Thread by @ChainLinkGod

1/ Just like "transactions per second" does not adequately reflect the real adoption of a blockchain network (as it doesn't take into account the economic value of each transaction)

The number of "requests fulfilled" for an oracle network does not accurately track adoption

2/ This is because most oracle networks operate using a decentralized data model where an on-chain reference contract is created to represent some value (e.g. the ETH/USD exchange rate)

Each update of these data feeds is considered a "request fulfilled"

However, the update frequency of each data feed is determined by the transaction throughput of the underlying blockchain where data is being delivered

It is not the oracle network which is the bottleneck here, it's the on-chain environment

3/ For example, widely used blockchains like Ethereum (limited to 15 TPS) have limited bandwidth which caps the maximum update frequency of any data feeds operating on that network

This is true for any oracle network on such blockchain networks

4/ Layer 2 solutions and alternative blockchains that support 10,000+ TPS have much lower transaction fees, supporting data feeds which update at a much higher frequency

However, the majority of smart contracts which require external data are on widely used chains like Ethereum

5/ For this reason, Chainlink is a blockchain agnostic framework for building oracle networks that natively deliver data to Ethereum, Polygon, BSC xDai, HECO, Starkware, and more

Chainlink oracle networks operate at the native speed of the underlying blockchain receiving data

6/ For example, Chainlink price feeds operating live on @StarkWareLtd have an update latency of less than second and consume next to zero transaction fees thanks to the use of an L2 zkRollup

medium.com/starkware/orac…

6/ Therefore when an oracle project claims their solution is "super fast, low cost, and fulfills a bazillion requests", what they actually mean is that they are putting data onto high throughput chains and ignoring widely used chains to support their misleading speed narrative

7/ There are even oracle projects which have created their own blockchain with extremely high, long-term hardware requirements, making it even easier for them to inflate this "requests fulfilled" metric to mimic adoption (regardless if that data is actually being used)

8/ This data can't even be used until it is actively bridged to the blockchain networks where externally-connected smart contracts operate

Usually, only a small fraction of these "requests fulfilled" are actually bridged to other chains

7/ Such projects further the deception by purposely comparing the frequency of updates of Chainlink data feeds *on Ethereum* to their oracle networks delivering data to a blockchain with no smart contracts

A total apple to oranges comparison

8/ The number of "requests fulfilled" of an oracle network tells nothing about the amount of value being secured, the total number of integrations, the quality of the data, the market coverage provided, the economies of scale pricing model, and certainly not the level of adoption

9/ Yes this is a subtweet of a project who does exactly this by disseminating this false narrative through their disinformation marketing team

However I also seeing people promote this metric in a genuine way but it really doesn't tell the whole story

10/ With the release of Chainlink OCR, node repsonses are batched into a single transaction, which is a good thing for scalability, but actually lowers the number of "requests fulfilled", making this metric even more useless for comparing different oracle solutions

11/ "Requests fulfilled" isn't the only metric that competiting "LINK killers" try to manipulate to make their project more appealing, another is "Total Value Locked" and decentralization of the network as a whole, but I'll save that for another thread