2 billion dollars? Understand the logic behind the high valuation of Flow and Dapper Labs in one article
This article is from the NFT Lab.
What is Flow?
Flow is a fast, decentralized, and developer-friendly blockchain launched to address the scalability issues of blockchain, aiming to serve as the foundation for the next generation of games, applications, and the digital assets that power them. It is based on a unique multi-role architecture that significantly improves speed and throughput while maintaining a developer-friendly, ACID-compliant environment.
Smart contracts on Flow can be assembled like Lego blocks, powering applications for billions of users. Flow has four major advantages that set it apart from existing blockchains.
Multi-role architecture: The design of the Flow chain is unique, allowing the network to scale without sharding and without compromising the degree of consensus decentralization, to serve billions of users.
Resource-oriented programming: Smart contracts on the Flow chain are written in Cadence, which is a more convenient and secure programming language for crypto assets and applications.
Developer ergonomics: From upgradable smart contracts to built-in logging support to the Flow simulator, the network design of Flow is results-driven.
Consumer onboarding: The Flow chain is designed for mainstream consumers, with its payment onramps providing a secure, low-friction platform for fiat-to-token exchanges.
"After nearly two years of research, we are excited to share Flow with the world," said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs. "Flow is a blockchain built from the ground up to support high-performance ecosystems for applications and games without compromising decentralization. Bitcoin and Ethereum have shown how crypto technology can make the financial world more open and transparent; Flow will bring the same results to consumers in the entertainment and cultural industries."
How does Flow work?
Flow stands out in the crypto network by dividing the work of cryptocurrency miners or validators into four distinct roles, each with its own characteristics, resulting in significant improvements in speed and throughput. This means that anyone with a reliable internet connection can participate as a validator for Flow at various computational and financial levels.
Validators can join Flow in one of the following four roles:
Collection nodes can improve efficiency
Execution nodes can achieve speed and scale
Validator nodes ensure correctness
Consensus nodes ensure decentralization
Who are Flow's investors and partners?
"Warner Music has always been looking for new opportunities for artists and is committed to exploring emerging technologies," said Jeff Bronikowski, Senior Vice President of Global Digital Business Development and Head of Innovation and Emerging Technologies at Warner Music Group.
"When we met with Dapper Labs, they immediately understood our vision, so we sought to solidify our partnership through strategic investment."
In addition to Warner Music's investment, Dapper Labs also announced partnerships with leading entertainment publishers to ensure Flow is ready for enterprise-level use cases. Ubisoft, known for developing games like Far Cry, Just Dance, and Assassin's Creed, is providing advice and valuable industry feedback for Flow.
"When it comes to new technologies and innovations, Ubisoft has always leaned towards collaboration," said Nicolas Pouard, Director of Blockchain Initiatives at Ubisoft's Strategic Innovation Lab.
"We are eager to learn more from Dapper Labs, who are among the best pioneers in the blockchain and gaming space. As a player-centric technology, we believe blockchain can help players become true beneficiaries, and we can't wait to see what results our collaboration with Dapper Labs will yield."
Animoca Brands is a well-known game developer and publisher, having developed several crypto games including F1® Delta Time and The Sandbox, and is one of the first game companies based on Flow.
"We believe that crypto is the future of the gaming industry," said Yat Siu, Co-founder and Chairman of Animoca Brands.
"To support the anticipated scale of games and be adopted by mainstream consumers, we need a robust platform that considers the needs of developers and the appeal of decentralized entertainment, which is why we chose to collaborate with Dapper Labs to build engaging experiences on Flow."
What projects and companies are using the Flow chain?
The development team behind the Flow chain - Dapper Labs
Dapper Labs was founded in February 2018 with the mission of introducing consumers to the value of blockchain technology through fun games, making the world more open and trustworthy. It is also the team behind the globally popular blockchain game CryptoKitties, which took the world by storm in 2017.
Dapper Labs completed a $12 million funding round in 2018 after spinning off from its parent company Axiom Zen. Dapper Labs aims to bring the advantages of decentralization to 1 billion consumers through the power of gaming.
As of now, Dapper Labs has completed four funding rounds, raising a total of $52.5 million. Their most recent funding round was Series A on August 6, 2020. Dapper Labs is backed by 43 investors. Blockchange Ventures and Coinbase Ventures are the latest investors.
Other notable investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, GV (formerly Google Ventures), as well as founders from DreamWorks, Reddit, Coinbase, Zynga, and AngelList. Recently, Dapper Labs is also conducting a new round of funding of $250 million, aiming for a valuation of $2 billion.
The timeline, number of investors, and funding amounts for the four rounds of financing are shown above.
The Dapper Team currently has 9 core members, as shown in the image below.
What are some notable projects from Dapper Labs?
CryptoKitties, the world's first blockchain game, launched in 2017, also known as Crypto Cats. Crypto Cats are a collection of adorable digital kittens, each with a unique genome that determines its appearance and traits.
Players can collect and breed kittens, creating new cat species and unlocking rare attributes. After its release, CryptoKitties received a warm response, attracting many players to Ethereum for cat breeding and trading, which once caused significant congestion on the Ethereum network.
NBA Top Shot is a sports collectible game that combines basketball management with NFTs, allowing players to own action NFTs like "LeBron Dunk" and "Curry Three."
After its launch last October, it garnered significant attention from NBA fans, with daily sales skyrocketing 140 times in January, surpassing CryptoKitties on the 26th to claim the highest sales title, now a shining new star in the NFT collectible space.