Chainlink

With the release of an updated whitepaper in April 2021, many would argue that there's no better time than now to buy Chainlink coin.

LINK, which is Chainlink's native token, is a means to pay the system's node operators and serve as an investment tool for crypto investors. Furthermore, investors who are inflation-adverse will appreciate that LINK has a fixed supply of one billion coins.

At Knaken, we live and breathe crypto. So, we'll introduce you to Chainlink's important contributions to blockchain technology and show you how to buy Chainlink.

Chainlink Coin

Sergey Nazarov is the mastermind behind Chainlink. He began working on it in 2014, although it wasn't until 2017 when the world gained access to this innovative technology. By May 2019, LINK appeared on Mainnet and has been making impressive progress in the crypto space ever since.

Knowing the background of the team and founder is crucial before investing money in any cryptocurrency. Nazarov has a long history working in cryptocurrency's relatively short existence, having founded three other crypto-based companies before Chainlink—SmartContract, CryptoMail, and Secure Asset Exchange.

Furthermore, Steve Ellis supports Nazarov, who is a prominent software engineer and the CTO of Chainlink and SmartContract, Nazarov's company that founded Chainlink. LINK's headquarters are in the technology-friendly San Francisco, California.

Chainlink's use case is all about oracles. Oracles serve as a means to help smart contracts acquire information on other non-native blockchains that they usually wouldn't have access to. As a result, oracles allow smart contracts to make decisions based on current events happening in the world.

Before Nazarov created LINK, blockchain networks weren't able to connect with data located off the blockchain in a fast and fair fashion. Chainlink is helping to solve this issue by implementing the following:

• Verifiable randomness
• Price feeds
• Keeper Network
• Proof of reserve

One item that makes Chainlink such a promising project is that their team is constantly evaluating their progress and modifying their approach. One of the best examples of this is their 2.0 whitepaper.

In Chainlink 2.0, LINK seeks to increase their Decentralized Oracle Networks (DONs) abilities. They also strive to secure off-chain computation and data delivery that no ill-intentioned person can interfere with.

What Is Chainlink?

As a decentralized oracle project, Chainlink serves as the middleman between data on and off the blockchain (called on-chain and off-chain, in crypto terms). By doing so, they help smart contracts excel at gaining accurate payment, API, and data feed insights, among others.

Chainlink uses a node consensus mechanism. The way it works is that Chainlink sorts through various nodes to ascertain data requested on the blockchain. The nodes form a consensus. They then transfer the data used back to the smart contract.

The advantage of using this consensus technique is that the smart contract doesn't have to use only one oracle to obtain the information they need. Therefore, the information they receive is more accurate.

Furthermore, smart contracts can request multiple data retrievals from the nodes and even schedule such data retrievals. Therefore, they become a reliable source of data feeds for smart contracts.

LINK crypto's on-chain component uses oracle contracts from Ethereum. That said, one of Chainlink's goals is to expand its services to non-Ethereum networks. But for now, its Ethereum on-chain process follows three steps:

• Records oracle metrics with a reputation contract
• Gathers and chooses bids with an order-matching contract
• Determines the verdict based on the oracle providers' answers with an aggregating contract

Chainlink's off-chain component also strives to collect and determine collective responses using consensus mechanisms.

Chainlink's Real-World Use Cases

If you choose to buy Chainlink coin, you'll be supporting LINK's decentralized oracle services. Real-world cases that Chainlink is striving to help include insurance smart contracts, which would allow insurance companies to determine situations where they should offer their customers compensation.

Chainlink can also support the financial side of trading with smart contracts that gather data relating to customs, GPS coordinates, and supply chains.

Finally, Chainlink will be invaluable to securities contracts requiring APIs. Bonds and interest rate derivatives are examples, and LINK will give them access to up-to-date market prices, the going rate for interest, among many other crucial data pieces.

Chainlink also offers several grants and social impact programs. For example, LINK awards community grants to developers who help them improve their node infrastructure, increase how much data is available on-chain, and help incorporate Chainlink into new systems.

They also offer integration grants to get people or projects worldwide to obtain services and designated tech work from LINK. In addition, technology-oriented researchers and academics can take advantage of LINK's research program, where they'll receive funding for running and publishing research on LINK's security and performance.

Finally, Chainlink is proud to run its social impact program. They collaborate with nonprofits and other projects working in the social improvement environment to improve hybrid smart contracts that will help reduce economic inequality throughout the world.

How to Store Chainlink?

Before we talk about how to buy Chainlink, it's crucial to have a plan once you're the proud owner of your coins. You can store LINK in the following three ways:

• On the exchange where you purchase LINK
• Software wallets (on your desktop or a mobile app)
• Hardware wallets (offline cold storage)

Hardware wallets are by far the safest choice of the three storage techniques. By storing your LINK offline, you don't have to worry about hackers accessing your precious funds via your exchange or by hacking into your computer.

Furthermore, if someone steals your hardware wallet or it gets damaged, you'll have a recovery code where you can re-access your LINK online or with a new hardware wallet.