Today was the first day of SmartCon 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, where more than 100 leading blockchain researchers, academics, and founders gathered to present groundbreaking thought leadership and technological advancements in web3. During a keynote address, Chainlink Labs Chief Product Officer Kemal El Moujahid announced several exciting Chainlink product updates including the launch of Chainlink Data Streams on Arbitrum mainnet.
Chainlink Data Streams is a pull-based oracle solution through which high-frequency market data is continuously made available offchain and pulled onchain as needed by users’ transactions. This allows dApps to consume data more cost-effectively and at lower latencies while reducing the risk of frontrunning and MEV by keeping price data private until transactions are settled.
The combination of low-latency market data through Chainlink Data Streams and automated execution through Chainlink Automation can unlock ultra-fast, user-friendly DeFi derivatives products and enable highly performant decentralized exchanges that rival the trading experience of centralized exchanges.
GMX, the largest decentralized perpetual exchange by Total Value Locked (TVL) on Arbitrum and Avalanche, is integrating Chainlink Data Streams to power GMX V2. “Chainlink Data Streams have played a pivotal role in the development of GMX V2, as the protocol strives to balance unparalleled user experience with decentralized principles,” said X, development core contributor of GMX.
“With the DeFi markets representing only a tiny fraction of the over $1 quadrillion of notional value in traditional markets, Chainlink Data Streams is the low-latency data solution needed to unlock next-generation DeFi applications that support the performance and security requirements to achieve mass adoption,” said Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov.
Chainlink also announced the mainnet launch of Chainlink Functions (Beta) and Chainlink Automation 2.0, initiating a paradigm shift in offchain computation and data connectivity capabilities.
“Bringing the next hundred million users onchain requires a seamless developer experience that enables developers to create advanced applications that have the highest standards for security and verifiability,” said Nazarov in an official announcement. “This is why we’re excited to expand the capabilities of the Chainlink platform with Functions and Automation 2.0 to unlock advanced offchain computation use cases underpinned by the proven security of Chainlink.”
Functions allows developers to access any real-world API in a serverless manner, unlocking a plethora of new web3 applications and experiences. Scott Dykstra, CTO and co-founder of Space and Time, an AI-powered decentralized data warehouse which natively integrated Functions, said “Space and Time and Chainlink are bridging the gap between onchain and offchain systems to unlock new use cases for DeFi, Web3 gaming, dApp developers, and the enterprise adoption of blockchain technology.”
Automation 2.0 streamlines the developer experience of automating key recurring smart contract functions with an expanded set of triggers to boost performance and reduce onchain costs.
“The Chainlink Automation 2.0 network is the most dependable and decentralized platform, safeguarding and securing the value inherent in the interactions of Oku and Interest Protocol users, ensuring their execution is both timely and secure,” said Getty Hill, co-founder of GFX Labs, the developer of Interest Protocol and Oku Trade.
Chainlink also announced the upcoming launch of the latest version Chainlink VRF (Verifiable Random Function), web3’s leading random number generator (RNG) powering top decentralized gaming applications through more than 17 million transactions to date. VRF 2.5 will introduce native gas token billing and a substantially improved UX.
Watch Kemal El Moujahid’s SmartCon keynote to learn more about Chainlink’s latest product updates.