Chainlink takes oracles beyond Ethereum with Polkadot

Decentralized oracle provider Chainlink is expanding beyond the Ethereum blockchain, which it’s targeted up to now. The startup’s solution for secure, transparent and accurate data feeds has now been adopted by blockchain interoperability platform Polkadot, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

Developers building on the Polkadot protocol will now be able to rely on Chainlink’s oracles to securely access “virtually any external, real-world resource,” the announcement said. 

Polkadot plans to use Chainlink’s decentralized oracles for its “parachain” technology, which acts as a bridge between different blockchains. Oracle-sourced data will provide key information such pricing feeds and will be used to verify identity-based digital signatures, according to the announcement. 

Initially, the oracle technology is being integrated for Substrate, Polkadot’s blockchain framework. Chainlink’s oracles will roll out to all Polkadot’s Substrate-based chains. Polkadot is also working to introduce it on its experimental network, Kusama, and eventually the whole network, said the announcement. 

Chainlink diversifies its reach

Launched in 2016 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, Polkadot becomes the first non-Ethereum blockchain platform to integrate Chainlink. The oracle provider is fast diversifying its reach, and has been working with large enterprises, such as Google and Swift.  

Most recently, Chainlink announced a raft of integrations in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications, including no-collateral loan company Aave. Its oracle networks are primarily being used to provide accurate price feeds from off-chain sources. 

Chainlink’s $40,000 error

But last Friday saw Chainlink experience a serious problem for the first time. An error occurred with a price feed, allowing some eagle-eyed users to make around $40,000 worth of profits within a short period of time.

The feed registered the incorrect price for silver-to-USD (XAG/USD) on Synthetix, a platform for trading Ethereum-based DeFi derivatives, which uses price feeds from Chainlink. 

In a blog post, published after the event, Chainlink asserted that the issue was not with the oracle technology, but was the result of human error. Node operators servicing the XAG/USD oracles incorrectly requested a price for gold rather than silver, the oracle provider explained. 

Chainlink has offered to cover the losses incurred by Synthetix users. It added that it was working to ensure that the issue didn’t arise again.