Optimistic Oracles: Facilitating Cross-Chain Interactions
Optimistic Oracle is an oracle that uses a dispute/arbitration process to ensure data accuracy. It can be compared to a price feed oracle, which relies on nodes to ensure consistency of price feed data in the chain.
What is Optimistic Oracle?
In an optimistic oracle, real-world data is combined with blockchain systems (e.g., blockchain), and the data is recognized as true if it is not challenged over a period of time. It is a optimistic design, in which prices are passed down the chain, but without any regression or error protection. The optimistic design distinguishes it from the price oracle, in which prices are passed down the chain and without any regression or error protection.
Along with their asset price, they can handle arbitrary data and long-tail information requests, which may not be possible for price-feed oracles.
Price-feed oracles also protect smart contracts and users from external data manipulation because incorrect data can be challenged. This is a unique feature because other oracles are only as reliable as their data source.
Author: Hart Lambur is the co-founder of UMA, a decentralized financial contracting platform designed to provide universal market access. He was trained as a computer scientist before working as an interest-rate trader at Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis. In 2013, he co-founded Openfolio, a personal finance tracking platform that was bought by a financial planning firm in 2017. He now leads a research group on financial contracts and oracle design at UMA.
