Introduction

As a high-performance blockchain, Flow (FLOW) is designed for the development of NFTs, large-scale crypto games, and applications. When compared to general-purpose blockchains like Ethereum, Flow is designed to efficiently expand to accommodate billions of users transacting with NFTs like in-game stuff. Tokens of the FLOW kind are used exclusively on the flow blockchain.

The term of "layer 1" describes the foundational components of a network like Solana, Flow, or Ethereum. Transactions in layer-1 blockchains can be verified and completed independently of any other networks. Bitcoin demonstrates how challenging it is to make scalability improvements to layer-1 networks.

• User Retention: Is a user who made a transaction previously likely to make another transaction a week or a month later?

Method

In this dashboard I tried to calculate the difference between current transaction and the previous transaction for each user as retention on Flow blockchain vs. other L1 chains such as Ethereum, Algorand, Near and Cosmos.

For this purpose I used core.fact_transactions on each chain and calculate the time difference between users’ transactions by following method:

lag(block_timestamp, 1) ignore nulls over (partition by wallet order by block_timestamp asc) as previous_txn, 
datediff('day',previous_txn, block_timestamp) as previous_txn_n_days,

Then, defined the number of users which have the difference between current transaction and the previous transaction for each user as bellow:

• <= 1 days, these are the daily active users.
• 1 and <= 7 days, these are the weekly active users.
• 7 and <= 30 days, these are the monthly active users.
• 30 and <= 90 days, these are the quarterly active users.
• 90 and <= 180 days, these are the half year active users.
• 180 days, these are the yearly active users.

And then repeat this for NFT buyers, too.

Analysis

:hourglass_flowing_sand: User retention on Flow vs. other L1 chains

✍🏻 Conclusion

As Findings above:

• Ethereum has the highest user retention of all L1s, it is very surprising that Flow is the second place among the assessed chains.

• The high speed and low transaction fee might be the reason for higher user retention on Flow close to Ethereum and higher than other chains.

• Flow would have to work really hard to compete the level of Ethereum.

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And finally, I’m glad to share this research with those who care about this issue via Twitter link, and will be pleased by your comments.

About:

• Author: HaM☰d

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• Discord: 0xHaM☰d#8391

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• Twitter: @arjmandi_hamed

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• Email: h_arjmandi2012@yahoo.com

How sticky are the users on Flow?

Create a detailed analysis comparing user retention on Flow vs. other L1 chains like Ethereum and Solana. How often do users who make a transaction come back and make another transaction one month later? How do monthly active users compare between chains?

Bonus: add a section of your analysis comparing retention specifically with regard to NFT purchases. How often do users who purchase an NFT come back and make another purchase one month later?

Hey there 👋!

Firstly, I appreciate you sticking with it until the conclusion.

I'm Hamed, a civil engineering Ph.D.

student interested in data analysis.

I've made many similar dashboards and visualizations since I started at Flipside in January.

Please take a look at my various contact details and let me know what you think.

:mag_right: Findings:

How often do users who make a transaction come back and make another transaction one month later?

Flow vs Ethereum, NEAR, Cosmos & Algorand

In daily users retention, Flow has the most user count after Ethereum with about 5.5M users.

As excepted, Ethereum has the highest retention in all six aforementioned categories.

Flow, Near & Algorand have the nearest weekly user retention with a range between 700 to 800K users.

Cosmos has the lowest weekly retention among all assessed chains, with 288.8K and 19% of users.

Daily retention has the highest user count among the all classes.

Unlike other chains, the Flow blockchain, has the most user retention by half year after daily retention, while in other chains like Ethereum, Near & Cosmos Monthly users retention is the highest then other categories.

Meanwhile that in the Algorand, the weekly users retention is the second place with the highest users count after daily users.

:mag_right: Findings:

• In May, 2022, the FLOW blockchain had the most monthly user retention after Ethereum.
• Since September the second place after Ethereum are belong to NEAR protocol.
• Overall, as of PIE chart right, 75.8% of monthly user retention are belong to Ethereum followed by NEAR protocol with 7.5%, while Flow has the lowest retentions by month with 5.05%.

The following charts show the count of transactions, active users and growth of transactions count by month.

• As can be seen in November, the FLOW chain, had the most transactions and active user count after Ethereum.
• Overall, since 2022 Algorand, Ethereum and Flow have had the most transactions count, respectively.

:hourglass_flowing_sand: comparing retention with regard to NFT purchases

:mag_right: Findings:

Flow vs Ethereum, NEAR, Cosmos & Algorand

In daily and weekly NFT buyer retention, Flow has the most user count after Ethereum with about 158.16K & 102.3K NFT buyer, respectively.

As excepted, Ethereum has the highest retention in all six aforementioned categories.

Near & Algorand have the nearest weekly NFT buyer retention with a range between 8K to 10K users.

NEAR has the lowest weekly retention among all assessed chains, with 7941 and 24.2% of buyers.

Daily retention has the highest NFT buyer count among the all classes.

As such as other chains, the Flow blockchain, has the most buyer retention by weekly after daily retention.

:hourglass_flowing_sand: How often do users who purchase an NFT come back and make another purchase one month later?

:mag_right: Findings:

• In Feb, 2022, the FLOW blockchain had the most monthly user retention after Ethereum.
• Since February the monthly NFT buying retentions decreased.
• In contrast to previous sections, in terms of NFT buying retentions, the FLOW blockchain settled on second place, after Ethereum.
• Overall, as of PIE chart right, 81.3% of monthly NFT buying retentions are belong to Ethereum followed by FLOW with 16.6%, while NEAR has the lowest retentions by month with less than 1%.

:hourglass_flowing_sand: How do monthly active users compare between chains?