Chainlink (LINK); Was founded in 2017 by Steve Ellis and Sergey Nazarov. Chainlink is a blockchain abstraction layer. It enables universally connected smart contract executions through a decentralized oracle network. This allows blockchains to securely interact with external data feeds, events and payment methods, providing the critical off-chain information needed by complex smart contracts to become the dominant form of digital agreement.
The Chainlink Network is driven by a large open-source community of data providers, node operators, and smart contract developers.
Chainlink is one of the first networks that allows the integration of off-chain data into smart contracts. Due to the integration of off-chain data, Chainlink has attracted the attention of numerous trusted data providers like Brave New Coin, Alpha Vantage and Huobi. Data providers can sell access to data directly to Chainlink, thus monetizing the information they have.