Streamflow is a decentralized application that allows users to distribute tokens on the Solana blockchain network. The app offers two core products: Token Vesting and Payment Service (Streams). These services allow users to manage their digital assets and transactions securely and efficiently.
Since streamflow is trustless and decentralized, anyone can use the service, making it a perfect choice for DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) that want to utilize it as a means for distributing funds to developers or investors over a period of time.
In this post, we will take a look at the core functions offered by the Streamflow app. We are using Phantom wallet via iOS in this guide, but both SteamFlow and Phantom are available on all devices.
Token Vesting
Most blockchain-based projects release their tokens through crowdfunding mechanisms, called Initial Dex Offerings (IDOs). IDOs last for a particular period of time as defined by the project - for example, a few hours up to a few days.
During the IDO period, anyone who deposits funds into the offering will receive their fair share of tokens when the period is over.
The amount of money raised during the crowdfunding campaign is used to calculate the worth of one token. This is then used to gauge the amount of tokens to be received by those who deposited their cryptocurrencies.
After these tokens have been distributed fairly to the public participants, some of the tokens remaining are set aside for the investors and team members of the project.
To prevent massive dumping of tokens on people, (and most importantly, rug pulls), the vesting system is used by projects to guarantee the public that the Team members and seed investors won’t scam the public by dumping their tokens on others from the supply of the total tokens allocated to them.
Basically, vesting tokens prevents them from being sold for a period of time.
A project can have a vesting schedule in the following manner:
Team gets 20% of the 50,000,000 total token supply, streamed as following (10,000,000 total):
- After 1 year, 25% of tokens are released. (i.e 2,500,000 of the tokens are released to the Team members)
- After 2 years, another 25% of the tokens are released (another 2,500,000 tokens)
- After the 3rd year, a total of 7,500,000 tokens would have been released to the team members
- After the 4th year, the team would have received all the tokens belonging to them.
This system can be used for investors in the same it is used for the team members.
Since this is a bit technical and cumbersome, Streamflow has built a vesting service that helps teams manage and also automate their vesting schedules.
So, if you have a project and you are planning to launch a token, you can make use of streamflow to ease your workflow.????♂️????
Using Streamflow: Step by Step Guide
- Connect your wallet to the official streamflow website and select the New Vesting option as we are about to test how the vesting feature works.
- Select the token in your wallet you want to Vest over a period of time. That could be the custom token of your project. (I selected USDC).
The release frequency is how often you want those tokens sent to the recipients. “Every 1 minute for example.”
- Cliff date is when the recipient is fully vested for the tokens they are to receive.
- The amount of % you put in the Release section determines the exact number of tokens released in the time frame assigned. Because I selected 20%, it would release 6 USDC to the address I chose after every 10 minutes according to my selections.
- You can grant the capability to transfer the contract to any of the listed people in the form below.
- Just like the Transfer Contract option, you can also select who has the permission to cancel the contract.
- Make sure the address is correct. (You can put the recipient’s email address if they would like to get instant notifications of the activities on account.
- After inputting all the information necessary, double check at the overview spot so that what you have filled is right.
- Streamflow takes a very small percentage as fee for processing your transactions. Then you can click on Create Vesting Contract.
- You will get a message like the one shown below if your setup has been approved and recorded on-chain, else you will get a failed/error message.
- In the All Streams section you can view all the active streams you have initiated.
- After the period of Vesting was over, I got a Completed message showing in the All Streams section instead of the Streaming shown above.
Streamflow Payments
Another service offered by Streamflow Finance is a payment solution. Over the years, many blockchain-based projects have made it a norm to pay their employees and clients in cryptocurrencies. Most of these applications available to make payments such as salaries to people are not crypto-native. This makes recurrent payments in crypto a bit tedious as it consumes productive time.
With Streamflow’s Stream feature, payments can now be automated easily.
How to Create a Stream
- Select the token you would like to use in paying the recipients.
- Input the Release amount. (i.e For every X minutes send 4 USDC to a wallet address).
- Select the time frame you would like the Stream to work with (you can set it for hourly pay if you like)
- Give the Payment Contract a title.
- Click on Create Streaming Contract and you are good to go.
Does Streamflow charge a fee to use?
Yes, there is a 0.25% fee that is charged when you create a new streaming contract.
Is Streamflow safe to use?
Streamflow has been audited for security purposes and the report of the audit is available on their website. A public audit is available here.
Who is backing Streamflow?
Streamflow is backed by Solana Ventures, Jump Capital, Amber, Huobi Ventures, and more.
Conclusion
An application like Streamflow invaluable to the ecosystem and for the adoption of cryptocurrencies as payments globally. One of the core purposes of blockchain as shown with Bitcoin is for payments and financial transactions. With Streamflow, payments and contracts can be done easily by just following a few steps.