Flow - $FLOW, Asset Review
Flow’s ecosystem has grown exponentially since releasing multiple collaborations across many sectors. From gaming, collectibles, metaverse, art, and sports-related NFTs developers have found $FLOW easy to transition to with no experience in crypto. $FLOW uses four nodes and requires no validators to confirm transactions on the network. This node design allows $FLOW to efficiently scale to potentially billions of people at a given time.
Content:General Information-What is Flow
Flow Background
Flow Funding/Collaboration
Token Information-Tokenomics
Governance
Additional Information-
Staking
Technical Analysis
Conclusion
General Information-
What is Flow?
Flow is a blockchain created by Dapper Labs. Dapper Labs launched with CryptoKitties in 2017 but had scaling issues. Developers at Dapper Labs created a more secure, efficient, and scalable experience to tackle problems like scaling. Flow is a developer-friendly, energy-efficient, and open-source blockchain. This design allows flow's blockchain to handle millions of micro-transactions around NFTs the team says. $FLOW is also the native cryptocurrency for the Flow blockchain that fuels the blockchain. $FLOW token is utilized for settling a transaction, triggering smart contracts, and staking rewards.
2. Flow Background
Flow is a project based out of Vancouver, Canada which was created by Dapper Labs. The founders are Roham Gharegozlou, Mikhael Naayem, and Dieter Shirley who envision a platform for digital collectibles and blockchain-based games. Dapper Labs also ensured that developer experiences are simple as possible. Cadence is a programming language that is easy to understand, simple to read, and effortlessly auditable. Cadence also allows smart contracts to be upgraded to avoid exploits and takes the pressure off developers if they need to update a contract. Flow blockchain uses a unique multi-node architecture to validate transactions illustrated below.
Multi-Node Architecture
Flow eliminates sharding by splitting actions and creating a validation process that allows each node to focus on a single task. This architecture allows for a faster, more efficient validation process.
-Consensus Nodes, Verification Nodes, Execution Nodes, Collections Nodes all work individually to ensure that transaction is validated.
3. Flow Funding/Collaboration
Flow has had an initial coin offering with the following: June Fund, and Satori Research. Although the ICO was relatively small, the blockchain has attracted some of the biggest names to collaborate with Flow like NBA TopShot, UFC Strike, and NFL All Day. Attracting major names have lured in more investors to build on the Flow blockchain as they have raised $725M for its ecosystem fund. Flow recently made headlines as Meta will support the incorporation of their blockchain via NFTs. Dapper Labs also has strong backing from Youtube, Venrock, Digital Currency Group, Google Ventures, etc. The excitement around Flows blockchain is unmatched. With such a strong team and endorsements it's almost hard to believe they are not poised to succeed.
Token Information-
Tokenomics
$FLOW is an ERC-20 token that launched with a total supply of 1,250,000,000 tokens in June 2020. The current circulating supply of $FLOW is 1,040,000,000. Currently, $FLOW's total supply is 1,373,338,337 with an inflation rate of ~3.75 a year. Since the token sale, 20% of the tokens went to Dapper Labs, 18% went to the Flow team, 32% was set aside for ecosystem development and the remaining supply was sold to early investors for a total of $33M. Presently, $FLOW tokens are for transaction fees, data storage, and soon on-chain governance.
2. Governance
The governance mechanism allows $FLOW token holders to submit proposals in a decentralized manner so that one entity may not outsize or influence a vote. Token holders have the right to propose a few changes like ecosystem decisions, protocol parameters, and protocol upgrades. Flow’s team’s eventual goal is that the network is run by the community and has no influence over stakeholders. $FLOW is both a governance token and a functional protocol token for the overall network. Currently, it is important to note that on-chain governance has not been finalized.
Additional Information-
Staking
$FLOW token holders may contribute to the network by staking. Staking rewards are 8.31% and have no minimum requirement of tokens. Validators may earn 9.03% rewards but need a minimum of 135,000 $FLOW tokens. Both options have a lock-up period of 7 days to stake your tokens. Currently, 53.34% of all circulating supply is staked and 19,780 unique addresses are staking their $FLOW tokens.
2. Technical Analysis
$FLOW’s all-time highs hit $40 and since then have been mainly down-trending. When something is mainly down-trending like $FLOW, it is best to wait and let the dust settle as bottoms take a long time to form. Currently, there is no support and the price recently hit an all-time low. So it's best to be sidelined until more data is presented.
Conclusion-
It’s difficult to see an asset like $FLOW and buy when it's at an all-time low. However, with all the research in this post, I believe that Flow will have a lot of advancements that will shock many in the coming years. Partnering with legacy brands like NBA, NFL, UFC and more is nothing to shrug off. The CEO has even hinted at trying to work with well-known fashion brands. Dapper Labs also has solid investors with companies like YouTube, Google Ventures, Samsung, and more to guide them and connect them with other brands. The progress that Flow has already made is no question that they are just getting started as they will most likely continue growing their ecosystem to the best of their ability in the world of NFTs.
Please note that this research is not financial advice and all views are my own