Flow is a Layer 1 blockchain built by Dapper Labs — the company behind CryptoKitties — designed specifically for consumer applications, NFTs, and games at scale. Launched in 2020, Flow was created after CryptoKitties famously congested Ethereum in 2017. Its architecture separates the roles of blockchain nodes: Consensus Nodes (ordering), Verification Nodes (checking), Execution Nodes (running smart contracts), and Collection Nodes (collecting transactions). This ‘multi-role’ design allows Flow to scale without sharding or Layer 2 complexity. Flow uses Cadence — a resource-oriented programming language designed to be safer for NFTs (making it impossible to duplicate or lose a resource) and more readable than Solidity. Flow’s biggest early win: NBA Top Shot, Dapper Labs’ NBA highlight NFT platform that generated $700M+ in sales in 2021, bringing millions of mainstream consumers into NFTs. Other major Flow partnerships include: NFL All Day, UFC Strike, Mattel’s Hot Wheels, and Dr. Seuss. FLOW is the native token for gas, staking, and governance. Flow suffered from a narrow validator set and limited DeFi ecosystem compared to Ethereum competitors. However, its consumer-first design and established sports IP partnerships give it a distinct niche in onboarding non-crypto-native audiences to digital ownership.
Example: An NBA fan with no crypto experience buys a LeBron James Top Shot moment (a licensed video highlight NFT) for $50 using their credit card. Dapper Labs handles the wallet creation automatically. The fan sees their NFT in a clean app interface without ever seeing a gas fee, seed phrase, or wallet address. This ‘invisible blockchain’ experience on Flow brought millions of sports fans into digital ownership without them realising they were using a blockchain.
Learn more: Flow Blockchain
