, and hundreds of altcoin ICOs establishing a robust blockchain ecosystem.
Now, there is a new kid on the block, or on the blockchain, I should say. It’s called the Flow blockchain.
Chances are you may not have heard of it yet. And, if you haven’t, that’s ok. I’m going to dive into everything you need to know about Flow.
Let’s get going!
In November of 2017, the world was introduced to the NFT phenomenon CryptoKitties. CryptoKitties is the brainchild of Dapper Labs and its CEO/NFT Savant, Roham Gharegozlou.
CryptoKitties was such a smash hit that it created a problem: it disrupted the entire Ethereum blockchain. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it created the space for the Flow blockchain to be born.
Dapper Labs, being responsible for both CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot, knows their way around NFTs. They quickly realized that the standard, first-gen blockchains couldn’t handle all of the NFT action. And, as the saying goes, “If you want something done right, just do it yourself”.
That’s exactly what Gharegozlou and Dapper Labs did. They set out to build a blockchain in their own image. A blockchain that could handle the traffic of the NFT ecosystem they were largely responsible for creating.
The result is Flow. A blockchain specifically designed to handle the NFT ecosystem, as well as crypto gaming.
So, what exactly is Flow? Well, as I said earlier, it’s a new form of blockchain. But, what makes it different?
Flow provides all of the security and integrity of a traditional blockchain. Where it differs, however, is that it doesn’t need to rely on sharding techniques.
Without getting too technical, sharding is what allowed first-gen blockchains to process more transactions, more quickly. This was the next evolution to the original Ethereum blockchain. And, it’s worked great for the past few years.
But, Dapper Labs said, “hold my beer”. The speed of Ethereum’s blockchain, even with sharding, wasn’t good enough for what they were trying to build.
Flow achieves speed through simplicity. The blockchain is made up of 4 major node types: collection, consensus, execution, and verification.
The collector nodes increase the efficiency of Flow. Execution nodes are tasked with increasing the speed and scalability of this new blockchain.
Verifier nodes guarantee correctness. This is what allows Flow to maintain the security and integrity of a traditional blockchain. And, finally, Consensus nodes ensure decentralization.
Decentralization just means that the data and the value of items being traded is in the hands of the people. We’re all out here keeping each other honest.
All this sounds great, right? But, what makes Flow different than the blockchains of the past? The biggest difference is the speed and scalability.
Since Flow allows NFT experiences to move at lightning speeds and adapt to virtually limitless growth, it’s essentially busting the NFT space wide open. Think of it as the radio or TV of the NFT space. It’s the innovation that will make all other things possible.
What makes it even more exciting is that Flow is already proven. Remember NBA Top Shot? That collectible NFT experience was built on the back of the Flow blockchain.
So, we already know Flow can handle immersive NFT experiences that involve photo, video, etc. And it can handle mainstream growth and huge sums of money spanning large numbers of transactions.
Dapper has come out and said that CryptoKitties will eventually move over to the Flow blockchain, also. If the first mainstream NFT ever is migrating over to this blockchain, that should raise some eyebrows.
If that’s not enough, Dapper Labs is already in negotiations for partnerships with UFC, CNN, and Dr. Seuss brands. I think we’re seeing the future of the blockchain unfolding.
If you’re like me, and you’re thinking “a new blockchain means a new token”, you are correct. Flow’s coin, FLOW token, was released in October 2020, but wasn’t available in the U.S. or Canada. But, Flow pays rewards to its validators in the form of FLOW coins.
These flow coins can be transferred or sold. As a result, some FLOW coin is in circulation on exchanges like Huboi and Kraken. But, it still isn’t available on mainstream exchanges like Binance and Coinbase at this time.
I personally think that Flow marks the beginning of an early revolution within the blockchain ecosystem. Like most investors, I will be watching like a hawk for FLOW token to become available in the U.S.
Don’t take this as professional investment advice, but I’m taking any chance I can to bet on Roham Gharegozlou and the guys at Dapper Labs.
Thanks for tuning in!
