Flow Blockchain for NFT Development

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are exclusive, non-exchangeable databases of cryptographic information kept on a blockchain to verify a digital asset. NFTs, powered by blockchain development services, are now widely used to represent things like films, pictures, artwork, and other digital data. The number of sales in the first half of 2021 was $2.5 billion. The Ethereum network was overrun by one NFT project called CryptoKitties. As a result, Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties, developed a new blockchain called Flow to address flaws found in the Ethereum blockchain. The Flow blockchain has raised transaction speeds, made itself easier to use, and reduced transaction costs in an effort to address these scaling challenges.   

Are you curious about what the Flow blockchain entails? Continue reading as we examine the Flow blockchain, how it functions, and how it differs from the Ethereum network in terms of how it enables NFTs.

Flow Blockchain: What Is It?

 Decentralized apps (DApps), games, and the digital assets they use can run on the quick, decentralized, and developer-friendly blockchain called Flow. It is made for speed and scalability without the use of sharding techniques, making it perfect for cryptographic games and NFT collectibles.

With its multi-node, multi-role architecture, Flow promises significant gains in performance and throughput. This differs from the conventional blockchain architecture, where nodes maintain the complete transaction history and verify every transaction. By dividing its network, Flow, in contrast, enables the nodes to share the workload, with each node validating a piece of a transaction.

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What Problems Does Flow Blockchain Solve?

Solutions to the Scalability Issue 

The Ethereum blockchain's constrained scalability is its primary drawback. Ethereum is unsuitable for widespread use since it can only process 13–15 transactions per second.

The CryptoKitties team was motivated to construct the Flow blockchain by this inefficiency. At the height of the game's popularity, Ethereum was unable to handle the rising volume of transactions. Flow blockchain was therefore created primarily to address the issue of scalability. The prototype's throughput was 1,000 transactions per second (TPS), and 10,000 TPS capability is their next goal.  

Cutting Costs 

The goal of the developers of Flow is to make transactions on the Ethereum network less expensive. Gas fees are what Ethereum users pay for network transactions. The complexity of the executed smart contract and the network's accessibility determine the size of these fees. The typical gas fee per transaction could reach $20 on some days. The first fee for opening an account with Flow is 0.001 FLOW (around $0.03), and the second fee for each transaction is 0.000001 FLOW.

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NFT Ecosystem of Flow

Despite its youth, the Flow blockchain is already powering a number of hugely successful NFT projects, and more are in the works.

CryptoKitties

 The third-most active smart contract on the Ethereum network was CryptoKitties within three hours of its initial release in November 2017. As was already mentioned, Ethereum's rising popularity exposed scalability problems.

Dapper Labs was able to move digital collectibles from the Ethereum network to the Flow blockchain with the introduction of the Flow blockchain. Users can transfer their CryptoKitties to the Flow blockchain in order to benefit from cheaper transaction costs and new features, even while they can still access their CryptoKitties on the Ethereum blockchain. 

The NBA Top Shot

Users of NBA Top Shot amass highlights ("Moments") of their favorite NBA players on digital sports collector cards. On the Flow blockchain, these treasures are purchased, traded, and stored. NBA Top Shot's transactions are quicker and less expensive than CryptoKitties' transactions because it was first introduced on the Flow network.

NBA Top Shot gained a lot of traction rapidly and now has over 600 users, including Tyrese Haliburton, Mark Cuban, and other famous people.

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NFT Marketplace VIV3 

A marketplace for empowering digital artists and creators, the VIV3 NFT is powered by Flow. Renowned artists Anne Spalter and Ben Mauro contributed early works to the project, which was launched in January 2021.

Dapper Labs is working on interesting relationships with UFC, Samsung, Ubisoft, Dr. Seuss, and Warner Music Group in addition to the three well-known NFT projects mentioned above.

Flow is preferred for NFT projects because...

In order to accommodate a new generation of well-liked games, DApps, and digital assets without sacrificing decentralization, Dapper Labs built Flow from the ground up. It is not unexpected that developers have taken to it rapidly. The key advantages of the Flow blockchain over other blockchains are listed below.

• The multi-role, multi-node design of Flow establishes a division of labor that guarantees effectiveness and gets rid of unnecessary processing work.
• Ergonomics for developers: The Flow network has features that increase developer productivity, including upgradeable smart contracts, built-in logging support for monitoring smart contract behavior, Flow Emulator, and other features.
• Cadence: The user-friendly, secure, resource-oriented programming language called Flow was created specifically for digital assets and DApps. Compared to Solidity or other programming languages, Cadence enables novice developers to get started on NFT projects rapidly.

NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties' success demonstrates that Flow was made for the kind of interactive and collecting bitcoin experience that is now becoming increasingly popular. 

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What's the Future of NFTs

Conclusion

Businesses must take into account a number of factors while developing an NFT marketplace on a platform like Flow. Creating partnerships with Blockchain professionals that have sufficient expertise and knowledge in NFT development would be a fantastic strategy to create scalable marketplaces. With a seasoned team of Blockchain professionals on your side, creating a unique NFT marketplace becomes quicker and simpler. With the support of NFT marketplace development experts, companies can create dynamic marketplaces on Flow and other platforms, assisting them in growing their operations.