SmartContract.com, the secure blockchain middleware provider enabling smart contracts to securely connect with external data sources and off-chain payment methods, has revealed its plans for the release of the ChainLink Network.

One of the inherent limitation of smart contracts is that they are unable to access any off-chain resources like data feeds, APIs and/or bank payments. This is caused by the method in which consensus is reached around a blockchain’s transaction data. ChainLink Network seeks to solve this problem by allowing smart contracts to securely access the many off-chain resources they need to become truly useful for the majority of financial agreements.

The LINK token will give developers the ability to easily pay each ChainLink Node Operator for the unique data, API, and/or off-chain payment capabilities they provide access to. The ChainLink Network provides a way to securely, quickly, and verifiably connect to external data sources, APIs, internal systems, and existing banking infrastructure. ChainLink V1.0 was launched on June 27th.

“The ChainLink Network is proud to offer a solution to the pressing connectivity problem between smart contracts and external data by creating a fully decentralized blockchain middleware that serves as a conduit between smart contracts, data feeds, APIs, bank payments and back office systems, while making it accessible to smart contracts that need these resources via our LINK token,” SmartContract.com Founder and CEO Sergey Nazarov said.

The token sale for the Ethereum blockchain-based token LINK will kick off on September 7th and the funds raised will be distributed as follows: 35% will go to the node operators incentives fund to incentivize node operators to provide key data feeds, APIs, and off-chain payments to smart contracts, 35% will be sold in the public token sale, and 30% will go to the company for continued development.

In addition, SmartContract.com announced that three of the industry’s most respected figures, former RSA Chief Scientist Ari Juels, decentralized consensus expert Andrew Miller, and Ethereum Community Manager Hudson Jameson have joined its Board of Advisors:

• Ari Juels was previously the Chief Scientist at RSA and is currently a distinguished professor of Computer Science at Cornell Tech’s Jacobs Institute, as well as a Co-Director of IC3, an initiative of faculty members at Cornell University, Cornell Tech, UC Berkeley, UIUC, and Technion. Juels also produced world-changing contributions to decentralized infrastructure through work such as the Proof of Retrievability paper, which leading decentralized systems like Storj and Filecoin are heavily based on.
• Andrew Miller is a well-known authority on decentralized consensus and the creation of highly secure decentralized systems, which has led him to advise a limited number of top-tier decentralized infrastructure initiatives such as Zcash, Tezos, and the ChainLink Network. In addition, Miller is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the prestigious University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an Associate Director of IC3.
• Hudson Jameson brings extensive experience in blockchain, digital currency, and finance to SmartContract.com’s Board of Advisors. Jameson serves as the Ethereum Community Manager and is a well-known authority on smart contracts and the Ethereum development roadmap.

“SmartContract.com and the entire team building the ChainLink Network are proud to incorporate such intelligent thought leaders into our team. We are confident that Ari, Andrew, and Hudson will prove to be invaluable assets as the ChainLink Network is built into the preferred way to connect smart contracts to critical data, APIs and traditional bank to bank payments,” Nazarov said.

According to the official release, SWIFT, the leading global provider of secure financial messaging services, is working with SmartContract.com to create its own SWIFT Smart Oracle, which will allow smart contracts on various networks to make payments, send governance instructions, and release collateral with more than 11,000 banks. Phase 1 implementation was successfully completed in May and they are now working towards a Phase 2 Implementation.

In addition, SmartContract.com has partnered with IC3 to launch Town Crier, the only method for generating trusted hardware backed (Intel SGX) oracles on production environment.

SmartContract.com has also been selected by Gartner as a 2017 Blockchain Applications Cool Vendor, validating the significant business value that CTOs, CIOs, and Lead Architects have seen in ChainLink’s secure approach to connecting smart contracts with critical external resources.

“SmartContract.com is extremely excited by the immense potential created by these critical partnerships with industry leaders like SWIFT, Gartner, and IC3. This momentum validates that ChainLink is already providing value to industry leaders and solidifies our belief in the ability of the network to securely connect smart contracts to the key off-chain resources they need to become useful for the majority of real world use cases,” Nazarov said.

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