Blockchain Oracles

What They Are & Why They’re Necessary

In ancient Greek mythology, oracles were known as spiritual beings & sources of infinite wisdom & knowledge due to their connection communication with the gods on Mount Olympus (the spiritual world). The most well-known is the Oracle at Delphi — popularized by the now-revered classic, Oedipus Rex. These oracles often provided information to protagonists & travelers when consulting for critical decisions.

Blockchains, much like the mortals depicted in these greco-roman classics, by design, do not have a way to readily access information outside of the chain — they cannot access data outside their network.

Oracles aim to allow blockchain contracts to interact with the outside world.

Why Are Oracles Needed? — Non-Deterministic vs. Sequential

Every transaction since the origin block is recorded on the blockchain; every transaction is inherently linked. Since every transaction is in many ways a reflection of all of the previous transactions, it can be said that every new transaction is in fact, determined by the previous transaction. A blockchain is deterministic.This deterministic property leads to immutability, one of the very best features of a blockchain; however, the tradeoff becomes a reduction in flexibility…