Tag: chainlink

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Crypto Videos

Grayscale About To Unveil Chainlink?

https://youtu.be/9BtRDKZxy3Q

https://youtu.be/9BtRDKZxy3Q


Is Grayscale about to unveil a Chainlink (LINK) trust?

Rumors about Grayscale Investments being set to launch a raft of new products, including a Chainlink (LINK) trust, surfaced in the last week.

A statement from the State of Delaware’s Division of Corporations says that someone set up Grayscale Chainlink Trust on Dec 18, 2020. Basic Attention Token (BAT) trust, Livepeer (LPT) trust, Decentraland (MANA) trust, and a Tezos (XTZ) trust were also set up at the same time.


Grayscale Investments didn’t respond to the rumors and has yet to officially confirm it is behind the filings at all. Some reports tried to cast doubt on the legitimacy of this whole ordeal, as the registered agent for the trusts is not listed as Grayscale Investments, but rather as “Delaware Trust Company.” 

However, the Delaware Trust Company is currently listed on Grayscale’s website as one of its official service providers. On top of that, the same details were used when the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was initially created in 2013.

With that being said, new trusts are far from certain to launch. A Filecoin (FIL) trust was established two months before the aforementioned trusts and still has not been made public.

Adding to all the uncertainty, a few weeks after the inception of numerous trusts, Grayscale founder and CEO Barry Silbert decided to step down from its position. He was then replaced by Michael Sonnenshein. It is unclear if Sonnenshein will continue with Silbert’s strategy or take the firm in a completely new direction.

Grayscale last made an official filing for a Stellar Lumen (XLM) trust in October 2018 — over two years ago. The Stellar trust was made public around six weeks after its inception.

The Chainlink army has been very vocal about the potential filing, showing its support and speculating on the effect this might have on the LINK’s price.

Chainlink recently flipped Bitcoin Cash and became the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, boasting a value of over $9 billion. 

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Crypto Videos

The Amazing Chainlink – Solving Real-World Problems!

 

 

 

Chainlink – Beginners Guide

During the long and hard crypto winter of late 2018, many projects failed to stay afloat, but during all this, Chainlink managed to actually keep growing and defied the bearish market. At the moment, Chainlink is one of the leading cryptocurrencies in the DeFi sector. How did it manage to grow as consistently, and what sets is apart?

Problem

Blockchains use math–cryptography and practically guarantee security, trust, and decentralization. However, the problem is that each blockchain is its own universe, which means that getting information from and to another blockchain would require a trusted source. To retrieve information about event outcomes or even something as simple as Bitcoin’s price meant that you are required to trust a source to tell the truth.

What is Chainlink?


Chainlink figured out how to get any type of information in and out of a blockchain while remaining secure and decentralized, but also trustless. Sources of data between the blockchain and the “outside” world, known as oracles, are no longer a single point of failure for a smart contract. Chainlink created a network of nodes that can provide information to and from the blockchain, which created a vital part of smart contract infrastructure as a result. This “blockchain middleware” meant that Chainlink oracles could provide essential information without sacrificing on decentralization or security.
Chainlink essentially created a secure bridge to the “outside” world.
To minimize the potential failure of the aforementioned oracles, Chainlink focused on the distribution of data sources, distribution of oracles, as well as the use of trusted hardware.

Origins of Chainlink

Chainlink was founded by the current CEO Sergey Nazarov and the current CTO Steve Ellis. The project started in Sept 2017, when the project raised $32 million in an ICO, thus creating 1 billion LINK tokens. In May 2019, Chainlink launched on the Ethereum mainnet. At the moment, Chainlink is the 7th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, as well as the largest DeFi cryptocurrency by market cap, and is very close to the $4 billion dollar mark.

Use Cases

Chainlink is different from most projects in terms of having real use cases, as it is demonstrated by its list of partners, with most notable being Polkadot and Synthetix from the crypto sector and SWIFT and Google coming from the traditional business world.
As an example, Chainlink could be used to send a real-world money transfer from SWIFT and via Chainlink. The proof the payment could then be sent back via Chainlink to SWIFT. This use of Chainlink by SWIFT has created a seamless interaction between the traditional world and the crypto world, all while minimizing the potential points of failure.

So how does it all work?

