OraclesLink: An architecture for secure oracle usage

Abstract

Smart contracts encode critical application logic for realizing digital agreements in a tamper-proof form. Blockchains guarantee that smart contracts cannot be altered after the first deployment and that the execution is strictly followed. Smart contracts can only operate on data available on-chain. Oracles are bridging the gap between on-chain and off-chain data. Oracles introduce a wide range of security risks, which were already exploited in publicly known hacks. In this paper OraclesLink is proposed, which is a secure and developer-friendly architecture for using oracles within smart contracts. The goal of the architecture is to eliminate single points of failure and single sources of truth through distribution. In order to demonstrate feasibility, a proof-of-concept implementation is provided.