Flow (FLOW) is a new blockchain that has attracted some big name users. For example, Flow’s website claims the NBA, Samsung, UFC, the Warner Music Group, Dr. Seuss, Ubisoft, La Liga, Purdue University, Binance, T-Mobile, Purdue University, the University of California, and the NFL will build apps and games on Flow.
Flow attracts big name users because the team behind CryptoKitties built it. CryptoKitties was the first successful blockchain game, on 5 December 2017 CryptoKitties accounted for 25% of Ethereum traffic and $5 million in transactions.
CryptoKitties had 150,000 registered users, $15 million in transactions, and over 260,000 cats in existence on 12 December 2017. Less than a year later, in September 2018, there were over one million CryptoKitties in existence.
What is Flow?
The hope at Flow (FLOW) is to build an open blockchain that can support commercial apps, digital assets, and games.
They claim that Flow is so easy to use that designers can assemble smart contracts like Lego blocks. They built the smart contracts with Cadence. Flow achieves this simple usability because they built it with a multi-role architecture that can scale without sharding.
Sharding is a strategy that breaks networks up into fragments. However, sharding makes database slower by making communication harder. They claim of sharding allows consistent transactions across Shard’s experience.
They claim they built Flow for mainstream consumers. The hope is Flow will make it easy for ordinary people to use the blockchain with low-friction payment on-ramps.
Instead of sharding, Flow uses a multi-role architecture. The multi-role architecture includes four types of nodes in the Flow blockchain. The Flow nodes include Consensus Nodes to move transactions in the blockchain, Execution Nodes execute transactions, Verification Nodes to regulate Execution Nodes, and Collection Nodes enhance connectivity by increasing data availability for DApps.
An interesting Flow feature is Specialized Proofs of Confidential Knowledge (SPoCKs) are a new cryptographic technique that allows users to verify identity or information without revealing confidential knowledge. They claim each flow user could get a specialized SPoCK to protect their knowledge and secrets.
Flow Attributes
Flow (FLOW) offers features designed to make it faster, scalable, and easier to use. The principal Flow features include Cadence, the Flow Client Library, the Upgradable Smart Contracts, and Fast and Deterministic Finality.
Cadence is an easy-to-use programming designed for DApps and digital assets. They claim the Flow Client Library features one snippet of code that can support any wallet on Flow for payments.
Cadence is an example of resource-oriented programming. Resource-oriented programming allows users to create unique, durable digital artifacts that track and verify ownership with a programming application.
Up-gradable Smart Contracts are Smart Contracts that allow secure and transparent bug patch upgrades. A smart contract is a digital robot that performs a task in the block chain. They claim Fast and Deterministic Finality can execute transactions in seconds.
Is Flow Consumer Friendly?
They claim Flow (FLOW) is a consumer friendly blockchain. Flow’s consumer friendly features include:
A Mainstream Ready Experience that could support multiple payment on-ramps and payment ecosystems. Human Readable Security that can protect mainstream users against malicious apps and criminals.
Smart User Accounts are Flow accounts designed to make it easier for DApps and wallets to pay transaction fees and recover lost keys. They also offer incentives for Early adopters by allocating FLOW tokens for early adopters.
They built Flow’s blockchain with HotStuff, a proven Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism that enables multi node architectures. Among other things, they claim Flow allows users to mint nonfungible tokens (NFTs) with energy use (and greenhouse gases) than a post on a social networking site.
Potential uses for Flow include games, NFTs, and decentralized finance (DeFi). The Flow team has open sourced several tools to make it easier for developers to use Flow. They claim over 3,000 developers are building over 300 projects for Flow’s Testnet.
Flow’s partners include AppWorks, a network of over 1,300 founders and 395 startups that builds apps in Southeast Asia. Flow uses the AppWorks Accelerator. to build DApps Flow is working with the Emerald City, DAO.
Flow has attracted some impressive backers including CoinBase, Andreesen Horowitz, Pirata Capital, the Digital Currency Group, Alchemy, and Animoca Brands, and Samsung NEXT.
What Value does Flow have?
Mr. Market has some interest in Flow (FLOW) for example, CoinMarketCap named Flow was the 15th most trending cryptocurrency on 12 March 2022.
Similarly, CoinMarketCap gave Flow (FLOW) a $5.59 Coin Price, a $1.985 billion Market Cap, a Fully Diluted Market Cap of $7.701 billion, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $142.117 million on 17 March 2022. They based those numbers on a Circulating Supply 355.196 million FLOW, a Maximum Supply of 1.378 million FLOW, and a Total Supply of 1.378 million FLOW.
In comparison, Coinbase gave Flow (FLOW) a Coin Price of $5.57, a Market Cap of $2.08 billion, a 24-hour Market Volume of $141.9 million, and a Circulating Supply of 355.2 million FLOW on 17 March 2022. I consider FLOW an unstable cryptocurrency because CoinBase gave it an all-time high of $46.16.
I think Flow is an interesting cryptocurrency and blockchain. However, there appear to be no games or DApps using Flow (FLOW). I advise speculators to avoid Flow until they can show a game or DApp is using it.
Originally published at https://marketmadhouse.com on March 17, 2022.
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