New Kids On The Block: Flowty

In the last installment of ‘New Kids On The Block,’ we covered the in’s and out’s of ArtBlocks.io – now one of the most recognizable art-driven NFTs on the market. Today, we’re diving into Flowty, a peer-to-peer lending platform built around Flow blockchain-based NFTs.

This recurring series takes a deep dive into lesser-known, high potential projects across a variety of spaces. Ever want to loan out your NFT for some short-term liquidity? Or perhaps you wanted to earn some passive income, and have a Flow-based NFT that you’d take as collateral? Let’s jump into what Flowty is, why it’s important, and the role this project can have in the broader crypto market.

Flowty: Crypto’s Versatility At Work

Looking for short-term liquidity without selling your Flow-based NFT? This is the gap that Flowty is aiming to fill. The platform had an initial announcement back in June, and has since been providing some more details around what will encompass Flowty upon launch. The platform was created by a two-man team, Michael Levy and Guillaume Huot. Half finance and half blockchain and web specialist, Levy and Huot have come together out of full-fledged love for Top Shot and the Flow ecosystem.

When Flowty comes to life, NFT owners on Flow-based blockchains will be able to be paired with lenders interested in generating passive income – utilizing the NFTs as collateral. Accordingly, lenders can fund a loan and upon maturity, receive the original loan plus interest, or the underlying NFT. It’s a crossover of the deep financial landscape of DeFi and the creative and art-driven world of NFTs – a true crypto conglomerate.

The platform has said that “security, transparency, and UI/UX” are top priorities. There is no set launch date at present time, according to the platform’s current landing site.

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Go With The Flow

The Flow ecosystem continues to grow with new partnerships and platforms. In recent months, Flow creators Dapper Labs found a premier partner with Google, began building initiatives to scale operations and investments in DAOs with a new acquisition, and secured deals with some of the biggest leagues in sports – including the NFL, the WNBA, and LaLiga. NFT platforms for those sports leagues are expected to launch within the next six to eight months. Of course, with Dapper Labs behind the wheel, it’s safe to say that those marketplaces will be operating on Flow, just like Top Shot has thus far. Indeed, it’s partnerships like these that the team at Flowty has cited as reasoning behind Flow being “the blockchain of the future.”

Additionally, Flow has worked with massive names in technology and entertainment, including Samsung, Ubisoft, and Warner Music Group. And while sports has been a major pillar for the Flow blockchain, other notable IP, such as Dr. Seuss, has been leveraged on Flow. Additionally, Flow was the chain of choice for one of the ‘origins’ of NFTs, CryptoKitties.

All this to say that Flow’s investment and integration in the NFT landscape thus far makes it a prime blockchain for a tool like Flowty.

What Makes Flow, Flow

The Flow blockchain distinguishes itself from the marketplace through four main pillars:

• Architecture: Flow’s design is versatile and geared towards scalability, allowing the blockchain to support billions of users without sharding or a reduction of decentralization. Sharding is oftentimes a restriction for blockchains, as it results in one simple transaction being broken down into several different blocks. Flow’s design is able to avoid this structure that many chains succumb to.
• Smart Contracts: Flow’s smart contracts are written in Cadence, a tool that Flow describes as “an easier and safer programming language for crypto assets and apps.”
• Developer-Friendly: Flow aims to be flexible for developers, with upgradeable smart contracts and built-in logging support.
• Consumer-Friendly: Flow also preaches it’s consumer capabilities. Payment onramps and frictionless on-boarding are two traits that Flow highlights. Additionally, Dapper Labs has constructed Flow wallets to be integrated with smart contract functionality.

The Flow community also makes available a variety of open-source tools for developers. Finally, arguably the most applicable piece of the pie for products like Flowty, is the broader Flow community. Flow’s ecosystem prides itself as being a connector for software developers, content creators, and everyday consumers.

Where will things land for Flowty? It’s impossible to say at such an early stage, but the potential is present, especially as the NFT landscape continues through it’s early growth stages.

Flow's token has displayed a milder-than-expected performance this year, despite Dapper Labs' newsworthy partnerships that have come to the surface. | Source: FLOW-USD on TradingView.com

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Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com