In a new video, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov classified Chainlink’s evolution, from a decentralized data oracle network to a comprehensive decentralized computing platform, among other ubiquitous technologies that transcended their original use cases.
“Microsoft Windows expanded to many applications running on personal computers; Amazon Web Services expanded to EC2 and various other computing, and data, and other categories of web services; and Salesforce expanded to various business applications using the SaaS model,” he said. “This is the same stage that the Chainlink Network is in.”
Chainlink’s original use case is delivering validated market data to onchain state machines called smart contracts, ultimately enabling over $9.3 trillion in transaction value. “The appearance of that data in a validated, consensus-generated way allowed the emergence of these new applications called DeFi,” Nazarov explained. “So that is what [Chainlink] is known for, because that is what it has done to great success.”
Chainlink has since evolved to apply its consensus mechanism to an array of computation beyond market data through a constellation of decentralized services including Proof of Reserve (PoR), Automation, VRF (Verifiable Random Function), Functions, and Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP).
“Now what you actually see is multiple verifiable applications and decentralized applications using multiple different Chainlink oracle networks,” Nazarov said. “This is the great outcome that we were hoping for and working towards with the community.”
A key feature of this achievement is the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) enabled by CCIP, which allows RWAs to flow seamlessly between private bank chains and public DeFi applications, and PoR, which continuously updates onchain assets to reflect the status of offchain or cross-chain reserves.
“These advanced features are important because they take these decentralized verifiable applications to the next level,” Nazarov explained, highlighting decentralized insurance, gaming, supply chains, and ad networks among industries benefiting from blockchains combined with Chainlink’s oracle services.
“Now it’s not just an idea; it’s not just a hope or a plan; these other categories of services like compute and cross-chain, in addition to data, are all live,” he said. “They’re all being used in congruence with the data and being combined to create these advanced applications which are going on to continually redefine our industry in a more useful way for more and more users.”
While Nazarov believes the Chainlink Network’s complete utility is currently “not fully understood” by the mainstream, he expects Chainlink’s impact will ultimately be undeniable.
“I think it’s all very simple and limited until it’s obvious that it’s much more than that, and we’re now going in that direction of being much more.”
Watch the full video.