Vancouver-headquartered Flow is launching a $725 million ecosystem fund for decentralized applications aiming at developing on the Flow blockchain.
According to a press release, the fund’s intended utility is to encourage the growth of the Web3 ecosystem and to invest in the future of DeFi on the blockchain.
Dapper Labs is Looking to Web3
The funding round welcomed the contributions of high-profile venture capitalists including Andreessen Horowitz, Digital Currency Group, Union Square Ventures, and Coatue.
For most of these ventures, this is not the first time that they have significantly invested with Flow and Dapper Labs.
As reported, the fund will invest in token grants , business incubators as well as other resources across different aspects of the Flow ecosystem such as blockchain infrastructure, decentralized finance, gaming, content and creators.
Ultimately, Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou hopes to encourage the community growth on Flow.
To wit,
“We are thrilled to see such a strong vote of confidence in the Flow ecosystem from some of the world’s leading investors in Web3 through their commitment to this fund. With their active participation and support, the Ecosystem Fund has the opportunity to become a real game-changer for the 7,500+ strong and fast-growing developer community in the Flow ecosystem.”
Dapper Labs is the name behind the successful CryptoKitties – the blockchain game that laid the groundwork for the latter blockchain games.
The digital cat collecting and breeding game was phenomenal back then, and it became so popular that it eventually crashed the Ethereum network.
Due to the overwhelming volume of activity linked to CryptoKitties, transactions on the Ethereum platform are nearly halted, requiring days and excessive gas prices to settle.
The catastrophe prompted Dapper Labs developers to seek for the better blockchain for games and cryptocurrencies.
To minimize network congestion, the new blockchain will need to be more scalable, and transactions will need to have low gas prices despite the enormous amount of transactions. And now we have Flow.
Flow is Doing Well
Flow has proven to be worth the hype since its debut in 2019. The blockchain has evolved rapidly, becoming a popular destination for over 1,000 active projects and 175,000 daily active users.
Of course, the figure is not particularly competitive when compared to leading blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana, or BNB Chain, but there are so many opportunities, especially now that Flow has penetrated the NFT space.
The NFT grew from a small, unknown sector to a multi-billion dollar market in less than a year. According to Nonfungible statistics, August of last year was a record-breaking month for the NFT industry, with 30-day sales exceeding $2 billion.
Dapper Labs is supporting a lot of NFT projects with huge revenue, such as NBA Top Shot. NBA Top Shot has generated $230 million in revenue by February. That figure has nearly quadrupled to $680 million, according to Forbes.
The long-term potential of NFTs attracted NBA legends Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant to invest $305 million in Dapper Labs to develop NFT projects.
What Makes Web3 So Attractive?
The digitization revolution has brought many benefits, but it has also increased the risk of the most valuable asset that can be stolen: information.
As Big Tech violated the public’s data privacy, the decentralized elements of Web3.0 grew more appealing than ever.
A network in which energy is transferred to the public and reliance on a centralized ecosystem is eliminated.
Data from Web 3.0 will be kept in a distributed database, so no user will have total control. Simultaneously, Web 3.0 empowers people to control their data, eliminating the need for middlemen for each piece of data collected.
Nonetheless, aspects of the prevalent Web3 movement, such as non-fungible tokens and the metaverse, are plagued with issues, such as cybersecurity concerns or a persistent reliance on centralized ecosystems.
Source: https://blockonomi.com/dapper-labs-flow-launches-725m-fund-to-facilitate-web3-growth/