Created in late 2020, API3 serves as a crossroad between traditional API’s and blockchain-based decentralized applications (dApps). But to start, what is an API?
API’s
API = Application Programming Interface, which is a set of definitions and protocols for building and integrating application software. API’s are vital in all business industries. Essentially, an API’s core function is to allow two applications to communicate. They serve as a necessary tool for developers such as making complex processes easily repeatable with minimal coding. Access to real-time data via plug-and-play interfaces is also provided by APIs. Each time you check the weather, send a DM, almost any basic connectivity, you’re using an API. Nowadays, they’re viewed more as a product than a code by most developers.
THE PROBLEM
Traditional API’s have had a great deal of trouble integrating with blockchain based dApps. Traditional API’s that run from cloud-computing networks or data centers are no longer sufficient or reliable enough to handle dApps and emerging blockchain technologies.
Errors such as validating data or accurate supply calculations are among some of the issues that have occurred. “In financial services such as lending or trading, these corrupted data imports could raise a significant threat to user’s assets,” wrote coin98insights.com on the situation.
API3
The team behind API3 has created a crossroad for real-world data to easily and precisely be transferred onto the blockchain, and vice versa. “It’s a first-party oracle network that securely brings off-chain data onto the blockchain.” – Saša Milić (team developer and co-author of the API3 whitepaper.) Instead of acting as a third-party network like other oracles, API3’s direct relationship orientation allows for a far more secure ecosystem, accurate data sources, and self-governance. This also creates a cost-efficient system and protects API providers, while also sustaining direct and reliable connectivity. In short, API3 will allow for blockchain designed dApps to be used and interconnected with external API’s without any fundamental problems. It opens up a highway of possibilities by connecting the real world to vast opportunities in the blockchain and crypto space that before were not possible.
