QANplatform, a quantum-resistant blockchain platform, today announced the planned integration of Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data feeds, web APIs, and traditional bank payments.
By bringing Chainlink’s market-leading oracle solution to QANplatform, QAN developers will be able to build more complex smart contract designs that leverage resources from outside the QAN blockchain platform.
QAN
Powered by blockchain fintech brand Centrum Circle, QANplatform is a quantum-resistant blockchain platform that uses Lattice-based cryptography, making it resilient to quantum attacks.
While QANplatform offers numerous security properties that make it enticing for long-term viability, like all other blockchain platforms, it lacks the ability to interact with data and systems that are not on the QAN blockchain.
Blockchains on their own can only perform calculations on data that is stored within their networks while still retaining security. This presents a major roadblock in blockchain development as most smart contracts need to interact with external resources to create value.
For example, derivatives contracts need to know certain market data before making a decision about which party gets paid and how much. This also extends to IoT data being instrumental in smart insurance agreements, interest rates being crucial to lending applications and much more.
Oracles
Since the most trusted data sources often exist on non-blockchain systems, there needs to be a way to access them in a manner as to secure as the blockchain itself. This is known as the oracle problem and Chainlink is the premier oracle solution for most of the blockchain ecosystem.
An oracle is a digital agent employed by a smart contract to retrieve and/or connect it to data and systems outside its native blockchain (off-chain). Oracles enable this off-chain connectivity for the smart contract by reformatting external connection points (APIs) so that two different software applications are compatible to exchange data. The oracles can then pull data into the smart contract and/or execute actions on external systems based on predefined instructions and endpoints.
Chainlink takes it a step further by adding decentralized security to the oracle mechanism triggering a smart contract. Through Chainlink, developers can protect against a centralized oracle being a single point of failure by decentralizing the data delivery process using multiple oracles to gather the same data point and then aggregate their responses together.
They can also protect against one data source being the single source of truth by gathering data from multiple sources and aggregating them together using customized models, such as producing an average, tossing out outliers, etc.
By combining QANplatform’s highly secure, quantum-resistant blockchain with Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network, users get access to a secure and reliable end-to-end solution that is fully connected to the real world. This enables QANplatform’s developers to create logic based on real-world situations, which is a huge value-add to the network.
Potential use cases QAN is considering once integrating Chainlink, include:
- Decentralized sourcing of the QARK/USD price to enable enterprises to calculate transaction fees in USD, yet pay with QARK on the backend.
- Secure connection to IoT devices to open up new insurance, supply chain, and logistics products.
“I believe that giving developers the ability to build efficient smart contracts in a timely manner is a necessary step in order to reach the desired goal of mass adoption. We can only achieve that through real-world integration and co-existence with platforms that people already use. Thanks to Chainlink’s oracle solutions, we are able to do that with QAN. Alongside our multilingual smart contracts, developers possess everything they need in order to achieve adoption.”
– Johann Polecsak, CTO and co-founder of QANplatform
This latest integration demonstrates another important station in QAN’s journey to provide quantum-resistant and multilingual solutions to enterprises wishing to adopt blockchain technology.