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Ecosystem
September 18, 2024
DeFi on Flow: Build the Future of Finance
Flow
DeFi on Flow: Build the Future of Finance

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is revolutionizing the financial landscape. The Flow World Tour showcases why Flow is the ideal platform for visionary developers to build the next wave of consumer DeFi applications. The next tour events are scheduled September 18-22, 2024 in Singapore City, Singapore around the ETHGlobal Hackathon, with a special focus on DeFi, inviting developers to submit their DeFi apps.

Why Flow is Ideal for Building Consumer DeFi Apps

Flow gives developers everything they need to build the next killer DeFi app. The network features unparalleled advantages with a multi-role architecture that securely scales to meet the needs of consumers.

Flow is fast. It scales rapidly to handle the heaviest transaction load without compromising on factors of security or decentralization. Since Flow scales, transaction fees don’t spike with peak network use. The efficient design of the network keeps fees minimal, enabling micro-transactions and complex DeFi operations without prohibitive costs (e.g. $0.00001237 per transaction).

Flow is also fair. Due to the multi-role architecture of the network, where separate functions are carried out by nodes optimized for each task, working in independent harmony. With this structure, the network natively achieves native builder-proposer separation thanks to the partitioned Collection and Consensus nodes. Compared to other networks featuring monolithic nodes that holistically manage operations, the architecture is robust against Maximal Extracted Value (MEV) attacks.

Flow is secure. A single user may manage an account’s associated security keys via secure-element technology across any number of their choice among modern mobile devices or laptops. Keys on devices can be allocated differing weights, allowing for device-based account recovery, a much-desired security feature for DeFi users.

How The Flow Protocol Empowers DeFi Developers

Flow is more accessible to developers across ecosystems than ever with the latest network upgrade, Crescendo, which introduces full Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain compatibility. In addition to Cadence, the network supports development in Solidity, the native smart contract language on EVM networks, allowing developers to leverage existing skills or explore new paradigms.

Cadence 1.0, the most recent language version, allows developers to leverage powerful tools, such as Cadence Owned Accounts (COAs), which provide dynamic capacities. With COAs developers can deploy numerous EVM contracts at once, manage them programmatically, and perform batch operations currently unsupported by Externally Owned Accounts or the ERC-4337 standard. Meanwhile, COAs ensure that interactions across other Cadence-based features remain composable, for a flexible, functional environment.

The composability of Flow makes it easy to integrate other protocols and assets, and for EVM developers, to deploy existing apps, and tools, utilizing the same code and work-flows. The adaptive transaction fees of the network mean that developers and the communities that grow around their apps will see consistent performance at a predictable, low cost.

DeFi Products You Can Build on Flow

By giving developers access to multiple ecosystems and accommodating them by extending support to their preferred engineering style, Flow broadens the horizon of what is possible. On Flow, developers are empowered to cast limits aside, set their imaginations free, and build anything. 

Here’s just a taste of what they can bring to DeFi:

  • Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs): Create AMM or order book-based exchanges with ultra-low fees and lightning-fast trades.
  • Lending Protocols: Develop sophisticated lending markets with unique collateralization models.
  • Yield Aggregators: Build smart yield farming strategies that leverage the composability of Flow.
  • Synthetic Assets: Create and trade synthetic versions of real-world assets, expanding DeFi's reach.
  • Cross-Chain Bridges: Utilize the interoperability features of Flow to build seamless bridges with other blockchains.
  • Stablecoins: Develop algorithmic or collateral-backed stablecoins that benefit from the scalability of Flow.

DeFi Startups to Learn From on Flow

Consumer DeFi on Flow is already racing ahead—these are just a few of the projects forging forward:

  • Flow Community Rewards—an incentive platform enabled by Cadence that uses dynamic NFTs to deliver claimable rewards.
  • Increment—an all-in-one platform on Flow for trading, swapping, lending, borrowing, liquid-staking, and customizing liquidity and yield strategies.
  • MORE—a permissionless market on Flow with customizable risk parameters, designed to facilitate capital-efficient borrowing through undercollateralized lending structures, with higher-than-average loan-to-value ratio for sustainable yields.
  • Trado—a trading platform on Flow that offers perpetual and spot trading options.
  • Kittypunch—a DeFi trading platform that centers on trading and lending yields, all built around a specialized NFT collection.  
  • ANKR—a cross-chain staking platform that offers access to liquid-staking options for Flow holders.
  • Flowty—a peer-to-peer lending platform that leverages NFTs for collateral.

Start Building the Future of DeFi Today

Flow provides everything needed to bring a DeFi vision to life, with the Flow DeFi Toolbox offering:

  • Comprehensive documentation and tutorials
  • Pre-built smart contract templates
  • Integration guides for key DeFi primitives
  • Direct support from the Flow team and community

All it takes is one visionary developer to create the next wave of consumer financing. 

Start building your killer app on Flow.