Launching the Oraclize service on EOS
Many blockchain platforms have recently come to life, each one of those implementing different features and having their own unique value proposition. Similarly to what happens on most other blockchains, an EOS Smart Contract is an autonomous decentralised agent who might need some external data (i.e. status of a flight, current value of an asset, random numbers, etc).
Because blockchain protocols are limited to their own network and cannot reach out to any external context (i.e. the Internet), there is a need for the so-called “blockchain oracles” to provide such connection. Oraclize has been providing for over 3 years a secure data-transport-layer connecting decentralised applications with the outside world.
Oraclize, leading oracle service for multiple blockchain platforms, is now launching on EOSIO!
Given the blockchain-agnostic design of Oraclize, the integration with different platforms is designed to be an easy process.
You’ve been asking for it, we’ve delivered it!
As the development efforts on EOSIO increase, the need for an oracle service becomes more and more relevant — many users have indeed expressed an interest in having the Oraclize infrastructure layer on such blockchain.
The Oraclize track record counts 700+ projects of being used on the Ethereum network, with more than 600,000 API requests processed on the Ethereum Mainnet only.
We are eager to see what EOS Smart Contracts will be capable of bringing to life!
How to use the Oraclize service on EOSIO?
Similarly to the Ethereum network, the EOSIO protocol enables decentralised applications to be built in the form of smart contracts. Those can be written in either C or C++; a good starting point for developers is the EOSIO Developer Portal.
The Oraclize service can be used within any EOS contract via the Oraclize on-chain API, by leveraging specific functions to send data requests.
Oraclize will land on the EOS mainnet in a few weeks, in the meantime the Oraclize integration is already operating on the EOS Public “Jungle” Testnet.
A few examples can be found on the relevant Github repository and in our EOS API documentation.
In the same way as on other blockchain protocols, EOS Smart Contracts can require the data to be sent back along with an Authenticity Proof , a cryptographic guarantee proving the authenticity (no tampering) of data. Oraclize provides authenticity proofs based on a variety of technologies so that newly discovered vulnerabilities affecting one of these technologies does not affect the security of the entire system — those proofs can be verified at any time via the Proof Verification Tool.
Beyond data fetching
The Oraclize service works on EOS in a similar way as it does on Ethereum, being most of the system logic held within the (offchain, blockchain-agnostic yet fully auditable) Oraclize engine.
As a consequence, the Oraclize service arrives on EOS with its basic data-fetching (including Authenticity Proofs) as well as more advanced tools, such as the Random Datasource and the Computation Datasource.
More information on how to leverage Oraclize on EOS are available in our docs.
For support while developing, join our Gitter channel dedicated to the Oraclize EOS API.
Enjoy!
Note: The company has now rebranded into Provable.
