Too Long; Didn't Read
At a very high level, using an oracle means receiving data from outside of a blockchain. Said another way, an oracle provides a connection between real world events and a blockchain. In my opinion, all of the really interesting complex smart contracts require outside information — financial derivatives, gambling, stablecoins, identity…literally anything where you want to incorporate something happening in the real world. Turns out, transparently representing real-world events in precise digital terms is a challenge. To better conceptualize oracles, this post will build our intuition around why it’s difficult to represent reality, digitally<strong>.</strong>