oracle [English]
InterPARES Definition
No definition in earlier IP projects. ITrust definition not yet developed.
Other Definitions
- BlockchainHub Glossary (†807 s.v. "Oracles"): Smart contracts on the blockchain can not access the outside network on their own. Therefore oracles sit between a smart contract and the external world, providing the data needed by the smart contract to prove performance while sending its commands to external systems.
Citations
- Buterin [2017] (†818 s.v. "Scripting" ): Value-blindness - there is no way for a UTXO script to provide fine-grained control over the amount that can be withdrawn. For example, one powerful use case of an oracle contract would be a hedging contract, where A and B put in $1000 worth of BTC and after 30 days the script sends $1000 worth of BTC to A and the rest to B. This would require an oracle to determine the value of 1 BTC in USD, but even then it is a massive improvement in terms of trust and infrastructure requirement over the fully centralized solutions that are available now. (†2345)