Silent Data [Oracle] vs Chainlink (Part 1 of 2)
Understand the difference between Silent Data [Oracle] and Chainlink, and discover the blockchain oracle best suited for your needs
Key Takeaways
- Chainlink Functions and Silent Data [Oracle] are both third party blockchain oracles
- Chainlink’s decentralised oracle network primarily handles publicly available data
- Silent Data [Oracle] leverages hardware enclaves to act on private data
- Decentralised oracle networks require users to share private API keys with multiple node operators
- Silent Data [Oracle] cannot read or access user secrets which are used as variables inside hardware enclaves
What is a blockchain oracle?
A blockchain oracle acts as a data gateway between Web2 resources and smart contracts. This allows users to pull data on-chain that was previously unavailable to the blockchain.
Both Chainlink Functions and Silent Data [Oracle] are examples of 3rd party blockchain oracles, i.e. oracles that do not own the data they handle when carrying out users’ requests.
See What is a Blockchain Oracle? for greater detail.
Data handled: Chainlink Functions vs Silent Data [Oracle]
Chainlink functions and Silent Data [Oracle] are differentiated by the type of data they specialise in handling.
Chainlink Functions
Chainlink primarily connects web3 dApps to public data e.g. to cryptocurrency price feeds. Users may also connect to password-protected data sources, but must hand over their API credentials to Chainlink’s oracle network in order to do so (more on this below).
Silent Data [Oracle]
Silent Data [Oracle] is used to call APIs that have some kind of authorization layer. One such use case is using the stripe API to accept card payments for on-chain assets.
Intel SGX technology is leveraged to preserve user’s privacy, namely their private API keys.
Overview: Chainlink Functions vs Silent Data [Oracle]
