Flow

Flow is a layer-one blockchain designed specifically for consumer-facing applications and digital assets such as non-fungible tokens and sports collectibles. It aims to solve the tension between scalability, efficiency, and cost that affects many general-purpose blockchains, targeting developers who want to build apps for mainstream, non-technical users. The network gained early prominence through partnerships in the NFT and sports licensing space and has since added full compatibility with Ethereum smart contracts.

Flow uses a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism combined with what it calls a multi-role architecture, in which different node types handle distinct tasks — collection, execution, verification, and consensus — rather than requiring every node to do everything. This division of labour is meant to increase throughput without sacrificing decentralisation. The FLOW token is used within this system for staking by node operators, for paying transaction fees, and as the base currency for applications built on the network, and it has a circulating supply of approximately 1.696 billion tokens with no stated maximum supply.

Flow generated $1.81 in fees over the most recent 24-hour period, $23.29 over the trailing seven days, and $199.96 over the trailing 30 days, reflecting fees paid by users to submit transactions on the network. Annualised from that 30-day figure, fees come to $2,432.85. The protocol recorded zero revenue over the trailing 12 months, meaning none of those fees were retained by the protocol itself during that period. Fee volume fell 84.92 percent over the last 30 days, and the ratio of market capitalisation to annualised fees stands at 20,673, a figure that reflects how large the network's market value is relative to the very modest fee activity currently recorded.