Smart contracts hold huge potential for real-world use cases. From banking to disaster management to insurance, smart contracts are poised to revolutionize all these industries and more, and for better. But, smart contracts need real-world data to contribute to real-world use cases which becomes a challenge since blockchain restrictions prohibit access to external world data. Oracles are a handy solution here as they help to source off-chain data and feed them into blockchain smart contracts. Now, oracles can be centralized and decentralized. In a centralized oracle, there is one particular single entity which provides information to smart contracts. Thus, there is no way to verify the authenticity of the data. And that could be dangerous; if the information fed is malicious or wrong, it would defeat the entire purpose of the smart contracts. This is where decentralized oracles come to the rescue.

Significance of decentralized oracle

Unlike the centralized counterpart, a decentralized oracle sources information from multiple sources and hence the gathered can always be verified. This way, there could be an assurance that the data that are being injected into blockchain smart contracts are authentic and not wrong or malicious.

Here is a brief on the main advantages of decentralized oracle

• Great uptime
• More enriched data than centralized oracles, thanks to multiple data providers
• Assurance of authentic data as data gathered can always be verified publicly
• Better credibility  than centralized oracles

Bridge oracle shows promise

Bridge oracle is one of the latest and most talked about names in the current decentralized oracle space. It’s the first ever dedicated public oracle of TRON and has been introduced on the leading blockchain network to empower smart contracts on TRON with authentic off-chain data. The oracle had its IEO in September on BW.com and it was an awe-inspiring success. The whole IEO got sold out in as little as 6 hours of the launch! BRG is the native token of Bridge Oracle.

Here is a brief on the main features of Bridge oracle followed by a note on its top competitors today-

• Decentralized oracle which allows to access external data from various public data sources like URL, Complex URL, WolframAlpha, Random and so on
• Allows to add different kinds of proof to ensure data authenticity
• Promises tamper-proof and credible data
• Supports various API contracts like public API, Enterprise API and decentralized API contracts
• Open-source network
• Supports both time dependent and time independent data
• Public oracle allows huge scale mass participation in blockchain network
• Supports two payment methods – BRG token and TRON token TRX

Brief on the competitors:

Chainlink

Chainlink is possibly the biggest competitor for not just Bridge but any other oracle system in that case. It’s one of the trailblazers in the world of decentralized oracles and reportedly holds the #1 position with a whopping $5billion+ market cap. LINK is the native token of Chainlink.

Hivemind

It’s another decentralized oracle which has been developed as Bitcoin sidechain. The oracle deploys smart contracts for automating the maximum share of conventional oracle processes. Votecoin is the native token of Hivemind.

Microsoft Coco

A part of the Microsoft Azure, Coco offers blockchain development platform for enterprises. It presently interfaces with Quorum, Ethereum, Hyperledger Sawtooth as well as Corda.

Most of the Bridge’s competitors run on Ethereum which has been receiving huge complaints lately for poor scalability. On the other hand, TRON assures a more cutting-edge and better scalable network.