Chainlink can be defined as a decentralized oracle network that consists of purchasers and data providers. Purchasers request data, while providers return it in a secure way.
Purchasers select the data they want to obtain, while providers bid to provide that data. Providers have to commit a stake of LINK tokens when making a bid, which serves as proof that they are honest. Once providers are selected, their job is to bring the correct answers on the chain.

Chainlink uses something called “oracle reputation system” to aggregate as well as weigh the data provided. If everything goes well, providers get paid, and everyone is happy, but if the providers misbehave, they lose their stake.

How do you get Link tokens?

The Chainlink network uses an Ethereum-based ERC-677 token that inherits the ERC-20 token standard’s functionality while allowing token transfers to contain a data payload. This token protocol is also used for payment of data providers who are bringing and translating data into the blockchain.
Besides earning LINK tokens by being a provider, you can also buy LINK tokens on various exchanges, such as Coinbase, Binance, and Huobi.

The Future of Chainlink

Two of the key objectives Chainlink focused on to ensure the security of its network are the distribution of data sources and the distribution of oracles. Like all networks, Chainlink’s main goal is to add more people and operators to become more robust and valuable.

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Crypto Daily Topic Crypto Guides

Here’s What You Need To Know About ChainLink Cryptocurrency

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Blockchain has revolutionized the digital industry with its amazing benefits. It has secured the payment methods and has provided people with a brand-new way to trade digitally. There are plenty of crypto platforms that are working on blockchain right now. ChainLink is one such decentralized network that offers real-world data to smart contracts. Link is the cryptocurrency or the digital token of the ChainLink platform, which you can use to pay for the services they offer.

What’s The Issue With Smart Contracts?

Smart contracts are indeed an integral part of the blockchain system, which are basically agreements to evaluate the information entered and execute the conditions. These Smart contracts help in establishing a sense of trust among the traders. The only limitation that smart contracts have right now is the ability to connect with blockchain in a language that both can easily understand. If that limitation has been addressed, the use of smart contracts can be widely enhanced.

Oracle As The Much Needed Solution

Oracle is the ideal solution to all these problems. It is basically a middle software that works as a translator for converting data from the real world to smart contracts and vice versa. Oracles are the recent additions into the blockchain and crypto ecosystem with an aim to bring together off-chain data and on-chain smart contracts. However, there is a loophole that makes oracles less efficient. Centralized oracles will decrease the efficiency of on-chain smart contracts due to the faulty and untrustworthy nature.

How ChainLink Makes a Difference?

ChainLink emerges as a savior in the situation. It is a decentralized oracle network that sources data and information off blockchain and transfers it to blockchain smart contracts. The primary purpose of ChainLink is to minimize the reliability issue with oracles. In a nutshell, ChainLink has found a reliable way to take the information from and for the blockchain in the safest manner.

How Does It Work To Provide More Security?

The ChainLink works by providing data to the purchase in return of the data in a secure way. Purchasers have to select the data, and the providers have to bid on that data. Providers will make a stake of LINK tokens during the bid.

With a view to improving the oracles and data security, ChainLink bought a startup, i.e., TownCrier. The technology of TownCrier helped ChainLink to enhance security with a trusted execution environment.

The Bottom Line

Blockchains are a popular way of securing digital transactions because it uses cryptography to establish security and trust. It is important to understand that each set of blockchain is a universe that needs to be explored. The information transfer in and out of the blockchain can make it vulnerable. To restrict the blockchain from compromising, ChainLink entered the crypto ecosystem as a decentralized oracle network.

Bridging the gap between real-world data and on-chain smart contracts, ChainLink was able to address the pain point. It acts as the middleware between off-chain data and an on-chain smart contract. Today, ChainLink is the most successful and powerful blockchain network that still has the potential to outgrow itself.

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Cryptocurrencies

What’s Chainlink (LINK) All About? 

Today’s blockchains exist in isolation from each other and the outside world. This significantly limits their potential to achieve mainstream adoption. For blockchain to reach maximum potential, it needs to be able to interact with the outside world. 

Today’s blockchains exist in isolation from each other and the outside world. This significantly limits their potential to achieve mainstream adoption. For blockchain to reach maximum potential, it needs to be able to interact with the outside world. 

Today’s blockchains exist in isolation from each other and the outside world. This significantly limits their potential to achieve mainstream adoption. For blockchain to reach maximum potential, it needs to be able to interact with the outside world. 

