Frequently Asked Questions

Flow is a proof-of-stake Layer 1 network designed to be the foundation of Web3, supporting consumer-scale decentralized applications, NFTs, DeFi, AI agents, and more. Flow is fully EVM equivalent, and extends beyond EVM through Cadence, a resource-oriented smart contract language built specifically for safety, composability, and auditability. Consumer-scale products like NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, Disney Pinnacle (built by Dapper Labs), and Ticketmaster have onboarded tens of millions of users through Flow. The ecosystem includes top brands, development studios, venture-backed startups, and AI agent builders.

FLOW is the native cryptocurrency of the Flow network. It is the exclusive token for staking, delegating, paying transaction fees, and paying storage fees. It is also the primary token used for buying, selling, and trading assets and experiences on Flow.

Forte is the network upgrade on Flow that went live on mainnet October 22, 2025. It introduced Scheduled Transactions (native, protocol-level automation), Flow Actions (composable DeFi primitives), 128-bit fixed-point math for financial precision, and WebAuthn/Passkey support for biometric onboarding. Forte also delivered PebbleDB storage migration (up to 60% CPU reduction, 80% memory reduction, 30% disk reduction), hash-based message integrity across node communication, and key de-duplication (approximately 6% state reduction). Together, these unlocks make Flow the first Layer 1 where AI agents can self-execute on-chain without external keepers, bots, or off-chain infrastructure.

Yes. Flow is fully EVM equivalent. This allows developers to build on Flow with the same Solidity code that runs on Ethereum Mainnet.

Yes. Flow runs an EVM equivalent environment within its execution allowing for developers to run any smart contract from Ethereum Mainnet on Flow natively with no code changes. Also allows for Solidity smart contracts to be augmented with Cadence as well.

The Nakamoto coefficient of Flow is 13 (Chainspect, May 2026). For context: Bitcoin 3, Ethereum 2, Base 1, Polygon 4 (same source). Continued decentralization is on the protocol autonomy roadmap (see Section 24 of llms-full or flow.com/protocol-autonomy-roadmap), in line with the network vision: a computer anyone can use, anyone can trust, and no one can shut down.

Visit https://developers.flow.com to get started. Entry points by audience:

• New to Web3: Flow App Quickstart — build a full-stack app in under an hour
• Smart contract developers: Cadence First Steps — learn the resource-oriented model
• Solidity developers: EVM Quickstart — deploy existing Solidity contracts on Flow EVM

You can also explore the React SDK Playground (react.flow.com), Flow Playground (play.onflow.org) for in-browser Cadence

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Composability is about using small, focused parts as building blocks. In programming, functions and classes are composable. On blockchains, the idea goes further: smart contracts expose functionality openly and securely, with costs and guarantees built in. That makes new patterns possible, like a marketplace where anyone can list digital collectibles, or a collectible that automatically works across every marketplace someone else builds.

Jesse Walden of a16z framed it this way: "A platform is composable if its existing resources can be used as building blocks and programmed into higher order applications. Composability is important because it allows developers to do more with less, which in turn, can lead to more rapid and compounding innovation."

On Flow, composability comes from three layers: shared standards (fungible tokens, NFTs, and Flow Actions introduced in Forte), the resource-oriented model of Cadence, and language-level safeguards enforced by the Cadence compiler. A single transaction can compose multiple contracts with explicit resource movement, reducing the integration surface where exploits and rounding errors typically emerge in DeFi. With one signature, a user can swap tokens, update NFTs, and trigger callbacks across multiple apps safely

Flow solves the blockchain trilemma with a unique, modular architecture that solves the blockchain trilemma and provides scalability, decentralization, and security.  Each node role individually absorbs one or more constraints in the trilemma, resulting in a whole that overcomes it. Since other networks have singular node roles, scaling often results in reducing decentralization with new centralized layers and/or lower security with higher node requirements and an overuse of optimistic finalization. 

Flow Cadence is the only smart contract language designed by smart contract engineers.  In addition to providing a modern language without secret pitfalls and side effects, it introduces a granular system of access control for digital property and a more powerful transaction model that allows single transactions to execute arbitrary code, rather than be limited to calling a single function on an already-deployed contract.

Flow EVM is fully EVM-equivalent, allowing developers to easily deploy their existing contracts in an environment that provides high security and performance for very low cost.  Furthermore, EVM developers can take advantage of Flow features, including native VRF that can be implemented with a few lines, and batched transaction writes.

The Flow Architecture defines an Access role specifically to distribute cryptographic proofs of transaction outcomes. Furthermore, Access Nodes also answer general state queries and supply proofs of correctness. Client software works with Access Nodes to provide users with state information that is accurate and secure, without requiring those clients to keep up with the torrent of traffic flowing through the entire network.

The number of Access Nodes in the network has no fixed limit, which will support a practically unbounded number of light clients fetching full state proofs.

