on the crypto
Chainlink acquired DECO, Cornell University's Oracle privacy solution, for an unspecified amount. This is Chainlink's second acquisition to date, according to a company announcement.
DECO Blockchain Oracle Solution
DECO was co-created by Ari Juels, former chief scientist of digital security company RSA. Juels will also join Chainlink Labs keeping the same title. Additionally, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov and Juels began drafting a second Chainlink white paper.
The duo previously wrote Chainlink's original white paper with CTO Steve Ellis in 2017. Chainlink's Oracle solution transfers data from out-of-chain locations into blockchain smart contracts.
For example, Chainlink provides data insights for most decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, such as dYdX's crypto derivatives. DECO claims to leverage the way HTTPS / TLS information is transmitted for safer web practices, according to a company release.
“DECO is also useful for users who want to monetize their data (and thus prove they are actually providing correct data) without revealing anything other than the data they are selling,” reads the DECO website.
Decentralized credit
Nazarov said DECO can be used as the basis for some ambitious crypto industry goals, such as decentralized credit without authorization or identification. For example, he stated that DECO can prove that a person is over 18 by extracting data from a DMV and keeping the individual's date of birth hidden.
This could be further applied to the golden dream of decentralized finance, which is authorization-less credit systems. Nazarov said that an oracle like DECO could one day allow a smart contract to obtain information on an out-of-chain credit such as bank records without exposing personal data.
“DECO is how many guarantees will make their way to DeFi,” Nazarov said. Juels explained that this privacy is possible thanks to DECO's implementation of zero-knowledge proof, popularized in the cryptocurrency industry by the privacy-based currency zcash (ZEC).
The Oasis Network integrates Chainlink's Oracle to enable privacy-focused DeFi applications
According to a press release, Oasis, a privacy-focused data sharing network, will initially use Chainlink's pricing benchmark data to provide a valuation to the tokens supported and used in the network's decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
The statement adds that integrating this data will also allow Oasis Network to maintain the integrity of off-chain information used to augment the smart contract applications built on its network.
