Chainlink and Randomness: A Needed Security Layer
*Update 08/16/20: As this article has gotten a fair amount of attention I would like to update it with some new information. One is I have become an official Chainlink Advocate since 11/2019. Also Sergey has addressed why this type of design (dubbed “Security by Obscurity”) is not ideal for the blockchain oracle problem which can be seen in this talk (specifically around 18:00). I agree with him and not just because I am now an advocate, and felt it was important to disclose everything. Also Chainlink has released their own VRF which can be used to securely generate randomness on-chain. I think there are still interesting ideas in this article so i’ll keep it up, don’t stop learning!
In this article, I will present an idea for an additional security layer that I hope can be integrated into Chainlink for smart contracts to take advantage of: random node operator selection. I assume some background knowledge of Ethereum, Chainlink, crypto-economics, and consensus algorithms.
Current Chainlink Security Design
I am and have been a big fan of Chainlink since their ICO. It was one of the few ICOs in its time that was attempting to solve an important problem in the space; the oracle problem. Combining this goal with a stellar technical team, great collaborations, no hype marketing, a humble…
