Cadence is a new programming language for cryptoassets and apps that draws on the concepts of resource-oriented programming and promotes developer ease of use. Smart contracts on Flow are written in Cadence.
The Go programming language is now used to write the complete node software in FLOW. It includes Basic storage (BadgerDB), networking (libp2p), consensus method (self-implemented HotStuff), execution storage (self-implemented binary Merkle tree), execution environment (Cadence), and other supporting components.
Use of Native tokens in the ecosystem: The Flow network's native token, FLOW, offers the following use cases:
Payment for network services: All operations, including creating new user accounts, storing assets, and interacting with smart contracts, will be subject to a transaction fee in FLOW tokens.
FLOW tokens are required as a deposit to reserve on-chain storage capacity.
Validator nodes: Token holders can stake their FLOW tokens and run validator nodes, assisting in the network's security in exchange for FLOW token payments.