Chainlink x Hedera Governing Council Partnership
Written By: Isaiah Payton
May 27th, 2021
Chainlink may want to change its token name from "LINK" to "Integrate", because the two phrases are becoming synonymous with the amount of partnerships Chainlink is locking in this fiscal year. This post will dive into a key integration with the Hedera Governing Council made earlier this month. According to the official website, the Hedera Governing Council "consists of up to 39 term-limited and highly diversified organizations and enterprises, reflecting up to 11 unique sectors, academia, and non-profits globally. Council members are committed to governing software changes, while bringing stability and continued decentralization to the public network". If you're like anyone else in crypto, when major institutions utter the word "decentralized", it makes your ears perk up. This integration is a signal of major adoption for not only cryptocurrencies, but the decentralized world that is growing as we know it. As you can see in the 2nd graphic from the official website of Hedera, Chainlink is accompanied by some heavy hitters as far as major institutions go and this will most likely not be the last major partnership we see this year. Chainlink joins the ranks of Boeing, Duetsche Telekom, Google, IBM, and LG just to name a few, bringing one of the best components of decentralization and presenting it to some of the largest, leading organizations in the world today; DONs. I say "DONs" instead of "Oracles", because Chainlink is not only bringing the Decentralized Oracle Networks to the table, it is bringing years of reputation, trust, transparency, scaling, and fair governance, finally bridging the gap between the blockchain and the centralized world we have grown accustomed to.
Chainlink's role in this partnership will be to help regulate the distributed governance of the Hedera Network and should be noted is the first Web 3.0 company the Hedera Governing Council has partnered with. Chainlink will assist Hedera in harnessing the trustless, transparent, governance that decentralized apps have to offer. As additional major and centralized institutions are looking to integrate with the blockchain, decentralized oracle solutions are becoming an essential piece to bridging the gap between the legacy systems of today and tomorrow. Chainlink will spearhead the smart contract-related campaign while becoming the gatekeepers of the decentralized space we've grown to love today. Chainlink is already used to secure billions of dollars in assets for applications around the world and it seems only natural that this partnership occurred for the space to grow to its full potential. If you visit the roadmap on the website for Hedera, you will notice that we are currently in Q2 2021 and have 8 more checkpoints for the quarter. The type of updates to come are labeled by "Network", "Ecosystem", and "Demos", which have a brief description of what the checkpoint entails. Phase 2 of Additional Network Automation, State Proofs, and Automated Congestion Pricing are included within Hedera's "Network" updates to come later this quarter. HBAR Wallet Integrations, Digital Asset Platforms Integrations, and Interoperability Integrations are included with the "Ecosystem" updates, and finally the Validator Network Demo and Interoperability Demos are the final update to end the current quarter. We can speculate it is no coincidence that these goals have yet to be checked off the list and how Chainlink fits perfectly in the vision to put a check mark to Hedera's plan for Q2. These are all utilities that Chainlink has established itself within DeFi and the crypto space as a whole. Now its eyes are on the big fish because its network needs to eat to grow. Chainlink's Network with Hedera's network is a match made in crypto-heaven and both sides are excited.
Mance Harmon, CEO and Co-founder of Hedera Hashgraph notes that Chainlink and its DONs' potential on the Hedera network is virtually limitless, which hints at major integrations and innovations to come in the upcoming future. Hedera's use cases includes Payments: for reduced cost and potentially undiscovered revenue, Fraud Mitigation: to reduce costs of fraudulent activity and protection of customers, Data Compliance: to log and publicly verify actions, Tokenized Assets: to be able to manage and swap assets easier than we can today, Identity: to maintain the lifecycle of credentials, and Permissioned Blockchain: to construct a private ledger with public trust. These use cases are familiar territory with Chainlink and is most likely the reason it's the first Web 3.0 pick of Hedera and leads the "Oracle" sector of Crypto. One can only imagine but might not be able to fathom the implications this partnership will have in the upcoming future. One thing is for sure, Chainlink is achieving the once impossible feat of connecting on-chain data with off-chain data to truly connect the world we know today in a decentralized, trustless, and transparent manner.
