Coinbase Cloud Joins Chainlink as Node Operator – Bolstering Blockchain Infrastructure
Coinbase Cloud, a blockchain infrastructure provider for crypto companies, has announced that it is joining decentralized oracle network provider Chainlink as a node operator. Coinbase Cloud’s aim is to improve the sector’s underlying technology by adding its contributions to the node operator. This move follows a trend of high-profile companies becoming node operators, including T-Systems Multimedia Solutions, which is a subsidiary of T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom. According to Kai Zhao, the group product manager at Coinbase Cloud, “Our participation in Chainlink’s Decentralized Oracle Network is a statement of our commitment to the security and reliability of smart contracts. We believe on-chain is the next online, and we look forward to working with Chainlink to further this future.”
What is Chainlink?
In recent years, Chainlink has been expanding its dominance in the crypto industry through high-profile integrations across networks, services, and organizations such as the National Basketball Association, which uses the technology for its dynamic NFTs. Chainlink is a link from the blockchain to outside world data, which is often used to build robust smart contracts that deal in everything from crypto loans to insurance.
How does Chainlink work?
Smart contracts alone cannot access data outside the blockchain so Chainlink helps by collating data from off-chain sources, called oracles, and sending it back to the blockchain. In theory, this is safer than if a single oracle was responsible for the data because they would control it all. If a smart contract requires accurate pricing of a cryptocurrency, for example, Chainlink enables its decentralized network of price oracles to find a consensus on the current price, which it reports back.
Chainlink’s Challenges
To bring off-chain oracle data together, Chainlink requires nodes run by individuals or companies to agree on the accuracy of the data before providing it to be used by smart contracts. The addition of Coinbase Cloud as a node operator will help to consolidate the network further, enhancing blockchain technology’s underlying infrastructure quality.
Chainlink Labs supports the company’s technology and Johann Eid, the vice president of Go-To-Market at Chainlink Labs, comments, “How do you grow the space? You grow the infrastructure. That’s what they’ve been doing for years.”
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