Wetez Becomes a Node Operator for Chainlink to Connect the On-chain and Off-chain Worlds Wetez Follow Aug 8, 2019 · 5 min read

Similar to the history of the Internet, we believe that as blockchain technology evolves, the tipping point for widespread blockchain adoption will come when it extends to the real world.

The evolutionary path of blockchain technology is similar to that of the Internet, which started off predominantly with simple online applications such as IM, e-mail and online information aggregation. Everything happened “online”, from data creation to data consumption. The same trajectory is currently happening blockchain. The blockchain is referred to as the “chain”, and the applications built upon it are called “on-chain applications”. Similar to containment of early Internet, all the data that is created and consumed by blockchains happens in a closed ecosystem on-chain. The data “online” and the data “on-chain” are the same in principle, but their values are quite different.

Furthermore, there is a vast amount of data created by “entities” that are not “online” or “on-chain”. Entities represent productive human activities in the real world, such as companies that produce data from their regular business processes. These entities create significantly more data than those “online” or “on-chain”; this data is irreplaceable, an asset that can greatly improve productivity.

After decades of development, the Internet has been successfully connected to the real world entities. Experiences such as e-commerce stores delivering real life products, online dating apps to meet people in person, and online services to book on demand cars are success stories of the online and offline integration. We got a taste of how these innovations improve our life and work.

However, the blockchain has yet to be connected to the entities in the real world. Since blockchain technology is still in its initial stages of development and its decentralized model is fundamentally different from the Internet, there’s still a long way to go before it reaches maturity.

Oracles

“Oracles” bridge blockchains with these “off-chain” entities. The oracle here refers to a simple data proxy service.

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that connects the real world with blockchain, so as to allow entities to provide data services to on-chain applications.

Both the Internet and blockchain use oracles to interact with external data and create value exchange on the network based on it. The only difference is that with the Internet, data is routed through trusted 3rd parties who then manually trigger value exchange, while the blockchain routes data without trusted third parties using decentralized oracles that directly trigger real world value exchange. Since data triggers actions without human intervention in the middle, data accuracy becomes increasingly important.

Currently, if you want to find out the average temperature for the next day, you simply need to open your weather app and check the data. You probably give very little thought to the source of the data (e.g. some weather station). We rarely question the accuracy of the information we receive because in most situations, we don’t need such precise data. However, in certain situations such as farming. a more accurate prediction on temperature is essential to better protecting their crops. Thus farmers would likely compare different sources of data or get data from the most credible source to ensure accuracy.

There are sophisticated services like this on the Internet. Average users would get their data from mainstream channels, e.g. apps, believing that services with the most users are the most trustworthy. On the other hand, users who need highly accurate data make their own judgments by comparing multiple sources. This approach has been adopted in the real world for years, and users are usually willing to trust their data source. But in most cases, especially when it comes to free services, no one is held accountable for data accuracy.

Given their decentralized and automated nature, new problems emerge when using data to trigger high-value contracts on the blockchain.

Given the uncertainties with data sources and decentralized networks, how do we develop a system that ensures data accuracy and maintains security without human intervention??

In a decentralized oracle network, everyone can be the data provider. So when a user sends a request to see the USD to RMB exchange rate, there will be thousands of data sources. How can oracle reliably match the user to the right data provider? Additionally, since real world value exchange is directly linked to data sources via smart contracts, network volatility or data inaccuracy may have serious consequences.

Imagine the smart contract is programmed to book flights with the following condition:

Buy the ticket from Beijing to London when the price is under $200.

However, the smart contract receives the wrong price data saying $200 when it’s actually $2000, and you lose $1800 as a result.

Fortunately, decentralized oracle services have emerged to solve this problem. The problem is there are many options and making choices on which one to use is risky due to technological loopholes. In fact, some of these decentralized services are creating additional problems for users instead of solving them.

Chainlink is one of the leading solutions, with unique authentication, reputation, certification and contract upgrade mechanisms to solve many of the core issues in decentralized oracle networks.

If we agree that in the future Dapps will replace Apps for many core social applications, but will need access to external off-chain resources then the security of smart contracts, which underpin the Dapps, will become a major focus of attention. Users will undoubtedly be concerned about issues like whether the smart contract uses quality oracles that provide quality data with reliable and secure transfers. Chainlink has outlined a superior oracle solution that’s eloquently featured in its peer-reviewed whitepaper. It has established a secure and decentralized underlying architecture that ensures effectiveness and accuracy of its oracle. This is one of the reasons why Wetez has decided to become a node operator of Chainlink. We aim to provide more reliable data services to smart contracts.

Wetez has always believed that it’s only a matter of time until blockchain is linked to the real world. Since blockchain is still in its early stage of development, data is limited and revolves around token prices (e.g. coinmarketcap, Binance) and traceability (place of origin). However, we believe like the Internet that blockchain will eventually become deeply connected to the real world on various dimensions and levels.

Chainlink

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data feeds, web APIs, and traditional bank payments. Chainlink is consistently selected as one of the top blockchain technologies by leading independent research firms such as Gartner. It is well known for providing highly secure and reliable oracles to large enterprises (SWIFT and Google) and leading smart contract development teams.

Wetez

Wetez is a top-notch player in POS, providing professional node operating services to institutional customers and delegation/proxy services to individual investors. Wetez is also a node reward wallet based on POS consensus, covering basic token transfer, delegation and reward functions. We are going to further develop and enable POS in the future.

Twitter: @Wetez_wallet

Medium: Wetez

Wechat: Wetez