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What Is Flow?

Flow is a layer-1 blockchain built specifically for consumer applications, games, and digital collectibles. It is the chain behind NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, UFC Strike, and a wide range of NFT and Web3 gaming projects designed to onboard mainstream users without exposing them to gas wars or complex wallet flows.

Flow was created by Dapper Labs, the same team that built CryptoKitties on Ethereum in 2017 and saw firsthand how poorly Ethereum scaled to consumer demand when CryptoKitties congested the entire network. Co-founders Roham Gharegozlou, Dieter Shirley (a lead author of the ERC-721 standard), and Mikhael Naayem set out to design a chain that could handle popular consumer apps without sharding the developer experience. Flow mainnet launched in 2020, and FLOW is the native token used for staking, transaction fees, and governance.

Technically, Flow uses a multi-role node architecture that splits the work normally done by every validator across four specialized node types: collection, consensus, execution, and verification. Collection nodes batch transactions, consensus nodes order them, execution nodes run the computation, and verification nodes audit the execution. This pipelined design lets Flow scale throughput without sacrificing composability or requiring developers to deploy on separate shards.

Smart contracts on Flow are written in Cadence, a resource-oriented programming language designed by the Flow team. Cadence treats digital assets as native resources that cannot be copied or accidentally destroyed, which makes it well suited to NFTs and game items. Cadence also supports upgradable contracts, transaction-level access control, and a strong static type system aimed at reducing the kinds of bugs that have led to high-profile Ethereum exploits.

FLOW has an uncapped but slow-emission supply model. It is used to pay network fees, stake with validators, and participate in governance. A meaningful portion of supply was distributed in the 2020 community sale and through ongoing ecosystem rewards. FLOW also serves as the reserve asset on the network for storage deposits and for many Flow-native applications.

The Flow ecosystem leans heavily into licensed sports, entertainment, and brand IP. NBA Top Shot, the highlight-clip NFT marketplace, was one of the first crypto products to reach mainstream cultural attention. NFL All Day, UFC Strike, La Liga Golazos, and projects from Warner Music, Mattel, and others have built directly on Flow. Flow also hosts gaming projects such as the trading-card game Solitaire Blitz and various studios building on the upgraded Cadence 1.0 release.

In September 2024, Flow rolled out the Crescendo upgrade, which added EVM equivalence directly inside the Flow runtime. Developers can now deploy Solidity contracts on Flow with full access to Flow accounts, FLOW token, and Cadence resources from the same transaction. This positioned Flow as both a Cadence-native chain and an EVM-compatible chain, broadening the developer pool while preserving the Cadence model for consumer-grade apps.

Getting Started With Flow

You can hold FLOW, collect NFTs, or build on Flow with a few steps:

  1. Step 1: Create a Flow wallet such as Flow Wallet (formerly Flow Reference Wallet), Dapper Wallet, or Blocto.
  2. Step 2: Acquire FLOW on a supported exchange and withdraw to your Flow address.
  3. Step 3: Explore consumer apps such as NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, or Flowverse to see what people use Flow for in practice.
  4. Step 4: To build on Flow, use the Flow CLI and the developer documentation at developers.flow.com to deploy in Cadence or Solidity via Flow EVM.

How to Get a Flow Wallet?

Several wallets support FLOW and the Flow blockchain:

Flow Wallet

Flow Wallet is the official non-custodial wallet maintained by the Flow Foundation. It supports FLOW, Flow NFTs, and Flow EVM, and is available as a browser extension and mobile app.

Dapper Wallet

Dapper Wallet is the custodial wallet built by Dapper Labs. It is the default wallet for NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, and UFC Strike, and lets users buy NFTs with credit card or USDC.

Blocto

Blocto is a multi-chain wallet with strong Flow support, including support for Flow apps and a built-in dApp browser. It works on mobile and desktop.

Hardware Wallets

Ledger devices support FLOW through the Flow Wallet integration, allowing users to secure their FLOW and NFTs in cold storage.

Flow Resources

How to Buy Flow?

FLOW is listed on most major exchanges:

Centralized Exchanges

FLOW trades on Coinbase, Kraken, Binance (regional availability varies), Bybit, OKX, KuCoin, Gate, and Bitget. Common pairs include FLOW/USDT, FLOW/USDC, and FLOW/USD.

Decentralized Exchanges

On Flow itself, FLOW trades on Flow-native DEXs such as IncrementFi and PunchSwap. Wrapped FLOW also trades on Ethereum DEXs and bridges allow movement between Flow EVM and other EVM ecosystems.

FLOW can be staked directly with validators or delegated through wallets like Flow Wallet to earn network rewards.

Latest Flow News

The most significant recent milestone for Flow is the September 2024 Crescendo upgrade, which delivered EVM equivalence directly inside the Flow protocol and shipped Cadence 1.0. The combination opened Flow to the much larger pool of Solidity developers while keeping the resource-oriented Cadence model available for consumer-grade NFT and gaming applications.

On the application side, Dapper Labs has continued to renew and expand its sports licensing deals, and new studios have launched Flow-based games and brand collaborations. Follow the Flow blog, the Flow Foundation announcements, and the Dapper Labs accounts for ecosystem updates and protocol roadmaps.