When ChainLink started to rise in prominence many people began to question if this was a meme coin across 4chan message boards. However, this project has turned out to grow into one of the strongest projects within the cryptocurrency industry which had helped many to realize that this was, in fact, a very serious project.

Over the course of its lifespan, ChainLink has managed to amass a string of high profile partnerships and has even managed to get itself listed on one of the worlds largest exchanges, Coinbase. These partnerships have helped LINK surge to a high of around $3.72 in 2019 making it one of the only coins to create a fresh ATH during an altcoin bear market. If LINK can continue to grow at this EXCEPTIONAL level, I believe the project will rocket into the top 15 projects in 2020 once investors start to realize the need for data Oracles to provide on-chain data to smart contracts.

What is the single most important thing you should know about chainlink?

Smart Contracts have truly elevated the blockchain industry to new heights allowing the ability for users to create self-executing contracts based off of specifically coded instructions - all this without the requirement of a 3rd party to verify the transaction. This has sparked a wave of “operating system” type blockchains, such as Ethereum, and has allowed developers to create a plethora of decentralized applications.

However, the problem with these smart contracts is they are limited to the on-chain data stored in the blockchain. This means that the contracts are limited in what they can achieve due to the fact that the data is not available to them. This is the problem that ChainLink has started to solve - through the use of their off-chain infrastructure in Oracles.

Oracles are data services (or nodes) that gather off-chain data and provide this data back to the blockchain to be used as data in the parameters of a smart contract. The off-chain data can literally be anything from weather patterns, market data feeds, horse racing results, IoT sensor data, housing prices...literally any real-world data that is collectable. The Oracle is pretty much connecting these closed blockchains to the outside world in a secure manner.

Typical Oracles rely on centralized services to provide accurate data. However, ChainLink has created a decentralized Oracle network that uses smart contracts and a reputation network to ensure that the feed of data provided to the Oracle is reliable and authentic. The Oracle takes a range of readings from different sources and aggregates the data through its system to provide a unified result to the smart contract that is reliable and accurate.

Unlocking the true potential of smart contracts

This innovation now helps to unlock the true potential of smart contracts allowing them to affect the industries they were originally intending to revolutionize. In every sector, from Finance and Governance to Insurance and Enterprise, ChainLink will now allow smart contracts to have a tangible impact. For example, users can connect their cars to smart car IoT sensor data to provide data to insurance smart contracts on vehicles. Any accident or theft will be automatically triggered in the contract which will mean the user will be certain that they will receive their payment in a timely manner.

The use cases that Oracles can provide to blockchains are pretty much infinite. I am truly excited about this “meme” project that has a use-case that stretches beyond the capabilities majority of the altcoin industry. I believe LINK is still a sleeper and still has much room to grow into.