Specialized Proofs of Confidential Knowledge (SPoCKs) are a new cryptographic technique developed by the Flow team, formally defined in a technical paper. SPoCKs allow any number of provers to demonstrate to a third-party observer that they each have access to the same confidential knowledge. These proofs are non-interactive and don’t leak information about the confidential knowledge itself. Each prover’s SPoCK is specialized to them, and can’t be copied or forged by any other prover.

Flow uses SPoCKs to address the Verifier’s Dilemma by requiring Execution and Verification Nodes to “show their work”. In order to get paid, these nodes need to provide a SPoCK showing access to confidential knowledge that can only be obtained by executing all of the transactions assigned to them.

Flow is fully EVM equivalent, meaning any Solidity smart contract that runs on Ethereum Mainnet can be simply deployed and run on Flow natively. Additionally most applications and platforms can simply change their RPC and run on Flow without any code changes. Simply running on Flow is an easy change; it comes with many benefits like native MEV resistance and consumer-grade scalability.

EVM smart contracts will work as expected and can be deployed simply by configuring Hardhat or Foundry with the appropriate RPC and network information. Find details in our quickstart.

The workhorses of the Flow architecture are the Execution Nodes. Execution Nodes are more than “fast computers;” each of them is a cluster of high-end server hardware co-located in a data center.

Execution Nodes are high-performance and subject to substantial staking requirements; however, their function is strictly limited to executing state changes based on transactions within deterministic blocks, set by Collection and Consensus nodes. All of the work they do is verified and confirmed by the network of Consensus and Verification Nodes.

This is just one example of the power unlocked by the modular design of the Flow network architecture.  While execution nodes handle immense computation, the low hardware requirements for verification nodes foster broad community participation, which is crucial for securing the network against attacks.

Collectively, Verification Nodes ensure a block's entire computation is confirmed multiple times over, achieving high redundancy. However, this workload is distributed, so each individual node is only responsible for verifying a small fraction. For example, with 1,000 nodes each checking just 4% of a block, the block as a whole is validated 40 times. The Flow Technical Papers provide the full details and security analysis of this approach.

The Scalability Trilemma is an important conjecture made by Vitalik Buterin that is not formally proven, but is almost certainly correct for homogenous blockchain designs. If every node in the network has the same role, you have to compromise on at least one of those dimensions.

Flow doesn’t “break” or disprove the Trilemma, it solves it. By designing different nodes to participate in different roles, the Flow Foundation can choose the right trade-offs for each part of the system.

Flow maximizes security and decentralization for the Consensus Nodes, the part of the system most vulnerable to Byzantine attacks. This limits their scalability, of course, but that isn’t actually a problem because we don’t ask the Consensus Nodes to do anything computationally expensive.

On the other hand, Flow cranks up the hardware requirements for Execution Nodes to dramatically increase computation throughput. This does reduce the decentralization of those nodes, which is addressed by ensuring that every step of every transaction is confirmed by the high security and decentralised Verification Nodes.

For each node type, the Trilemma holds as expected, but the overall effect is a system where the weaknesses of one part of the system are more than offset by the strengths of the other parts.

$FLOW can be purchased on a variety of platforms, the entire list can be found here.

This list of wallets supporting $FLOW can be found in the Ecosystem page.

Flow is a multi-purpose blockchain that supports everything the world of web3 has to offer. This includes fungible tokens (FTs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and applications such as decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) or decentralized exchanges (DEX). 

Flow supports two smart contract programming languages:

• Cadence: Its native, resource-oriented programming language, expertly designed for digital assets and security.‍
• Solidity: With full EVM equivalence, enabling seamless deployment of existing Ethereum apps and assets.

CryptoKitties rendered Ethereum unusable in December 2017. Read more here. This was the first moment that showed the challenges of Ethereum to scale and inspired many different teams and networks. The team that experienced the magic and challenges of CryptoKitties became much of the core team behind Flow.

Yes. A quickstart for building a full-stack app on Flow is available here.

If you want to start building, here's a few hands-on resources:

• If you are just getting started, we recommend following the Flow App quickstart tutorial.
• To learn how to write smart contracts using Flow's revolutionary new smart contract programming language, Cadence, start with the Cadence First Steps tutorial.
• If you’re a Solidity developer and aren’t ready to explore Cadence, start with our EVM Quickstart.

Yes, a Ledger can be used for NFTs by acting as a secure hardware wallet to store the private keys associated with your NFTs, protecting them from hackers.

If you’re building with Cadence, you’ll use the React SDK to build your frontend.  It’s a modern, hooks-based library that simplifies interacting with the Flow blockchain.  It also contains a growing component library that shortcuts much of the setup you need to get your app connected and displaying data.

If you’re building with Solidity on Flow EVM, you’ll find that most of the frontend libraries you’re comfortable with work as expected. These include, but are not limited to Wagmi, Viem, Rainbowkit, Privy, Dynamic, Gelato, and Crossmint.