Blockchain Oracles And Data Feeds

source

What are blockchain oracles;

Well smart contract today are able to execute and they do it more efficiently based on informations it receives from external source world news and events on real time basis are made available to blockchain from an external source and what is responsible for this is blockchain oracles, the oracles feeds or provide this needed information to blockchain thus helping for an efficient and perfect smart contract execution.

What are data feeds;

Whilst data feeds are the datas or information based on event happening in real life and real time that oracles provide blockchain with and these events could include a wide range of things like weather report or prices amongst other things and all these are the data feeds which is provided for blockchain by oracles.

So this is what oracles and data feeds mean in a nutshell, and now since we have come to know this what are they types of oracles we have.

Types of Oracles

Centralized Oracles

Well a centralized oracle is a type of oracle that provides data to blockchain, essential real world event data and as the name implies centralized which means that it's going from one point and this kind of thing isn't usually good in terms of security.

So the centralized oracle is one of the type of oracles we have it could as well be a data provided for the blockchain through centralized exchange I mean they maybe centralized true but they are not just any entity but there is some level of trust placed on any single entity that serves as this data source.

source

Decentralized Oracles

The are another source of information to blockchain is another type of oracle seen as an improvement to centralized oracle since it's not coming from a single entity but it's source it's multiple making it more trustworthy and seen as an oracle system with integrity because it's decentralized.

The fact that it's decentralized means that an information is more sure since it has to be verified as authentic by many sources before it's even been fed to blockchain and this help eliminate risks of wrong information been served to blockchain and chainlink is a very good example of what we are talking about as a decentralized oracle.

Inbound&Outbound Oracles

Well inbound and outbound are another type of oracle in the blockchain and we will see what they mean or imply really.

Well the inbound and outbound are names of oracle system and they literally imply the very meaning of their name there purposes are quiet opposite, one is responsible for the data goin into the blockchain whilst the other makes sure the outside world receives the data coming from blockchain.

So the inbound oracle is used for doing the former (that's feeding blockchain with events from outside world) whilst outbound oracle serves the purpose of the later(feeding the human world with information emanating from the blockchain network). So thats what outbound and inbound oracle does.

Software/Hardware Oracles

Well the blockchain needs all the useful data both online and offline and for the data's online that is where software oracles comes in so it's great when the data the blockchain needs is the vaious sites or any database at all online. The software oracles collects all this information online and arranges it and then ensure that there is a safe delivery of the data to blockchain.

When we talk about oracle providing blockchain with information on weather report and prices the oracle responsible for this is software oracle

Whilst hardware oracle provides blockchain with information that's useful in supply chain ensuring and making it possible for blockchain to seamlessly be linked to physical things in the real world.

The data it gives blockchain ensure that blockchain could interact with sensors and let's say a product is moving from one location to the other it would pick it up immediately a sensor in the location senses the safe delivery of the product in an instant of time smart contract on blockchain updates itself based on this new information it picked off the sensor.

So that's generally how software and hardware oracle functions.

source

Conclusion

So oracles are very important to blockchain and it wouldn't be same without oracles I mean in the era before the emergence of oracles blockchain were not as efficient and effective as it is today especially when it comes to events on the outside world is not updated.