JavaScript Smart Contract Project Taps Chainlink for Speedy DeFi Data

By Alexander Behrens

Chainlink is being integrated into Agoric, a distributed platform for developing smart contracts using JavaScript, potentially ushering in a new age for DeFi developers.

Agoric announced today the integration of data from Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network into the smart contract development platform, allowing it to develop new products quicker and without creating custom data feeds. With Chainlink providing price and activity data, developers can use Agoric to pull together DeFi projects that could impact the fast-moving world of on-chain finance.

DeFi and other blockchain-based applications are usually developed in blockchain-native coding languages like Ethereum’s Solidity, but Agoric’s platform allows developers to build smart contract-powered decentralized apps using the battle-tested JavaScript coding language. Chainlink integration is live now on the Agoric testnet, and the project plans to launch its mainnet on the Cosmos network in 2021.

“For the first time, JavaScript developers will be able to write safe DeFi smart contracts on-chain, with the power of Chanlink’s external data,” Agoric CEO Dean Tribble told Decrypt. “The Agoric-Chainlink integration will offer a pluggable way of getting external data to the Agoric chain, meaning JavaScript smart contracts can both directly query and react to events based on Chainlink oracles. This combination brings information-rich DeFi dapps to market more quickly.”

DeFi, short for decentralized finance, represents a set of blockchain-based applications built to replace the financial functions provided by financial institutions like banks, such as consumer loans and interest on customer deposits. DeFi projects use blocks of automatically executed code, known as smart contracts, to execute financial activities on a decentralized network, lowering overhead costs and preventing the programs from being shut down by governments or hackers.

Chainlink, for its part, aims to provide secure and accurate data to these on-chain protocols, including popular DeFi protocols like synthetic asset market Synthetix and token exchange platform Kyber Network. Agoric will now also use Chainlink oracles to provide data feeds to its smart contract development platform.

"With this integration, people will be able to use a Javascript-based language to create smart contracts that can be triggered by real-world, off chain data,” Chainlink head of business development Daniel Kochis told Decrypt. “We see this as an incredibly important step for onboarding the world's largest developer community into the rapidly growing DeFi ecosystem."

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