Welcome to 2022.
2021 was a monumental year for Chainlink, with the release of the Chainlink 2.0 whitepaper, new decentralized services like Chainlink Keepers and Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), and the addition of novel Chainlink nodes operated by leading enterprises – including Deutsche Telekom, Swisscom, and the Associated Press.
Rounding out the final month of 2021, AccuWeather announced that it will deliver its critical weather insights on-chain via Chainlink. Matthew Vitebsky, Director of Flagship Products at the nearly sixty-year-old weather organization, told Chainlink Today that the move “ushers in a new era” at AccuWeather.
Just before the dawn of the new year, Chainlink Co-founder Sergey Nazarov joined Nasdaq TradeTalks host Jill Malandrino to reflect on 2021’s successes, such as CCIP’s cross-chain messaging, and share his expectations for 2022.
“CCIP seeks to do what TCP/IP did for the internet,” Nazarov said. CCIP allows developers to leverage the capabilities of multiple chains in a single advanced smart contract application, which is such a significant advancement that Nazarov said he anticipates “a step function increase through connectivity” alongside numerous new enterprise node operators in the new year.
In 2021, the Chainlink ecosystem added 721 new integrations, surpassing 1,000 total integrations. The Chainlink ecosystem grew by 100 integrations during the month of December alone.
A growing number of DeFi protocols are integrating Chainlink Keepers to automate smart contract functions and improve user experience without sacrificing security or transparency. Notable December Keepers integrations include DeFi staking and liquidity protocol xToken, which integrated Keepers to automate the release of its users’ incentive rewards, and DeFi dashboard Pacoca, which integrated Keepers to auto-compound its Sweet Vaults.
Pacoca team member “Salt” summed up how key open-source innovations like Chainlink Keepers accelerate DeFi’s evolution and widespread adoption, telling Chainlink Today, “With Chainlink, we can all progress faster by sharing the technology and solutions, which allows us to save both money and time on development and focus on our roadmap.”
Chainlink’s industry-leading oracle solution powers the vast majority of DeFi, currently securing more than $75 billion in value. In December, Geist Finance – the largest decentralized money market on Fantom Opera’s fast, leaderless, permissionless blockchain – integrated Chainlink Price Feeds to calculate borrowing rates and collateralization ratios. Geist’s team told Chainlink Today that Chainlink oracles position Geist to further expand DeFi’s reach.
Meme coins were all the rage in 2021, but meme projects like FLOKI, which integrated Chainlink Price Feeds in December, are creating serious utility for their tokens in 2022. FLOKI core team member and strategist “B” told Chainlink Today that Chainlink oracles will make it possible to connect FLOKI’s enthusiastic community to DeFi through the launch of its player-owned metaverse early this year.
B said Chainlink introduces virtually limitless opportunities to FLOKI’s community, whose “can-do” spirit exemplifies the past year’s DeFi revolution.
“What Chainlink has done and is doing is pretty revolutionary,” he said. “Having FLOKI be a part of this revolution is simply amazing.”
Check out the entire Chainlink ecosystem in one place and get ready for more big news in 2022.
