Chainlink Co-Founder Advocates for Web3 Cryptographic Guarantees – Global Village Space

Chain Reaction is a podcast that features interviews with newsmakers in the crypto industry to provide insights into the technology behind the hype and the people working towards building a decentralized future. In this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Sergey Nazarov, the co-founder of Chainlink, a protocol that offers an oracle network to power smart contracts.

According to Nazarov, oracle networks are the key to making smart contracts “smart.” Smart contracts, on their own, lack the ability to access external systems beyond what is available on a blockchain. Before starting Chainlink, Nazarov co-founded four other businesses, including SmartContract, which also focuses on smart contracts.

Chainlink is also known as a web3 services platform that connects people, businesses, and data with the world of web3. The platform has facilitated over $7 trillion in transaction volume across DeFi, gaming, NFTs, and other major industries. When it was launched in 2017, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi was less than $100 million. However, by late 2021, that number had grown to almost $200 billion, though it has since fallen to $47 billion today, according to DeFiLlama data.

Nazarov explained that when an oracle network goes live on a certain chain and provides data to it, that chain’s total value locked within advanced applications such as advanced gaming applications or DeFi applications skyrockets. He added that without advanced inputs and outputs, blockchains cannot create advanced applications. Nazarov pointed out that Uber could not exist without other systems that handle a significant portion of the workloads and problems it encounters.

Nazarov believes that the Web 2.0 world that most people use is not guaranteed in any meaningful way. He explained that at any point, an entity like Silicon Valley Bank can change the rules, leading to a difficult situation. Nazarov noted that in the Web 2 world, promises are only backed by the legal system and people’s choice to fulfill those promises. However, in the web3 world that uses smart contracts, there is no capacity for human choice or the legal system. There is just a technically enforced system of contracts.

In addition to discussing smart contracts, technological guarantees, cross-chain interoperability, and Nazarov’s long-term vision for Chainlink, the podcast also covered unexpected smart contract use cases, how traditional companies can tokenize assets, AI and blockchain technology, and CCIP updates.

Chain Reaction releases new episodes every other Thursday. To keep up with the latest in web3 and crypto, be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite pod platform.