Layer-1

Layer 1 EVM oracle platform Flare launches to boost interoperable DApps

Layer 1 EVM blockchain Flare goes online, aimed at providing developers a platform to build decentralized interoperable applications.

Flare, a new layer-1 Ethereum Virtual Machine blockchain platform, has gone live with the launch of two core protocols aimed at powering decentralized interoperability applications.

The platform serves as an oracle network that allows developers to build applications that are aimed at being interoperable with different blockchains and internet platforms and services.

Flare features two protocols that power its application-building suite. Its State Connector protocol enables information and data to be used securely and at scale from various blockchains and internet sources with the use of smart contracts. The functionality is touted to offer powerful data to the network and facilitate the development of cross-chain solutions.

Meanwhile, the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO) sources and provides decentralized price and data feeds to decentralized applications (DApps) running on the layer-1 blockchain platform. According to Flare’s technical documentation, the FTSO smart contract provides continuous estimates for different types of data.

Independent providers retrieve data from external sources like centralized and decentralized exchanges and supply that data to the FTSO system. The information is weighted according to each provider’s voting power, with a median calculated to produce the final estimate.

This operates as an incentive system for data providers, which are rewarded for supplying price pairs and other information that is close to the median value from various sources.

The protocol’s two networks, Songbird and Flare, run the Ethereum Virtual Machine, allowing Ethereum contracts and tools to be used in the development of smart contracts and applications. However, these layer 1 networks run independently of Ethereum mainnet.

Details of the platform launch shared with Cointelegraph highlight the importance of providing secure access to data. Flare CEO and co-founder Hugo Philion believes that the two protocols can lead to new use cases for blockchain technology, such as triggering a Flare smart contract with a payment made on another chain or by input from a conventional website. He said:

“It also facilitates a new way of bridging, specifically to bring non-smart contract tokens to Flare for use in applications like DeFi protocols.”

Flare initiated its token airdrop on Jan. 9, with 4.27 billion FLR tokens distributed to millions of users across various cryptocurrency exchanges. The airdrop itself marked a unique milestone, as developers can now start using Flare’s EVM and data acquisition protocols.

The initial token distribution released 15 percent of the full public token allocation, with the remainder set to be released monthly over 36 months. The allocation method for the remaining token supply will be settled by a community vote through Flare Improvement Proposal 01.

Offchain Labs acquires Ethereum core dev team Prysmatic Labs

Through the deal, Offchain Labs hopes to build a sustainable future for Ethereum, through greater communication between teams developing on both layers and direct collaborations.

One of the core development teams behind the Ethereum Merge, Prysmatic Labs, has been acquired by Offchain Labs, the developer of the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum.

Announced in an Oct. 13 blog post by Offchain Labs, the deal’s financial terms were not disclosed, but it was noted Prysmatic Labs chose to join Offchain Labs “for many reasons,” but mainly because of the two companies’ alignment in their core beliefs.

Prysmatic Labs co-founder Raul Jordan said the move will “build a unified team stronger than the sum of its parts.”

“Merging with Offchain Labs made perfect sense to us as an Ethereum team because we develop software extensively in Go, are fully incentive-aligned with the success of Ethereum, and are focused on shipping quality software for others to use,” Jordan said.

Offchain Labs claims the future of Ethereum relies on layer 1 for consensus and data availability and layer 2 for execution and scalability, and its acquisition of Prysmatic Labs is a step toward combining experts in these two areas.

Despite the Prysmatic Labs team officially joining Offchain Labs, their “work will continue uninterrupted,” and their work in Ethereum node client software will continue to be developed under Offchain’s umbrella.

They are still developing Prysm as a fully open-source and neutral consensus client and bringing EIP-4844 data-sharding to production.

The post ends by teasing possible future collaborations between the two teams.

“There are several other joint initiatives that we plan to work on together, furthering both L1 and L2 development.”

Prysmatic Labs is one of the core engineering teams behind the Merge and built Prysm, the leading Ethereum consensus client that’s now powering Ethereum’s proof-of-stake consensus.

Offchain Labs is a venture-backed and Princeton-founded company developing Arbitrum, a suite of scaling technologies for Ethereum, with two live chains, Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova.