We’re excited to announce that ChainSafe, a leading blockchain protocol and infrastructure development firm, has been awarded a Chainlink Community Grant for the expansion, improvement, and on-going support of the Chainlink Oracle Pallet created for Polkadot’s interoperable multi-chain ecosystem. This grant will significantly expand the oracle pallet software, allowing developers building applications on Polkadot parachains, Kusama parachains, and Substrate-based blockchains to integrate a highly secure and reliable source of external data feeds.
Providing developers across the Polkadot ecosystem access to improved tooling to connect their smart contracts to real-world data will enable the creation of more advanced DeFi, NFT, and on-chain gaming applications. This grant will improve the capabilities and secure the long-term development of the Chainlink Oracle Pallet, therefore allowing developers to combine the interoperability and scalability of the Polkadot ecosystem with the connectivity and reliability of Chainlink oracles.
As a part of the grant, ChainSafe will provide several key short-term and long-term components to the ongoing development of the pallet, including:
- Upgrade the Chainlink Oracle Pallet to support the Substrate v3 framework, which includes OnNewData/OnAnswer callback functions, state pruning, and debt management to increase performance and minimize developer friction.
- Provide Substrate continual engineering resources to the ongoing development of the Chainlink Oracle Pallet, including implementing new features and providing support for integrations from external developers in the open-source community.
ChainSafe is a global leader in blockchain protocol and infrastructure development, providing development support for a wide range of open-source software projects. Supported by a team of software engineers with diverse technical backgrounds and skill sets, ChainSafe has experience working with industry leaders to expand the adoption of blockchain technology. Previous software created by ChainSafe includes the Ethereum 2.0 Typescript implementation Lodestar, the Filecoin node Rust implementation Forest, the Polkadot host Golang implementation Gossamer, the EVM-compatible Cosmos Zone Ethermint, the Ethereum Javascript API Web3.js, and more.
Polkadot is a scalable and interoperable network protocol designed to allow specialized blockchains to intercommunicate with one another in a secure, trust-minimized environment. The Polkadot Network supports both public permissionless chains and private consortium chains, which operate as parachains that are anchored to the central Relay Chain. The Relay Chain moves transactions across the parachain ecosystem through Cross-Chain Message Passing (XCMP). Developers can leverage the Polkadot ecosystem to create advanced smart contract applications that benefit from transparent on-chain governance, increased throughput, and a secure consensus mechanism.
Chainlink oracles have already been natively integrated into the Polkadot ecosystem through the Chainlink Oracle Pallet. This is a plug-and-play solution that enables parachains on both Polkadot and Kusama, as well as independent blockchains built on the Substrate framework to natively support Chainlink Price Feeds with minimal technical friction. With the support of this grant, ChainSafe will improve the existing Chainlink Oracle Pallet with additional features to enhance its performance capabilities and usability, ensuring developers have access to the most secure and reliable source of external data at all times.
“We are proud to have been awarded a Chainlink grant to improve the capabilities and performance of the Chainlink Oracle Pallet. Providing long-term support for the Polkadot community members integrating oracles into their applications is a step closely aligned to realizing our vision for Web 3.0,” stated Aidan Hyman, Co-founder and CEO of ChainSafe. “By leveraging our deep expertise of blockchain technology and Polkadot in particular, we are excited to make Chainlink oracles more accessible to the open-source development ecosystem, opening up the possibilities for many new and exciting applications to be empowered by the Chainlink Oracle Pallet.”
Through the Chainlink Community Grants program, we look forward to continuing to empower more and more Chainlink ecosystem teams, researchers, and social impact projects who are both researching and building key tools and infrastructure that accelerate the development of universally connected smart contracts, secure oracle networks, and impactful technology that improves the world. We will continue supporting the community as a key driver of Chainlink’s rapid growth, because only together can we make universally connected, hybrid smart contracts into the dominant form of digital agreement.
About the Chainlink Grant Program
If you want to learn more about the Grant Program, check out our recent blog post that further expands upon its goals and the criteria for submission. If you would like to participate in the Chainlink Grant Program, please apply here. Chainlink Community Grants are provided in cash and/or LINK.
