Date: 2022-07-05

This analysis is focused on tokens and blockchains that users interacting with when bridging to and from FLOW on Flow.

All data is from the beginning until now.

Quick introduction

What is the Flow blockchain?

Flow is a blockchain that is designed for extensive scaling without the use of sharding

techniques, providing fast and low-cost transactions that make sense for dapps such as NFT marketplaces and crypto-infused video games.

As mentioned, Flow hails from Dapper Labs, which decided to solve its blockchain congestion problem head-on by building one primed for games and other interactive experiences. Dapper is now using Flow for all of its own projects, including NBA Top Shot, but it’s open to other developers as well.

How does Flow work?

Flow uses a proof of stake consensus mechanism that requires validators to stake a certain number of FLOW tokens to participate in the network.

However, the way that validation works is unique amongst blockchains, as Flow splits validation tasks into four separate types of nodes: consensus, verification, execution, and collection. All four node types participate in the validation of each transaction.

Dapper says that splitting up the tasks makes processing transactions more efficient than on rival blockchains. It’s an alternative option to sharding, or spreading out the storage and computational needs of a blockchain across numerous nodes. Flow does not use sharding, and by doing so, Dapper says that Flow keeps transactions atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable (ACID), and allows developers to build on each others’ work.

Methods

To calculate the price of 14 tokens in the flow.core.fact_bridge_transactions table:

• For BNB token price from bsc.core.ez_bnb_transfers table
• For AVAX token price from AVALANCHE.core.EZ_AVAX_TRANSFERS table
• For the prices of STARLY, FLOW, SPRT and BLT tokens from the flow.core.fact_prices table
• And for the rest of the tokens, I used the ethereum.core.fact_hourly_token_prices table.

To get the tokens that are bridged from Flow to other blockchains, use the condition ==direction = 'outbound'== and to get the tokens that are bridged to the Flow blockchain, use the condition ==direction = 'inbound'==

To calculate the volume of each blockchain and each token, I multiplied the bridged value of each token by its price (ready from above).

I grouped by blockchain and token, and totaled the usd volume obtained.

Bridge Analysis by tokens - (From FLOW blockchain):

Analyze

Good! As it is known, the ==USDT== with the volume of 3,190,724 million dollars is in the first place of Bridge from Flow. In the next ranks, FLOW and BLT tokens are in the second and third positions with the volume of 852,101 dollars and 608,508 dollars, respectively.

Bridge Analysis by tokens - (To FLOW blockchain):

Analyze

By checking the tokens bridged to Flow Blockchain, we can see that the ==USDT== token is in the first place.

I have shown the rank 1 to 6 tokens and their volume below:

1. USDT ($1,234,130)
2. RLY ($1,220,521)
3. BLT ($265,384)
4. WBTC ($178,360)
5. FLOW ($102,748)
6. WETH ($93,790)

Bridge Analysis by blockchains - (From FLOW blockchain):

Analyze

From the bar chart above, it can be clearly seen that users make most of their bridges from Flow to the Ethereum blockchain. Bridge to Ethereum has a volume of nearly 4 million dollars. Also, according to the donut chart above, it can be said that 86% of bridges are from Flow to Ethereum. And 12.4% of the bridged volume is from Flow blockchain to Solana blockchain and its tokens, which is about 600,000 dollars.

Bridge Analysis by blockchains - (To FLOW blockchain):

Analyze

As it is clear here, 90% of the bridges are from Ethereum blockchain to Flow blockchain, the dollar value of which was about 2.85 million dollars. Here, Solana is in second place with a volume of about 263,000 dollars, and BSC is in third place with a volume of 51,000 dollars.

Other blockchains make up less than 1% of bridges in total, which you can see on the bar chart.

Conclusion

• From the complete information of this dashboard, we conclude that the USDT token is the most popular token in bridges. Both from or to FLOW, the USDT has the largest bridged volume.
• Also, the Ethereum blockchain with about 86% of the volume of bridges is the destination of users from FLOW.
• And Ethereum is the most popular source for Bridge to Flow blockchain. with 90% in bridges from it to FLOW.

Thanks for reading!

This analysis was created on 2022–07–05 for a bounty at Flipside Crypto by Hesam to answer the following questions: #Flow - What tokens and blockchains are users interacting with when bridging to and from Flow? An analysis could include what protocols users are leveraging after bridging TO Flow from another chain, as well as what chains contribute to the most bridge volume. Or you could do the reverse, where are users going from Flow to another chain going? What were they interacting with on Flow before bridging out? 

All data used are from Flipside Crypto.

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