Earlier this month, Chainlink launched the beta of Chainlink Functions, a serverless web3 development platform that leverages Chainlink’s decentralized oracle networks to easily deliver web2 data on-chain. Chainlink Labs Chief Product Officer Kemal El Moujahid said Functions provides “the missing piece” that the world’s 30 million software developers need to build potentially “limitless” web3 use cases with existing web2 infrastructure.
Last week, Chainlink Labs Product Marketing Manager Michael Robinson joined Web3 Academy co-hosts Jay Hamilton and Kyle Reidhead to examine what some of those use cases might look like, pulling examples from his viral Twitter thread of ideas.
Robinson began by clarifying how Functions further simplifies the process of bringing web2 data on-chain, which Chainlink previously enabled through its Any API service. “You would have to spin up your own external adapter and find individual node operators that would be willing to bring that data on-chain,” he explained. “Now, with Chainlink Functions, that can be done extremely seamlessly.”
His Twitter thread, intended to “spark people’s imaginations as to what is possible with Chainlink Functions,” features 11 possible use cases that would integrate data from popular web2 platforms and brands like Spotify, Zillow, TikTok, and Tesla to transform the way people create and exchange value.
For example, music streaming data could be utilized by a smart contract that automatically pays artists for each song played. Driving data from smart cars could be integrated into self-executing on-chain rental agreements. Real estate could be tokenized into dynamic NFTs that update in real time to reflect current housing market data.
“There could be DeFi markets built around that data,” Robinson said. “There are just so many things that you could do around that.”
As part of Functions’ beta launch, top cloud and web2 platforms including AWS, Meta, and Google Cloud collaborated to generate a series of use cases that showcase the potential to innovate with Functions. Web3 projects including Block Scholes, ChainML, Dopex, Nusic, and Thirdweb are also currently testing Functions across multiple web3 verticals from AI integrations to DAO governance.
“Many enterprises are interested because it is such an easy-to-use way to connect your data to smart contracts, to web3, and the possibilities are really exciting for a lot of people,” Robinson said. “Hopefully it opens the floodgates and we see some of these new use cases come to life and get more of web2 connected to web3.”
To learn more about Chainlink Functions, read the official blog post. Sign up for the Chainlink Functions beta program here.
Watch Michael Robinson’s full interview on the Web3 Academy podcast.