Oracles, which are third-party services that provide smart contracts with real-world connectivity, have been proposed to stand in this gap. But therein lies the problem. These third-party services are centralized. That means they have a single point of failure, making them no safer than any legacy digital system. 

What if there could be a decentralized oracle system? Now that would be something. Chainlink is a project that provides a decentralized network of oracles to offer smart contracts with real-world data and info. The first and only one of its kind, the project has attained impressive success just three years into its launch. 

Breaking Down Chainlink

Launched in 2017, Chainlink is a blockchain effort to connect external data with smart contracts on the blockchain. The Chainlink consists of a network of nodes that facilitate the introduction of smart contracts with real-world happenings and info that’s outside the chain. With this, Chainlink supports a variety of applications, including supplying smart contracts with all kinds of information ranging from bank interest rates to weather forecasts, election results, and sports scores. 

On its website, the project describes itself as: “The Chainlink network provides reliable tamper-proof inputs and outputs for complex smart contracts on any blockchain.” 

How Does Chainlink Work? 

Chainlink’s main plan is to create a bridge between on-chain smart contracts and the off-chain. For this to happen, the network has an on-chain mechanism that interacts with an off-chain mechanism. 

On-chain Architecture

Chainlink’s on-chain architecture comprises smart contracts and oracles that transmit data from external sources to the chain. Oracles take user requests for outside data and submit it to the network via a requesting contract. 

The Chainlink protocol responds by creating a corresponding smart contract (Chainlink Service Level Agreement (SLA Contract) to acquire this off-chain data. The Chainlink SLA Contract then creates three sub-contracts: a reputation contract, an order-matching contract, and an aggregating contract. 

The reputation contract ensures that an oracle provider is authentic and reliable, getting rid of disreputable ones. An order-matching contract passes the requesting contract’s request to the appropriate Oracle according to the level and type of request. Finally, the aggregating contract takes all the data from the selected oracle and reconciles it for the best results and then delivers it to the requesting contract.

Off-chain Architecture

Off-chain, Chainlink comprises a network of oracle nodes that connect to the Ethereum network. Chainlink plans to add support for other smart contract platforms in the future. Let’s look at the off-chain architecture.

#1.Chainlink Core.

This is a software whose work is to interface with the blockchain. It schedules and distributes tasks across the various off-chain services. Work executed via Chainlink nodes is registered as assignments. Each assignment comprises ‘subtasks,’ that are processed as a pipeline. Each subtask has a particular activity it carries out before passing its results on to the next subtask, and on and on until the final result is reached.

#2. External Adapters

Apart from the built-in subtasks, Chainlink’s network also supports customs subtasks that can be created via ‘adapters.’ Adapters here mean external services with minimal representational state transfer API.

#3. Subtask Schemas

These are pieces of software that ensure compatibility between adapters since these adapters are of different types and created by different developers. 

Chainlink’s Reputation System

Chainlink utilizes a Reputation System that records the user ratings of oracle providers. Via the Reputation System, prospective users can evaluate the reliability and trustworthiness of an oracle provider beforehand. The Reputation System is based on the following metrics: 

  • The total number of assigned requests. This includes all the requests that an oracle has previously taken on, whether complete or incomplete
  • Completion rate. This is the total number of requests that an oracle has completed. Completion rate is calculated by averaging the number of requests assigned with those that have been completed
  • The total number of accepted requests. This is the number of requests that are seen as acceptable.
  • Average response time. This is calculated by measuring the timeliness of responses to past requests.

The Reputation System incentivizes oracle providers to act honestly since a bad rating would potentially ruin a brand’s value. The Chainlink team hopes the system will create a virtuous circle in which well-behaved oracles acquire a good reputation, and the good reputations will feed into the incentive for a continued collaborative and high-performance environment. 

The LINK Token

The LINK token is the native token of the Chainlink network. It’s an ERC20 compliant token, meaning it’s based on the Ethereum blockchain. The network uses the token to pay nodes who retrieve data from external sources and convert it to blockchain readable formats. Smart contracts on, let’s say, Ethereum, have to pay their chosen Chainlink node operator with LINK tokens. 

The Chainlink whitepaper describes LINK as an “ERC20 token, with the additional ERC223 “transfer and call” functionality of transfer (address,uint256, bytes), allowing tokens to be received and processed by contracts within a single transaction.”

