A Glimpse Into Future Oracle Use Cases & Beyond

Oracles have a variety of use cases, some of which have real-world utility, others which can replace existing markets. Crypto natives often think of price feeds when discussing oracles. Still, the possibilities are endless if you look beyond and realize that oracles enable smart contracts to tap into any off-chain resources.

In a previous article, we talked about the oracle decentralization layer. Recall that data comes from data sources, is processed by data aggregators, and then proposed and voted upon by node operators. As long as there is a data source, an oracle network like Goracle can help to bring that on-chain. And from these data sources, more valuable businesses can be built.

Weather Data Meets Insurance

One future use case for Goracle is weather data and insurance. Goracle could connect to weather data aggregators such as weather datasets on Google Cloud or media companies such as AccuWeather. Weather data sources could even start running their own node to monetize their data and generate revenue by operating a critical smart contract infrastructure. Real-time weather data such as current temperatures, precipitation, and wind speed will allow developers to build decentralized insurance contracts.

In many developing markets, farmers have to manually negotiate traditional insurance contracts from centralized providers. These insurance contracts are often difficult to obtain, priced unfairly, and require formal dispute resolution and settlement mechanisms. With Goracle weather data feeds, if a certain amount of precipitation or a temperature threshold is met, a smart contract can immediately validate weather data and trigger an insurance policy, and then automatically make a payout if needed. Data feeds like these enable blockchain-based applications to access real-world data, automating claims and lowering costs.

The possibilities of insurance applications extend beyond weather insurance. Travel, flight, crop, financial collateral, and disaster are all types of insurance that can be enabled and built out in a decentralized manner using Goracle data feeds.

Sports Betting and Verifiable Randomness Functions

Another exciting future use case is sports betting. What is expected to be a $129B market by 2028 can now be brought entirely on-chain through sports results data feeds. For example, through Goracle’s partnership with OddsJam, protocols can access sports results through a decentralized sports betting API. This opens the door for decentralized sports betting and fantasy leagues that build off real-time sports data. Like how weather data can enable decentralized insurance protocols, sports data will also allow decentralized betting protocols, with many advantages over existing sports betting platforms. On a decentralized betting platform, a bettor can now have guaranteed bet confirmation, direct payments into wallets, trusted bet settlement, and more, all enabled by the trustless nature of blockchain networks and Goracle data feeds.

In addition to bringing sports data on-chain, oracle networks can generate data, such as verifiable random functions. A verifiable random function is a cryptographic function that takes a series of inputs, computes them, and produces a pseudorandom output. The randomness will be guaranteed by the oracle network, and it will be produced along with a proof of authenticity that anyone can verify. For example, do you need to deal a card from a deck, simulate a roll of roulette, or mint NFTs and assign random traits? All these are possible through an oracle network, where dynamic and provably fair gameplay is possible. The opportunity here is massive, with the global gambling market predicted to reach $876B by 2026.

Enterprise Use Cases

Enterprise businesses provide trillions of dollars worth of goods and services worldwide daily. Oracle networks can radically transform transparency, increase revenue streams, and secure existing systems for enterprises.

Any marketplace network such as Uber and DoorDash or supply-chain businesses such as FedEx or Amazon will likely have tracking capabilities for your package, food, or mail. Like many of us, I’m sure you have experienced the frustration of a package shown as delivered, but you do not see it at your doorstep. Oracle networks can integrate with real-world tracking services and incorporate decentralized data inputs to provide users with guarantees about the execution of crucial services.

Another enormous opportunity for guaranteeing data on-chain through an oracle network lies in the world of asset management. Today, the asset management industry is highly fragmented, with legions of intermediaries waiting to extract fees and impose unnecessary processes. Too many go-betweens increase the complexity and costs for asset managers and retail traders when they buy a stock (or even a house or car). For any transaction or verification of assets, a single source of verifiable truth is vital to increasing transparency and reducing costs. Having each stakeholder involved in the process have their own record and not knowing which is the “correct” record is a common problem across industries. For example, perhaps the 2008 financial crisis could have been avoided if asset managers, loan underwriters, and banks had full transparency. Asset managers and financial institutions would have been able to view the underlying securities packaged in risky collateral debt obligations. Credit rating agencies would not have been able to artificially inflate credit ratings as everyone would have had insight into the underlying securities.

The team at Goracle believes the examples above are just a glimpse of future oracle use cases. Alternative datasets such as commodities data, automation bots, medical data, and supply chain tracking represent a small set of possibilities for the number of markets that will eventually utilize oracle networks.

As we progress in future phases, such as Phase 2: Incentivized Testnet and Phase 3: Protocol/Token Launch, Goracle will work with other partners to onboard more alternative datasets that builders can use to develop exciting protocols.

If you are as excited as we are about all the possibilities that an oracle network can open up, check out our documentation.

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