Blockchain and Data Integrity: An Interview About a New Era of Trust in the Digital Age

In the rapidly evolving landscape of the digital era, trust and integrity are fundamental pillars that underpin the reliability and security of data. With the exponential growth of digital information, the need for ensuring data integrity has become paramount. Enter blockchain technology—a revolutionary innovation that promises to redefine trust in the digital age.

One of the most compelling features of blockchain is its ability to maintain the integrity of data. Every piece of information stored on a blockchain is securely encrypted into blocks and linked together in a continuous chain. Each block contains a unique cryptographic hash, timestamp, and reference to the previous block, creating an unalterable record of transactions or information. Once recorded, data stored on the blockchain cannot be modified or deleted without the consensus of the entire network, making it highly resistant to tampering and fraud.

Today, several platforms have been able to harness this power to become more reliable. The Chronicle Protocol - a scalable, cost-efficient Oracle service - is looking to bolster the functionality of traditional blockchains by improving the workings of an integral part called data Oracles.

Essentially, Oracles help to feed blockchains with data. But, the operation of these components has been hampered significantly thanks to their build. Chronicle is looking to introduce a new type of Oracle, which is blockchain-agnostic, verifiable, and gas-efficient in operation. Kicking off with ETH Warsaw, followed by ETH Lisbon and the ETHGlobal Istanbul, Chronicle is now looking to build on adoption via industry-leading hackathons.

We spoke with Angus Tookey of Chronicle Labs to understand their vision and how they believe that Chronicle could help usher in a new age of cost-efficiency with blockchains and data integrity.

1. Where did the vision for Chronicle come from?

“Chronicle was born from MakerDAO. The brand ‘Chronicle’ is new; however, the protocol has been live since 2017, exclusively securing up to $20bn in crypto assets for Maker. This actually makes it one of the oldest, continually operating protocols in the space.

The vision of Niklas Kunkel, the Head of the Oracle Core Unit of MakerDAO, was to spin out the team and tech stack to continue to serve Maker but also offer Oracle services to the wider Web3 community. As of September 2023, this vision became a reality, and the brand Chronicle Protocol was launched.

The overarching vision of Chronicle is to provide a better and verifiable option for on-chain data. Until now, Oracle protocols operate like ‘black boxes’ with almost zero transparency on how and where data is sourced, as well as crippling on-chain costs to operate. Chronicle changes that with fully verifiable data via The Chronicle, an on-chain dashboard, and the invention of ‘Scribe’, a new cryptographic Oracle primitive that reduces gas usage of Oracles by over 80% versus the most used Oracle provider.”

2. Do you envision Chronicle being implemented on more chains after Ethereum?

“Chronicle was born on Ethereum, and Polygon zkEVM was the first chain to follow as we launched in September. The goal for the rest of 2023 is to roll out integrations with all the major EVM chains.

It isn’t true that all EVM chains are the same; implementations vary wildly. However, we have designed Scribe to be a ‘single implementation’ on EVM. We did it this way to ensure accessibility but also security. It is safer to monitor and deploy a single implementation than make custom versions for each chain, and we can ensure its integrity if it is the same across all chains.

It is the unique design of ‘Scribe,’ using an Optimistic Schnorr hybrid model, that allows us to construct a single implementation that operates effectively on both L1s and L2s, despite the environments and limitations of these chains being polar opposites.

For the rest of 2023, we will be rolling out our Scribe architecture Chronicle Oracles across all the major EVM chains such as Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, Scroll, and more.”

3. What would you say is the biggest impediment to blockchain adoption at a global level right now?

“I think the blocker right now is understanding. Specifically, an understanding of how blockchain technology, or the innate features of Web3, can enhance or improve industries. We talk about this as ‘coming on-chain,’ and I see it much like the early days of businesses deciding whether it would add value for them to ‘come online.’

However, that is not to say every industry would benefit from coming on-chain - at least in its current form. Operationally, blockchain technology is still vastly more expensive to run than off-chain equivalents. However, this is getting more cost-effective all the time.

There are, however, some industries that can really benefit from the integration of blockchain technology, and when that level of education and successful examples are there, a better understanding will follow. I think then we will start to see a much broader adoption of the technology in traditional industries.

Finance is a great example of an industry that has an excellent product-market fit with blockchain in DeFi. So far, it is perhaps the only decentralized industry in the space that has found that product market fit, with billions of dollars of TVL. Oracles are at the heart of this; there is no DeFi without Oracles, so we are very supportive of the growth and innovation of financial products on-chain at Chronicle.”

4. Is there more to Oracles than just price data?

“Essentially, if you want to get any data into a smart contract, you need an Oracle to deliver it. The complexity of the Oracle can vary depending on how secure you need or want it to be, but smart contracts (the software that underpins every blockchain product or application) cannot make API calls to get that data from off-chain sources.

Oracles have been designed as the bridge between off-chain data and on-chain apps or products. As a result, the type of data Oracles can handle is almost unlimited.

There is a great demand for price data at the moment, and so market forces dictate that this is where Oracle providers, such as Chronicle, have concentrated their development thus far.

However, there is huge growth to come from providing a variety of other data, including a variety of other numerical values such as interest & base rates, the values of ‘real-world assets’, or even the outcome of a sports match, governance decision, or authentication of verification by signatories.

At Chronicle, we are working on tackling a number of these new use cases with our partners in the space, like Centrifuge and Maker. Of particular interest is the digital layer of truth, or attestations, that could unlock the current process of deploying on-chain capital into real-world assets, such as treasury bonds.”

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there remains much work to be done in the blockchain space - especially from a functional standpoint. But, with more projects looking to build on the future, there’s a lot to look forward to as well.