LINK also derives value from increased use cases of the network. As the use of cases of the Chainlink platform increase, so does the value of the token. 

Economics of LINK 

As of July 25, 2020, Chainlink is trading at $7.70. has a market cap of 2.7 billion that places it at #11 in the market. LINK has a 24-hour volume of $563, 161, 674, a circulating supply of 350, 000, 000 and a total supply of 1 billion. LINK’s all-time high was $8.80 (Jul 16, 2020), while its all-time low was $0.126297 (Sep 23, 2017).

Buying and Storing LINK

You can find LINK at any of several exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase Pro, Kraken, BKEX, BitHumb, LATOKEN, Bitrue, DragonEX, and Gemini. 

Being an ERC20 token, LINK can be stored on any wallet that supports Ethereum. Options include Atomic Wallet, Guarda Wallet, MyEtherWallet, Trezor, and Ledger. 

Final Thoughts

Chainlink is a real solution to a real problem. By providing a decentralized oracle solution to blockchains, it gives them the chance to interact with the outside world safely and securely. The blockchain ecosystem stands to benefit massively from that and similar ideas. So far, Chainlink has done extremely well, and it will likely go nowhere but up. 

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Cryptocurrencies

Most Important Cryptocurrencies Apart From Bitcoin

As the most popular and successful cryptocurrency, Bitcoin enjoys most of the spotlight. For this reason, it’s easy for most people to think that cryptocurrency is synonymous with Bitcoin. Indeed, a YouGov study reported 75% of US adults knew about Bitcoin, while other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum were each known by less than 30% of the population. 

As the most popular and successful cryptocurrency, Bitcoin enjoys most of the spotlight. For this reason, it’s easy for most people to think that cryptocurrency is synonymous with Bitcoin. Indeed, a YouGov study reported 75% of US adults knew about Bitcoin, while other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum were each known by less than 30% of the population. 

As the most popular and successful cryptocurrency, Bitcoin enjoys most of the spotlight. For this reason, it’s easy for most people to think that cryptocurrency is synonymous with Bitcoin. Indeed, a YouGov study reported 75% of US adults knew about Bitcoin, while other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum were each known by less than 30% of the population. 

If you’re an aspiring user of cryptocurrencies, or simply interested in that world, it’s important to acquaint yourself with other forces in the space. This article takes a look at other cryptocurrencies that have proved themselves worthy of attention and, of course, investor money. But before we get into that, let’s do a refresher on this new and exciting asset class. 

What are Cryptocurrencies? 

It’s necessary to do a recap of what cryptocurrencies are because many people associate the word cryptocurrency with just Bitcoin. So, when we are talking about cryptocurrencies and altcoins, what do we mean? A cryptocurrency, at its most basic definition, is a purely digital and internet-based currency that’s secured with modern cryptography and utilizes a ledger that is distributed across network participants. The most common type of distributed ledger is a blockchain. The blockchain concept always existed in the computer space but was only actualized in 2009 by the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

The ‘crypto’ in cryptocurrency refers to the cryptography that is used to encrypt and hence secure cryptocurrencies and transactions. Cryptocurrencies subscribe to the tenet of decentralization, which means free from state manipulation or control and self-issuance. Cryptocurrencies are designed as code – almost always open source, with in-built mechanisms for issuance. These mechanisms vary from one cryptocurrency to another. 

As you probably already know, Bitcoin is the first-ever and most successful of cryptocurrencies. All other cryptocurrencies apart from bitcoin are collectively referred to as altcoins. Currently, there are more than 5,000 altcoins, according to Coinmarketcap. The total market valuation of cryptocurrencies is currently 269 billion, with Bitcoin taking the lion’s share with 62.3 billion in market valuation. Many of these coins have been designed to improve on Bitcoin in one way or another – either on security or speed or ease of storage (e.g., in terms of space). 

With that background, let’s look at some of the most important cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin.

1. Ethereum (ETH) 

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency and blockchain launched in 2015. The project is the brainchild of Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-Canadian programmer. Industry experts view Ethereum is the next most important crypto after Bitcoin. Let’s examine why. 

