3 ms·

What's the point of using the network then? Why not do everything more efficiently via the "oracle" server?

• sova 9y ago
  Yes, exactly -- how does having some sort of external intervention into the protocol make the protocol more robust?
  • 0wing 9y ago
    You misunderstand. If a smart contract relies on an external data source from a normal server (oracle), then why even take the risk of deploying the smart contract? If you're using an oracle for a data source you might as well do everything on a normal database.
    • nileshtrivedi 9y ago
      By minimizing the role of the oracle, instead of relying on one entity, you can rely on the market. Anybody could be the oracle, they'd put their reputation/offer/price on sale and the stakeholders would select one as they wish. You're still trusting the selected oracle to behave honestly, but they will be operating in a very competitive market which hopefully would lead to better behaviour. They might cheat once, but it would be trivial to switch to a better oracle next time.
• chrischen 9y ago
  This is the question that applies to about 99% of Dapps (at least the one that don't simply exist to serve other Dapps) so far.