Following the publication of Chainlink’s Q1 2023 Chainlink Product Update, in which he outlined key product, research, and development updates since Chainlink outlined its web3 platform vision at SmartCon 2022, Chainlink Labs Chief Product Officer Kemal El Moujahid jumped on the Chainlink Official Discord to answer questions from the Chainlink community and share his vision for the future of Chainlink and web3.
On the list of Chainlink products and services he’s most excited about, El Moujahid highlighted Chainlink’s forthcoming Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as a “huge unlock” that will permit the growing diversity of tokenized real-world assets to flow freely within a multi-blockchain economy. He praised Chainlink Labs’ “ultra-cautious” approach to building a cross-chain solution that upholds Chainlink’s high standards for security and reliability.
“There’s this saying that I like a lot which goes, ‘Pioneers get arrows, settlers take the land,’” he said. “Ultimately, we want to take the land.”
Distinguishing between being the first product to market and the first secure product to market, El Moujahid emphasized the billions of dollars lost to cross-chain bridge hacks over the past few years.
“I think that’s a good reason to take security very seriously,” he said.
He believes Chainlink’s security and reliability is what sets the platform apart as the industry standard. “This is what we do,” he said. “This is what has put us in the position we are today and that’s what we’re never going to compromise on.”
He designated Chainlink’s role as an ever-expanding web3 services platform as another distinct advantage in building the industry-wide standard for cross-chain interoperability. The focus, he explained, is on creating a comprehensive cross-chain solution, using the same high-quality nodes that have enabled over $7 trillion in web3 transaction value, which can be universally integrated by the 1,700+ projects already using multiple Chainlink services across multiple chains.
“We already have hundreds of live dApps across various chains using our services like Data Feeds, Automation, etc., and adding CCIP does not introduce other trust assumptions, which is not the case for other solutions,” he said.
“That’s really the true power of a platform, by the way. What happens is you power the most important things that developers need and it works better together. And now you just want to use Chainlink.”
Watch the full Q&A with Chainlink Labs Chief Product Officer Kemal El Moujahid.