What Is Chainlink Crypto?
Chainlink (LINK) is a native token of Chainlink, a company creating the future of Decentralized Oracle Networks (DONs).
The Chainlink Network is aimed to power a suite of decentralized services for smart contracts on any blockchain, making it possible to build Decentralized Oracle Networks.
What is the Chainlink Crypto?
LINK is the native token of the Chainlink protocol, first launched as a funding mechanism for the 2017 ICO, during which Chainlink raised $32 million. Its principal function was to provide financial liquidity for the project, and is now primarily used to pay Chainlink network operators for their services.
Chainlink network operators are contributing to powering the future of smart contracts. And at the same time, they are playing a key role in the global open-source Chainlink community, many of them acting as Node Operators.
LINK plays an integral role in this open-source ecosystem, providing liquid capital to support the large and growing ecosystem of “data providers, node operators, smart contract developers, researchers, security auditors,” and others, according to Chainlink.
Chainlink Price
Chainlink crypto, known as LINK, the native token of the Chainlink ecosystem, trades at a higher price bracket than other native tokens. One of the main reasons for this is the integral role it plays in a secure and established company and blockchain-based ecosystem. It has also been around since 2017, so it benefits from long-term credibility.
At present, LINK is trading around $18 a token, with a market cap of $7.9 billion. There are currently over 438 million tokens in supply, with the expectation that it will reach 1 billion in time. Trading volumes are currently in the $419 million range, within a 24 hour period, according to CoinGeko data.
How to Buy Chainlink Crypto?
Chainlink (LINK) is a fully-fledged and established Ethereum-based token. You don't need to look for long where you can buy, sell, and exchange the LINK cryptocurrency. You can do so on all of the most active and popular exchanges.
All you need is a wallet and the funds to either buy LINK using another cryptocurrency or a fiat currency. It really is that simple. And at any time you want to sell, you can do that on most exchanges too, either buying another cryptocurrency or fiat currency in exchange.
How to Buy Chainlink Crypto on ChangeNOW?
You can also buy, sell, and swap LINK on ChangeNOW. Take a look at how it works on our website.
What is Chainlink?
Chainlink — the company, its products and services — and wider ecosystem, support the native token, LINK. It’s worth examining this further as it plays a key role in understanding the value of LINK as a cryptocurrency, and the role it plays in the wider crypto and blockchain ecosystem.
Chainlink's decentralized oracle network gives companies and developers a way to build universally connected smart contracts. Chainlink “provides reliable, tamper-proof inputs and outputs for complex smart contracts on any blockchain.”
Using a range of Chainlink solutions, companies and developers can connect any smart contract, on any blockchain, to any data inputs or API.
Chainlink's decentralized oracle solutions are secure, open-source, transparent, and have helped to “secure billions of dollars in value for market-leading blockchain projects.” Projects Chainlink have supported include AAVE, Yearn.finance, Synthetix, and numerous others.
Chainlink provides the following range of business solutions:
Chainlink Price Feeds: DeFi applications need secure real-time market data to issue, settle, and secure transactions. Chainlink supports dozens of these price feeds for numerous DeFi, CeFi, and other financial companies.
Chainlink VRF: It is a solution for generating reliable randomness. This is an essential part of minting NFTs, distributing random rewards, and also for powering unpredictable gameplay scenarios.
According to the website, “Chainlink Verifiable Random Function (VRF) provides numerous blockchain games with a cryptographically secure and provably fair source of on-chain randomness (RNG), giving users a strong guarantee of application impartiality.”
Image source: Chainlink
Decentralized Oracle Networks (DON): With these, smart contracts can be connected to any off-chain data resource or computation. Chainlink can connect with any API, which opens up a wide range of use cases and computational opportunities.
For example, Arbol is using a Chainlink DON to create weather risk products, pulling in off-chain data on weather patterns around the world. Given the ever-changing climate situation, more computing power is going to be needed to assess weather patterns and predict risk, which is exactly why a blockchain-based DON is a valuable resource for clients of Arbol.
Theta Network is also using a Chainlink DON to analyze online viewership data, as a way of combating online fraud for Theta Network customers. Dozens of other companies around the world are leveraging the benefits of Chainlink DONs, connecting off-chain data through APIs to analyze large amounts of information and generate real-world impacts and ROIs.
Image source: Chainlink
Enterprise Blockchain networks: On an even larger scale, enterprises and governments have a lot of data that needs to be analyzed before new value can be generated. The challenge is, larger organizations don't want to have to re-architect and re-engineer their current systems.
Whereas, when an enterprise organization or government deploys a Decentralized Oracle Networks (DON), nothing needs to be re-engineered. Data stays where it is, off-chain, and is pulled into the DON through APIs to generate new value, insights, and real-world impacts.
Chainlink Labs, which is one of the core business units delivering these services and solutions for clients, is growing, further demonstrating the overall strength of the company and demand for Chainlink solutions.
Image source: Chainlink
Chainlink Community and Ecosystem
Alongside and supporting these business solutions is an extensive community. Plus numerous resources for developers, who play an integral role in that community and in the delivery of these services for their own clients, or customers of Chainlink. Since the launch, Chainlink has also been actively acquiring smaller innovators in the Blockchain ecosystem, adding their technology and skills to the wider Chainlink network.
Developers can also take part in hackathons, community meetups, events, can become advocates for the Chainlink Network, and there is also a Grant Program. This is designed to support the creation of new smart contract applications that secure greater value across more markets.
A range of grants cover several different ways developers can get involved. These include grants for community-based activity, integrating new projects and services into the Chainlink ecosystem, identifying bugs, research, and making a positive social impact.
As a sign of how strong and involved the community is, there’s even a virtual event planned on August 5-7, 2021 – Smart Contract Summit (SmartCon). It promises to be the largest blockchain sector event of the year, with over 200 speakers from across the industry. The latest in NFTs, DeFi, Smart Contracts, and Oracles will be covered by a wide range of expert speakers and industry leaders.
All of this contributes to the general strength of the native token, LINK, on cryptocurrency markets and exchanges. Because of the Chainlink ecosystem, there is more value being generated underpinning the market price of the token, which makes it less vulnerable than other tokens that don't have the support of a successful and established company and community behind them.
Chainlink: Key Takeaways
Chainlink (LINK) is the native tokenof Chainlink, a company and community that raised $32 million through an ICO in 2017.
LINK is currently trading around $18 a token, with a market cap of $7.9 billion. Trading volumes are fairly high for an altcoin, in the $419 million range, within a 24 hour period, according to CoinGeko data.
Unlike other altcoins, Chainlink (LINK) is part of a much larger and stronger ecosystem.
Chainlink is building the future of Decentralized Oracle Networks (DONs), whereby any off-chain data can be pulled into a DON through APIs and analyzed to generate new value, insights, and real-world impacts. They work with companies of every size across the world, and these decentralized blockchain-based networks are already analyzing everything from financial data to weather patterns.
Chainlink is supported by an active community of developers, data and crypto enthusiasts, and investors, with the company running everything from online conferences to grant-based funding schemes.
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