Chainlink’s industry-leading oracle network powers the vast majority of decentralized finance (DeFi) with Chainlink Price Feeds and decentralized services like Chainlink Keepers. Now, Chainlink oracle networks are expanding beyond global financial market data to include increasingly sophisticated datasets from world-renowned providers.
In October, the Associated Press (AP) announced the delivery of its trusted economic, sports and election race call datasets on-chain via Chainlink’s secure middleware, in what AP’s Director of Blockchain and Data Licensing described as a “very significant event” for the 175-year-old news agency.
Today, the world’s most accurate weather source, AccuWeather, announced the launch of its own official Chainlink node to deliver its critical weather insights on-chain. Matthew Vitebsky, Director of Flagship Products at AccuWeather, told Chainlink Today that the news marks a historic moment for the nearly sixty-year-old organization, now a first-mover in the blockchain-powered weather and climate data space.
“This announcement certainly ushers in a new era at AccuWeather, as blockchain continues to reach broad adoption at scale, offering yet another solution to users and individuals in utilizing our weather data,” Vitebsky said.
AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Dr. Joel N. Myers, who became known as the “father of modern commercial meteorology.” Vitebsky said operating its own Chainlink node continues AccuWeather’s legacy of spearheading innovation.
“AccuWeather has always enjoyed a reputation, globally, as a highly innovative organization, and leveraging our world-class data insights to enable the full potential of blockchain illustrates our commitment as a leader in our space.”
AccuWeather’s cryptographically signed weather data includes current temperatures, maximum and minimum temperature, and precipitation. Such data will be used to create new weather predictions/hedging markets and products such as parametric insurance and dynamic NFTs that reflect real-time regional weather conditions.
Vitebsky said AccuWeather is particularly eager to see globally available parametric insurance products stemming from its on-chain data. Such data makes it possible to extend affordable microinsurance policies to the world’s vast unbanked, uninsured population, especially rural farmers who are increasingly susceptible to unexpected weather events.
“Parametric insurance is a very exciting opportunity for us,” said Vitebsky. “Working with Chainlink and AccuWeather will allow dApp developers to bring smart insurance contracts to underserved communities and regions of the world.”