What is Flare Network (FLR)?
Flare is a layer 1 network that prioritizes interoperability between blockchains, i.e. the ability for two blockchains to communicate with each other, and helps bring smart contract capabilities to other blockchain projects that don’t have them, such as the XRP Ledger.
The Network is powered by two protocols: State Connector, which enables the use of external blockchain data (such as asset-specific data or general information) on the Flare network, and Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO), which provides a trusted off-chain data source for use on the network.
Additionally, Flare runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) for its smart contract development, making it easy for Ethereum developers to build on Flare.
Flare’s native token, FLR, has multiple uses on the network, including incentivizing the use and decentralization of FTSO, securing the network, and participating in network governance.
How was Flare Network developed?
Flare Network was founded by Hugo Philion (CEO), Sean Rowan (CTO) and Naïri Usher (Chief Scientist). Philion graduated from Cass Business School with a degree in financial risk and investment management. He then earned a master’s degree in machine learning from University College London (UCL), where Rowan also earned his degree. Usher also studied at UCL and received a PhD in quantum computing.
Flare’s original whitepaper was released in August 2020, outlining the team’s goals for the network and introducing its token – then called Spark. Flare’s original goal was to bring smart contract capabilities to networks that didn’t have them, like Ripple’s XRP Ledger. The whitepaper focused on Flare’s ability to enhance the functionality of the XRP Ledger and how to bring more functionality and interoperability to the XRP token.
In 2019, the Flare team received a significant seed investment from Xpring, the investment arm of Ripple Labs. In 2021, Flare raised $11.3 million in a funding round that included participation from venture capital firms such as Digital Currency Group as well as individual investors such as Do Kwan and Charlie Lee.
The Whitepaper update (Flare v2.0) was announced in December 2022, officially renaming the Spark token to FLR and refining many technological aspects of the project.
How does Flare Network work?
Flare Network is a layer 1 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain that uses the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to support smart contracts and host decentralized applications (dapps). The platform uses two protocols to support convenient and efficient blockchain interoperability goals: State Connector and Flare Time Series Oracle.
State Connector
Flare’s State Connector leverages the network’s ability to provide blockchain interoperability. It ensures that the state of another (connected) blockchain is reliably replicated on Flare using decentralized technology. It uses two tools to achieve this:
- Request-commit-reveal (RCR) protocol – A user can request information from another blockchain, which is verified by the user (called a certificate authority) who then provides a certificate or proof using a cryptographic tool called a Merkle tree.
- Branching Protocol – Once the data is requested and verified using the RCR protocol, the branching protocol checks to see if more than 50% of the certificate authorities agree, helping to decentralize the data collection process.
Through this process, data from other blockchains — such as transactions and information about which assets are held in specific cryptocurrency wallets — can be brought to Flare and recreated for use in the network’s native dapps.
Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO)
Part of the challenge of working with blockchain data is that, while decentralization can be trustworthy on-chain, interacting with any off-chain data can be a weak point. To collect data from outside the network, oracles are used. These tools pull information from various sources and feed it back into the blockchain.
Flare uses its own oracle, FTSO, which is a collection of data providers that provide information for on-chain use. For example, the price of BTC or XRP might be important to a DeFi protocol on Flare and this information needs to be retrieved in the most reliable way possible.
Data providers must stake FLR tokens to become providers, and can be slashed (or confiscated) if they act maliciously in their role as network validators. Additionally, other users can delegate their FLR to data providers they trust. Data providers and their delegators then earn rewards based on the accuracy of their data. This incentivizes honest estimates and thus, in theory, the most accurate data possible.
Songbird Network
Songbird is Flare’s canary (or test) network. Borrowing from Polkadot’s canary network, Kusama, Songbird acts as a full blockchain and exists to develop new features for Flare.
Launched in 2021, Songbird has its own governance system and its own native token, SGB.
How is FLR Token used?
FLR is used to incentivize FTSO usage, serve as collateral in third-party dapps, participate in governance, secure the network through staking, and pay transaction fees.
Token Distribution
There are 100 billion FLR, with 58% of them allocated to the community, including direct distribution to users via airdrops. About 19% is allocated to the development team, advisors, and backers, and 22.5% is reserved for Flare-related companies/funds.
The Future of Flare Network
Flare Network is clearly designed to be a cutting-edge network with cross-chain interoperability. With this, it can be seen that the network will facilitate a completely decentralized cross-chain future, and the protocol that the network provides allows developers to create many different types of interoperability solutions.
Flare Network has developed several products for its interoperability at the moment, including F-Assets and Layer Cake.
F-assets is how the network can issue assets from their native chain onto the Flare blockchain in a decentralized manner through a collateral system. Layer Cake, on the other hand, is a step forward in the overall security, speed, and scalability of connecting between different smart contracts on the network. It is multi-party, meaning users can directly connect between any two chains on the Layer Cake network.
It is likely that in the future we will see more compatible Flare networks and product developers will take advantage of this interoperability.
You can see FLR prices here.
Mr. Teacher
Bitcoin Magazine