Ethereum is the next cryptocurrency that brought a ground-breaking product into the blockchain space. The project is more than a digital finance platform. Its main objective is to be a decentralized applications and smart contracts platform. Decentralized applications (DApps) are a new kind of application that can run without downtime and are free from control, manipulation, and censorship by a third party.

Smart contracts are a new kind of contract – not unlike the traditional contracts, but this time is purely digital, self-enforcing, unalterable, and completely transparent to all relevant parties. 

Applications on the Ethereum platform are powered by its native token called ether (ETH). Ether is the currency in which people using the Ethereum blockchain pay in transaction fees. As an investor, you can also use Ether as a store of value. Ether is the second most successful cryptocurrency after Bitcoin – even though it trails behind the dominant currency considerably.

In 2014, Ethereum launched a pre-sale (an initial coin offering ICO) to fund the project. The effort was incredibly successful and is credited with helping usher in the age of the ICO. Ethereum has also weathered one of the biggest security breaches in the history of cryptocurrency – the DAO attack in 2016. This attack led to the split of the Ethereum blockchain, birthing Ethereum (ETH) Ethereum Classic (ETC). As of July 18, 2020, ETH has a market capitalization of $26 billion, and one ETH is going for $232.93.

2. Ripple (XRP)

Launched in 2012, Ripple is a cryptocurrency and a real-time digital payments network. The project was created by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb.

Ripple’s protocol facilitates the global, peer-to-peer, decentralized, and real-time exchange and transfer of money in any currency, whether it’s the US dollar, Japanese Yen, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and so on. XRP can settle transactions within 3 to 5 seconds. 

XRP is the platform-specific asset of the Ripple network. Individuals can exchange XRP between each other without the need for an intermediary. It’s the go-between currency in any exchange that happens on the Ripple network. 

Ripple’s transaction confirmation mechanism differs from that of Bitcoin in that it does not utilize ‘mining.’ All XRP tokens were ‘pre-mined’ or ‘minted’ before launch, meaning there is no release of new coins over time. Indeed, Ripple ‘burns’ XRP tokens immediately after they facilitate a transaction, in a bid to avoid inflation. Ripple’s no-mining approach is a massive save on power, and it also considerably aids the network to achieve incomparably faster transactions. 

For a long time, XRP occupied the third spot in the crypto market. However, it has been knocked down to the fourth spot. As of July 18, 2020, XRP is trading at $0. 194295, with a market cap of $8.6 billion.

3. Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that is modeled after Bitcoin but aims to be more lightweight and scalable. It was launched in 2011 and is a brainchild of former MIT graduate and Google engineer Charlie Lee. 

Litecoin is often called the “silver to bitcoin’s gold.” It’s a “lite” version of Bitcoin only with more coins, faster transactions, and a different hashing algorithm. While Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 algorithm, Litecoin utilizes one known as “Scrypt.” 

Another difference is Bitcoin’s circulation can never exceed 21 million, while Litecoin is designed to help 84 million coins. This might not mean much for either currency in terms of real-world usage since both are divisible to very tiny amounts. Litecoin is also way faster in terms of transaction confirmation time. While Bitcoin’s transactions can take up to 10 minutes, Litecoin takes about 2.5 minutes. Litecoin is also one of the cryptocurrencies that have enjoyed significant merchant adoption. 

So how is Litecoin performing today? Well, as of July 18, 2020, Litecoin traded at $41.95, with a market cap and rank of 2.7 billion and #9 respectively.

4. Chainlink (LINK)

Launched in September 2017, Chainlink, a project by FinTech company SmartContract Chainlink Limited SEZC, has seen the success that few cryptocurrencies do within such a short period. Perhaps this is because of its unique proposition of providing an oracle system that allows on-chain contracts to utilize external data, greatly expanding the capability of smart contracts. 

Courtesy of this feature, Chainlink has deep-running relationships with a lot of other innovative blockchain projects, a factor that’s given it a leg-up in the space. Some of these partnerships include Synthetix, Loopring, Aave, Ampleforth, and Binance. The project has also managed to secure other significant partnerships out of the blockchain space, including Google, Oracle, Gartner, Brave New Coin, and Web3 Foundation. 

Thus far, Chainlink has no competitor, and this has given it the dominance as far as its selling point is concerned. As of July 19, 2018, Chainlink’s price was $7.96, and, with a market cap of 2.8 billion, it was the 8th largest cryptocurrency.