At the beginning of last year, there were an estimated 31.1 million software engineers worldwide. A tiny sliver of those developers (approximately 18,500) were contributing to open-source web3 projects around the same time. Clearly, web3 needs more manpower to expand. But web3 represents such vast, uncharted territory that recruiting talent requires technology that makes decentralized terrain easier to navigate.
Today, web3’s leading decentralized oracle network, Chainlink, launched Chainlink Functions, a new serverless web3 development platform that leverages the security and reliability of Chainlink’s decentralized oracle networks to seamlessly integrate web2 APIs and web3 smart contracts into feature-rich hybrid applications.
In an official blog post, Chainlink Labs Chief Product Officer Kemal El Moujahid explained how Functions “opens a whole new chapter for the Chainlink platform” by “providing the missing piece” web3 developers need to build new use cases for smart contracts that leverage existing web2 infrastructure.
Conceived as “a powerful self-service toolkit,” Functions enables developers to build next-gen decentralized applications that can integrate web2 data sources such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, and the Associated Press (AP) without the need to build, secure, or manage additional infrastructure. Functions further reduces web3’s barriers to entry by supporting off-chain programming languages, such as JavaScript, that web2 developers already use.
“Web3 has the power to transform our world in countless ways. But for that promise to materialize, we need to make it easier for the 30M developers out there to bridge Web3 with the Web2 tools and infrastructure they’re already using,” said El Moujahid in an official statement.
Top cloud and web2 platforms including AWS, Meta, and Google Cloud have collaborated to generate a series of use cases that showcase the potential to innovate with Functions. Projects including Block Scholes, ChainML, Dopex, Nusic, and Thirdweb, among others, are currently testing Functions across a variety of web3 verticals from AI integrations to DAO governance.
In his blog post, El Moujahid detailed some of the potentially “limitless” use cases Functions unlocks, such as advanced utilities for IoT devices and dynamic NFTs. In an official press release, leaders in web2 and web3 shared their excitement for Functions.
“We believe that this new tool will unlock countless new possibilities for dynamic NFTs and inspire developers to create exciting new use cases for this transformative technology,” said Ethan Bazarganfard, co-founder of Playground, the creator of the NBA’s NFT collection.
In the realm of social media, Functions can be leveraged to automatically trigger on-chain actions as a result of off-chain interactions on platforms like Meta.
“We are excited about the potential of Chainlink Functions connecting Meta’s APIs to major blockchains, making it easier for the Web3 developer community to build with Meta and unlock new innovative use cases,” said Ankur Prasad, Senior Director at Meta.
Currently available in beta on the Ethereum Sepolia and Polygon Mumbai testnets, Chainlink Functions will ultimately utilize a subscription model and is slated for multi-chain mainnet deployment in the near future.
To learn more about Chainlink Functions, read the official blog post. Sign up for the Chainlink Functions beta program here.