Why We Built on Flow
Original post (September 23, 2021); Edited (to reflect some minor updates) on May 19, 2022 as part of transition to Gitbook
Introduction
We have been somewhat quiet since our initial announcement in June, but for good reason. Over the last three months, we have been hard at work building a user-friendly platform that, at its core, will offer i) Flow-based NFT collectors (“borrowers”) the ability to secure a short-term loan by collateralizing their NFTs and ii) investors (“lenders”) the ability to deploy capital with a different risk/reward profile from investing directly in NFTs. We have formed and strengthened relationships with other Flow-based platforms, worked tirelessly on our backend development and UI, built out a list of features and user incentives that will be rolled out over time, and expanded our team. As we work through the final steps before our official launch, we wanted to provide some insight into flowty, our team, our partners, and our perspective on the Flow blockchain.
This post focuses on why we chose to build on Flow, which is a topic that we are very passionate about and one that often surfaces during prospective investor discussions and conversations with others in the NFT space.
Our co-founders were early adopters of and are strong believers in the Flow blockchain
Our co-founders Michael Levy, Austin Kline and Guillaume Huot were three of the earliest adopters of Dapper Labs’ Flow-hosted project NBA Top Shot and have been interacting with Flow on a daily basis since early fall 2020. They know the ins and outs of Flow, have built strong reputations as trusted members of the community, own large collections of Flow-based NFTs, and are very confident, as will be outlined herein, that Flow is well-positioned to be a significant beneficiary of mainstream blockchain and NFT adoption.
Dapper Labs: Best in class leadership
Dapper Labs is responsible for two of the most popular and successful projects in NFT history, CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot. CryptoKitties, one of the first NFT games, was launched in November 2017 and is still thriving today. The project was so popular following its release that it famously “broke” the Ethereum blockchain by driving transaction volume to previously unseen levels, which led to enormous spikes in gas fees to transact on the network. NBA Top Shot is one of the largest, most popular, and fastest-growing projects in the space today. Many attribute the rise and mainstream attention of NFTs in 2021 to Top Shot’s success and popularity.
Despite this, Dapper’s greatest achievement to date may be the development of its own blockchain (Flow), which was built with a completely new consensus mechanism that allows for a level of scalability that, at this point, Ethereum is not equipped to match. The next section provides additional detail on the mechanics of Flow.
Dapper has also been incredibly supportive of flowty during our development and is committed to onboarding and supporting developers, creators, and collectors and attracting IP (intellectual property) holders to the Flow ecosystem.
Flow is the blockchain of the future
At flowty, we strongly believe that Flow is the blockchain of the future. Flow boasts an ultra-scalable infrastructure designed to support both mass market and niche decentralized apps and assets. Flow’s specialized design enables fast and efficient execution of smart contracts without performance degradation at significant transaction volumes, all supported by an environmentally-friendly Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This allows ecosystem participants to focus on building, creating, collecting, and trading without worrying about potential environmental impacts or significant gas fees, which materially impair user experience, especially when executing smaller transactions. Dapper was able to achieve such a powerful outcome by developing a unique method of separating the jobs of miners and validators to allow for maximum efficiency. You can learn more about Flow’s process here.
Earlier this month, Google announced a partnership with Dapper Labs to support and scale the Flow blockchain. Flow has already been processing hundreds of thousands of transactions per week, and that number that will only climb over time. Google will utilize its cloud service and immense resources as a Flow network operator during their multi-year partnership.
Google Takes Giant Step To Powering Web 3 With Dapper Labs NFT Deal
A growing ecosystem with incredibly strong IP
According to a recent Dapper Labs announcement, there are now more than 2,000 developers building on Flow. Their efforts have yielded more than 300 projects that span art, games, music, and collectibles. A host of content creators and analytical platforms have also found a home on Flow, and a broad range of innovative, next-generation blockchain applications are in various stages of development.
As a result of Dapper Labs’ experience and value proposition, the advanced utility of Flow, and NBA Top Shot’s successful proof of concept, many prominent IP holders are turning to Flow as their blockchain of choice.
Financial backing from leading VCs and individual investors
The following is a representative list of VCs that have invested in Dapper Labs: a16z, Chernin Group, Coatue Management, Google Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, and Version One Ventures. Several celebrities and athletes have also backed the platform, including Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, Vivek Ranadive, Ashton Kutcher, and Shawn Mendes, further solidifying Dapper’s ties to the NBA and providing direct access to the entertainment and media sector.
Strong financial backing not only provides Dapper with credibility and the capital required to continue building Flow, but is also indicative of the investment community’s perception of Dapper’s future. Dapper has the team, resources, investor base, infrastructure, and network to continue expanding and growing its ecosystem.
Note: according to a September 22, 2021 report, Dapper just raised an additional $250 million (at a $7.6 billion valuation) in a round led by Coatue Management
Summary
We believe that building on Flow is, as the now cliché Wayne Gretzky quote goes, “skating to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” Dapper has taken all the right steps to build a blockchain, an ecosystem, and a team that is ready to take on a significant share of mainstream NFT adoption, and we are incredibly excited to be along for the ride.
Learn more about Flow
If you are interested in learning more about the Flow blockchain and following the rapidly growing ecosystem, here are some great resources:
OnFlow.org — Official website for the Flow blockchain with great information and resources for developers
@flow_blockchain (Twitter) — Official Flow Twitter account
Flowverse.co — Fantastic portal for everything Flow with a drop calendar, information about projects on Flow, and regular update posts
@flowverse_ (Twitter) — Flowverse’s Twitter account, which is a must-follow for those interested in staying up to date with the latest information about Flow projects
State of Flow — A comprehensive and thorough summary of projects building on and news about the Flow ecosystem, published on August 26, 2021
Flow: The Normie Blockchain - A 14,000 word report on the Flow blockchain written by PackyM
We will be back with another post soon and hope to be able to provide a timeline on our testing and launch in the near future. Have questions or suggestions? Interested in working at flowty? Please feel free to reach out to us at any time at:
mike@flowty.io (Michael Levy; mbl267) austin@flowty.io (Austin Kline) info@flowty.io (general inquiries) https://twitter.com/flowty_io
Where to Find Us
Product Docs (FAQ, Step-by-Step Guides, etc)
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