Blockchain technology is revolutionizing the way we interact, transact and share information, with many experts predicting it will be the most disruptive technology in the next decade. After little structural innovation since the 19th and 20th centuries, decentralization has brought industries such as finance, media and technology closer to transparency, freedom from intermediaries and heightened efficiency.
Traditional enterprises rely on a centralized closed-door structure. In contrast, decentralized finance projects are being built with the ethos that governance should be decentralized and democratic. Transitioning society to decentralized platforms can make many services safer, more accessible and more transparent than ever before. The increasing interest in the space speaks to a collective desire to have more control over critical elements of our lives, especially our finances.
While decentralization helps to solve issues like transparency and efficiency, the lack of a trusted central authority means that decentralized applications, or DApps, must rely on third parties to supply data to execute transactions or application functionalities such as taking out a loan. Access to reliable, trusted information such as price feeds, real-world events and identification, among many others, underpins the reliability, strength and efficiency of a decentralized application.
The security to protect this data comes from an oracle solution that is able to reliably and effectively connect real-world and off-chain information with decentralized applications and smart contracts in a verifiable, manipulation-resistant manner. With more than 1 million regular users of DApps globally, there is a huge demand for reliable data external to the blockchain because it underpins the security of DeFi applications and the billions currently locked in the space.
Following hacks, attacks and data manipulation, the challenge facing blockchain technology is creating trust and building secure systems in the absence of established enterprises or government regulations. This is where new technologies like data oracles are essential to create a secure link between traditional companies with reliable price feeds and the decentralized ecosystem.