"Dapper Labs is a Canadian blockchain technology company founded in 2018 by Roham Gharegozlou, best known for creating CryptoKitties (the 2017 game that congested Ethereum), NBA Top Shot (the first mainstream NFT product to reach mass adoption), and the Flow blockchain a purpose-built platform for consumer-facing NFT applications and games.
CRYPTOKITTIES: THE ORIGIN STORY
In late 2017, Dapper Labs launched CryptoKitties on Ethereum a game where users collected, bred, and traded unique digital cats as NFTs. The game became so popular it congested the entire Ethereum network, with transaction fees spiking dramatically. This experience convinced Dapper that Ethereum was inadequate for consumer-scale NFT applications, leading them to build Flow.
FLOW BLOCKCHAIN
Flow is a proof-of-stake Layer 1 blockchain specifically designed for games, digital collectibles, and consumer applications.
Key differentiators: Multi-role architecture nodes are split into Collector, Consensus, Execution, and Verification roles, enabling high throughput without sacrificing decentralisation.
Developer-friendly: Cadence, Flow's programming language, was designed to prevent common smart contract security mistakes through resource-oriented programming.
Low transaction costs: Suitable for microtransactions in games and frequent NFT interactions.
EVM on Flow: Flow added EVM compatibility in 2024, enabling Solidity developers to deploy on Flow.
NBA TOP SHOT
Launched in 2020, NBA Top Shot allows fans to buy, sell, and trade officially licensed NBA highlight clips as NFTs (called ""Moments""). At its peak, NBA Top Shot generated over $700 million in sales volume. It introduced millions of mainstream sports fans to NFTs without requiring any crypto knowledge purchases with credit cards and a simple Dapper account replaced the complexity of Ethereum wallets.
DAPPER'S PARTNERSHIPS
Beyond NBA, Dapper has partnered with the NFL (NFL All Day), UFC, and LaLiga for officially licensed sports NFT collections, establishing itself as the leading platform for mainstream sports digital collectibles."