Hello again my Crypto Gears!!! This day I wish to bring you a little bit different topic from what we have been exploring the last few weeks, it is a topic that is little talked about but has a crucial role in the world of Cryptocurrencies.

Today we will talk about Blockchain Oracles, what they are, what they do, what is their importance. You may not be familiar with It, but let me tell you that without them many of the smart contracts we enjoy could not be executed. Are you interested in learning more?.... Then let's get started.

_{Image edited by me in Powerpoint}

INTRO

Every time I read or hear the word "Oracle", esoteric images come to mind, full of mysticism and mystery.

In fact, in Ancient Greece, the word Oracle referred to a place, person, or special representative who served as a bridge between the earthly world and the divine world. As I recall from my Universal History classes, the most famous oracle was the one at Delphi (Greece), to which year after year thousands of people flocked.

After a sacrifice and fulfilling a series of steps, Greek citizens consulted this Oracle about personal matters where they required guidance from the gods. Whenever a Greek rich or poor, king or commoner had a doubt about any event in his life, he would go to the Oracle for outside help to predict his future or get crucial information.

What is a Blockchain Oracle?

In the same way, a Blockchain Oracle works, only this time we are talking about a service platform that offers information submission and verification to other blockchains.

We said that oracles functioned as a bridge between two worlds, the earthly world with the world of the gods. They functioned as a means of communicating to mortals (who had limited information) the designs of the gods and what the future held.

A blockchain oracle is also a bridge between two worlds, the blockchain world (decentralized world) with the real world and the centralized web. Simply put, through its service blockchains get verified data from the environment outside the blockchains.

Functionalities and Importance of Blockchain Oracles

Why Blockchain Oracles are so important?. The answer is very simple to say but perhaps not to understand: decentralized applications cannot communicate with the real world, they just speak different languages.

Between the centralized web and blockchains, there is an incompatibility problem generated by a difference in format.

Blockchains are closed ecosystems, with specific rules which follow a cause-effect chain, or in other words, each event takes place one after the other in sequential order.

However, the real world is not governed under a sequential order but is random and chaotic. For a blockchain, it is impossible to make sense of and use all this data. In fact, one of the problems with blockchains is their lack of flexibility.

The real world also does not keep track of events in the specific sequence they have taken place, which creates tracking and transparency problems. Still, certain data collection points can be generated, however, blockchains still need help to translate, validate and give context to the information.

A blockchain oracle takes information from the external source, reinterprets it, and filters it in such a way that it can be understood by the blockchain platform under its same programming language, (Smart contracts).

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To understand a little better about the functionality of the Blockchain Oracle I invite you to read this Article and pay close attention to the example of Alice and Bob.

In conclusion, a blockchain oracle provides the necessary real information that smart contracts need in order to be executed.

Blockchain Oracle example: ChainLink

_{Chainlink Logo. Image taken from Chainlink site ^Source}

It is a Network that was created as a provider to the entire DeFi sector; Oracle services of course. In fact, it is a whole network of collaborators and data providers converging on Chainlink.

Throughout its development, it has established partnerships with various external data providers such as Coingeko, Binance, Healthtrends, Huobi, Kraken, as well as other minority partners who receive rewards in exchange for providing information to Chainlink. The platform then relays this data to the smart contracts of the blockchains that request its services.

The Chainlink network makes it possible to connect existing APIs to smart contract applications of any blockchain in any area such as decentralized finance (DeFi), insurance, video games, and others.

Through the use of secure oracles, Chainlink extends the functionality of blockchains by connecting smart contracts to real-world data, events, payments, and more in a highly tamper-resistant and reliable manner." ^Source

History and Properties of ChainLink

As I said earlier Chainlink is a fully decentralized Oracle Blockchain, developed by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Ellis in the year 2017. Having that year its ICO managed to raise $32 million.

Chainlink also has its own coin called LINK, which currently has a price of 24.2 USD, with a market capitalization of 10 billion dollars, make this project a big one, with great projections and scope.

The LINK token is an ERC20 (created within the Ethereum ecosystem), it has an extra function called: transfer and call, which allows tokens to be received and processed in a single transaction. It is used by the network as a payment incentive to network node operators, who can not only enjoy exchanging it on any major Exchange but accumulating them gives some prestige to receive larger contracts.

If we look at its Whitepaper, Among some network considerations we can also find that the decentralized network uses Proof-of-Reserve.

This protocol allows higher transparency in DeFi operations since through it, stable tokens can be generated, immune to volatility, manipulations, degradations, or inflectional processes.

What's new for ChainLink?

Just this day a post came out on Chainlink's official Twitter account where they talk about a novelty called Hybrid Smart Contracts, which combine classic blockchain code together with the ability to operate codes outside the blockchain. Here is the detailed post and a link explaining this new technology.

_{Image and Article taken from Chainlink Twitter account. ^Source}

This new application in smart contracts will greatly improve the scalability of different blockchains, as well as perform verifications related to privacy, identity, supply chain, elections, in a more agile and faster way.

CONCLUSION

It's always good to know about these platforms that sometimes go unnoticed or don't get the credit they deserve, but they definitely do a gigantic job.

If not for the Blockchain oracle platforms and networks, the cryptocurrency space, smart contracts, DeFi industry would not function the way it does today.

To them, we owe much of the world we know today, and the world that is to come, a world of decentralized finance that will increasingly require the use of Oracles.

It is for this reason that it is important to learn about their projects, as their tokens such as LINK look like excellent long-term investments. In fact, some think that its price can reach 40 or 75 USD in a few months ... only time will tell if this Oracle can illuminate our future.

Homework Task (Season 3/Week-7)

Develop in a detailed and extensive way a post explaining some other Blockchain Oracle. (Chainlink will not be allowed)

What are the topics you should cover as a minimum?

1- History and Description. Does it have any token or cryptocurrency associated? Explain.

2- Functionalities and real-life applications.

3- Pros and Cons.

4- Future developments and new projects

Guidelines

• Make sure you post in the Steemit Crypto Academy community.

• Be Original!!! Refrain from copy any else posts and ideas. Be creative. The content is certainly the same, but the way of presenting it is unique.

• Your article should be at least 300 words.

• Refrain from spam/plagiarism, it won't be tolerated. This task requires screenshot(s) of your own experience. Use images from copyright-free sources and showcase the source, if any.

• This homework task will run from 00:00 August 9th to 23:59 August 14st, Time UTC. (7:59 pm hora Venezuela)

• Users having a reputation of 55 or above, and having a minimum SP of 250(excluding any delegated-in SP) are eligible to partake in this Task. (Must not be powering it down)

• Add tag #allbert-s3week7 #cryptoacademy among the first five tags in this order. You can also use other relevant tags like your country tag. Also, tag me as @allbert in any part of your post.

-Those who include the real examples/screenshots add a watermark on it with your username.

-Please don’t leave your homework link on the comment section unless your post hasn’t been graded within 48 hours.

Feel free to join the comment section if you have any doubts about Homework tasks.

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