CasperLabs Integrating Chainlink For Stable, Fiat Denominated Transaction Fees
CasperLabs announced today its planned integration of Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network to securely and reliably access data and resources for all the applications being built on its network. Chainlink is the first and recommended oracle provider for all the applications that would be developed on CasperLabs blockchain and smart contracting platform. In turn, CasperLabs will be the first platform to use Chainlink as an integral component of the core platform architecture.
Expanding CasperLab Functionality Using Chainlink
CasperLabs is building a permissionless, fully decentralized, sharded and scalable next-generation blockchain, implementing Highway, a provably live and secure variant of Casper Correct by Construction (CBC) Proof of Stake protocol. CasperLabs’ Smart Contracting Platform is “Made for Builders,” making it much easier for developers to build apps and for end-users to use them. The CasperLabs team has been building since November 2018 and has delivered 18 on-time development releases. CasperLabs’ TestNet was launched on March 31st, 2020, and the Main Network launch is planned for Q3 2020.
As a general-purpose platform designed for entrepreneurs and enterprises, CasperLabs requires a state of the art, secure, flexible, and proven means of bringing the real world onto the blockchain. Chainlink is the premier oracle solution in this space, having implementation and incentivization expertise, as well as access to a robust ecosystem of high-quality data providers and oracle node operators. CasperLabs developers can use Chainlink’s unique framework to build decentralized oracle networks for strong data security and reliability guarantees.
By integrating Chainlink, CasperLabs will be able to create a much more user-friendly economic environment, as well as empower builders with a whole new subset of possible applications.
“CasperLabs is building a blockchain built for businesses. The Chainlink decentralized oracle network will enable us to represent transaction fees in currency versus tokens, making budgeting simple and efficient for businesses,” said Medha Parlikar, CTO CasperLabs.
Predictable Transaction Fees: One of the key challenges facing business users of blockchain platforms is the volatility and unpredictability of transaction fees. CasperLabs is taking a first step to addressing this challenge by launching mainnet with a fee risk mitigation mechanism. The aim is to make the integration of the CasperLabs platform into key business infrastructure worry-free for our builders. At launch, CasperLabs will provide the first stable, fiat-denominated fee mechanism used by an operational, general-purpose blockchain platform. The planned integration with Chainlink will give the team reliable access to their secure and decentralized oracle network, providing the market data that will make this mechanism possible.
A Bridge to Enterprise: Blockchain technology is still a novelty for established enterprise companies. Creating a reliable system for data intake from legacy systems will ease the risk of migrating decades-old components to this still maturing technology. Such components may include job candidate tracking systems, financial settlement systems and medical records. While entirely novel uses of the blockchain will emerge organically, easing the process of onboarding and experimentation for enterprise can be expected to yield surprising synergies between legacy business infrastructure and blockchain technology. Chainlink provides oracles with the capability of handling API credentials via external adapters, as well as more advanced trusted execution environment features such as Town Crier.
Empowering Our Builders: To unlock the future value of blockchain platforms, businesses must be able to move beyond the purely digital dApps and interact with the real world. Secure access to external data and API services will enable builders to dream of and implement the decentralized applications of the future -- fully automated insurance contracts for complex risks, decentralized markets, and on-chain knowledge repositories are just some of the many possible applications for Chainlink technology on the CasperLabs platform.
Technical Integration Details
CasperLabs delegates key platform maintenance tasks to the operation of a special class of contracts, called system contracts. While some of these may be implemented as integral components of the node software or the contract runtime, CasperLabs will conceptualize them as deployed contracts with certain special behaviors for the purpose of this exposition.
The protocol will integrate the Chainlink network of oracles through a group of such contracts. A workflow contract will be read by oracles to see if any updates have been requested by the platform. These requests will come at regular intervals. The oracle node software will then request the necessary data from exchange or data aggregator APIs, and record it on the CasperLabs blockchain, receiving a fair payment in LINK for their efforts. Subsequently, the CasperLabs blockchain node will reference the data stored in the contracts to set nominal CLX transaction fees to match the fixed fiat prices. Besides the solicitation contract, other system contracts will handle data aggregation and incentives. Due to the critical nature of this contract assemblage, the entry into the oracle set will not be entirely open, although the exact mechanism is yet to be designed.
Because of the complexity of the fee risk mitigation mechanism, Chainlink is the only oracle solution providing the kind of data quality and secure infrastructure that CasperLabs can rely on. They have a robust network of data providers and node operators, as well as the technical expertise, showcased through their many diverse platform integration efforts, that will be invaluable in finalizing the design as we head towards mainnet.
“CasperLabs offers several features that are specifically built to address businesses, for example ‘flexible payment code’ and ‘multi-signature weighted keys’. Our integration with Chainlink is critical to helping us solve the core concern hampering the mass adoption of blockchain by businesses, the lack of price predictability. By providing a stable transaction price, we can help businesses offer a predictable value proposition to their customers, opening up several opportunities.” - Ashok Ranadive, Sr Program Manager CasperLabs.
To learn how to get started with a CasperLabs account you can view our tutorial here. Join our Discord server to interact with the product team and participate in technical discussions.
About CasperLabs
CasperLabs is the blockchain platform purpose-built to scale opportunity for everyone. Building toward blockchain’s next frontier, CasperLabs is designed for real-world applications without sacrificing usability, cost, decentralization, or security. CasperLabs removes the barriers that prevent mainstream blockchain adoption by making blockchain friendly to use, open to the world, and future-proof to support innovations today and tomorrow. Guided by open-source principles and built from the ground up to empower individuals, the team seeks to provide an equitable foundation made for long-lasting impact. Please visit CasperLabs website for more information. You can follow us on YouTube, Telegram, Discord, Twitter, and Facebook. Developers can visit our GitHub to learn more and view our documentation.
About Chainlink
Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data feeds, web APIs, and traditional bank payments. It is well known for providing highly secure and reliable oracles to large enterprises (Google, Oracle, and SWIFT) and leading smart contract development teams such as Polkadot/Substrate, Synthetix, Loopring, Aave, OpenLaw, Conflux, and many others.
If you’re a developer and want to connect your smart contract to existing data and infrastructure outside the underlying blockchain, reach out to us here! We can help you quickly and securely launch your data-enabled application or Chainlink Price Reference Data Contract on mainnet today. You can also visit the developer documentation or join the technical discussion on Discord. Learn more by visiting the Chainlink website or follow us on Twitter or Reddit.
