In March, Chainlink launched Chainlink Functions, a serverless web3 development platform that allows anyone to easily connect smart contracts to any web2 API. In an official blog post, Chainlink Labs Chief Product Officer Kemal El Moujahid called Functions “the missing piece” the world’s 31.1 million software engineers need to build new use cases for smart contracts that leverage existing web2 infrastructure alongside the security and reliability of web3’s leading decentralized oracle network.
Initially launched on the Ethereum Sepolia and Polygon Mumbai testnets, today Functions went live on Avalanche Fuji testnet. John Nahas, Vice President of Business Development at Ava Labs (a team supporting the development of Avalanche), anticipates a diversity of advanced smart contract applications could stem from Functions on Avalanche’s high-performance, high-capacity blockchain.
“The integration of Chainlink Functions unlocks a multitude of new and exciting smart contract use cases for the Avalanche ecosystem as it simplifies the developer experience of connecting Web3 apps with Web2 data sources,” he said. “Developers can now connect their smart contract to any Web2 API in minutes to unlock the next big use case for Web3 while taking advantage of both the proven security and reliability of the Chainlink Network.”
Conceived as “a powerful self-service toolkit,” Functions connects smart contracts to 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. In his blog post, El Moujahid detailed some of the potentially “limitless” use cases Functions unlocks regarding IoT devices, dynamic NFTs, and social media.
“We’re excited to expand the suite of Web3 services available on Avalanche to include Chainlink Functions, empowering Avalanche developers to connect their smart contracts to existing Web2 APIs,” said El Moujahid. “The seamless connectivity of Chainlink Functions makes it easy for developers to combine smart contracts with powerful Web2 APIs and data sources to unlock a new frontier of exciting capabilities and applications.”
To learn more about Chainlink Functions, read the official blog post and developer documentation. Sign up for the Chainlink Functions beta program here. For technical questions and feedback, join the Chainlink Discord.