The Development and Future of the Oracle Machine Track: Finding the Second Rise Curve

The Oracle Machine is a service mechanism in blockchain systems used to bring off-chain data into smart contracts, and it is one of the cornerstones of the blockchain world. From the perspective of first principles, the core competitiveness of Oracle Machine projects is mainly reflected in the following four aspects: comprehensiveness and reliability of data acquisition, exclusive data acquisition and value capture, security and decentralization of the verification mechanism, and transmission efficiency and network robustness.

It is expected that by 2030, the overall market size of the Oracle Machine sector should be between 13.8 billion and 23.1 billion dollars.

Chainlink is the absolute leader in the Oracle Machine track, with rich data sources and extensive project collaborations; Pyth has advantages in transmission speed and the acquisition of financial data; Redstone is currently the only Oracle Machine that offers both Push and Pull pricing methods.

In the future, the Oracle Machine will no longer overly rely on providing pricing services for DeFi projects, and RWA is expected to become a strong second rise curve in the Oracle Machine track.

DePIN, AI, and DeSci businesses have the opportunity to combine with Oracle Machine's data services in the future, becoming a new driving force for Oracle Machine's revenue rise, allowing industry growth from 2 to N.

1. The Development History of Oracle Machine

2014 and earlier: Oracle Machine demand began to emerge.

2015-2016: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed the concept of Oracle Machine, emphasizing its key role in enabling smart contracts to obtain external data. Oraclize launched the first decentralized Oracle Machine service.

2017-2018: The Chainlink project was established, proposing the concept of a decentralized Oracle Machine network (DON), aimed at solving single point of failure issues.

2019-2021: The DeFi Summer arrives, and Oracle Machines become the most essential external data providers in DeFi. Oracle Machine projects outside of Chainlink, such as Band Protocol and Tellor, are launched in succession, revealing the initial competitive landscape.

2022-2023: The DeFi market enters an adjustment period, but the Oracle Machine sector continues to innovate. Cross-chain interoperability and modular blockchains become industry trends, and Oracle Machine services expand to multi-chain and multi-scenario applications.

2024-2025: Oracle Machine services expand from DeFi to areas such as gaming, NFTs, insurance, and more. DePIN applications begin to have more demand for IoT Oracle Machines. AI combined with Oracle Machines explores new scenarios for automated execution of smart contracts.

2. Oracle Machine Track Market Size

By the end of 2024, the total market capitalization of Oracle Machine projects will be $10.55 billion, accounting for 11.8% of the total DeFi market capitalization of $( 126.8 billion $). Compared to early 2021 when the market cap of Oracle Machines once accounted for over 25% of DeFi, this percentage has significantly decreased.

Based on Grand View Research's forecast for the DeFi market, the compound annual growth rate from 2025 to 2030 is approximately 53%, and the market value will reach $231 billion by 2030. This article introduces two hypothetical scenarios: "stable share" and "declining share" to measure the Oracle Machine market space.

• Optimistic scenario: If the Oracle Machine market size can maintain 10% of the DeFi market size, it will reach $23.1 billion by 2030.

• Neutral Situation: If the Oracle Machine market size remains at 6-8% of the DeFi market size, it will reach 13.8-18.4 billion USD by 2030.

3. Major Projects in the Oracle Machine Track

The current landscape of the Oracle Machine industry can be described as a monopoly. In terms of token market capitalization and TVS( total protected value), Chainlink is the absolute leader in this field. As of March 2025, the TVS of the Chainlink project is $31 billion, accounting for 53.3% of the total TVS in the Oracle Machine sector, while the token market capitalization stands at $9.6 billion, representing 76.9% of the total market capitalization in the Oracle Machine sector. Besides Chainlink, projects like Pyth Network, UMA, and API3 have also carved out a niche in the Oracle Machine sector due to their advantages in low latency, verification mechanisms, and data acquisition.

( 3.1 Chainlink

Chainlink is the absolute leader in the Oracle Machine track, established in 2017, and is one of the earliest Oracle Machine projects. Chainlink provides Data Feed ), Automation ###, VRF (, CCIP ), and other services. In 2024, from the perspective of revenue composition, the revenue from Data Feed services accounts for the highest proportion of the project's income, making up 95% of the total income, with DeFi protocols being the main service clients; the revenue share from the other three types of services totals 5%. The revenue share from Automation services and cross-chain services is both 2%, and the revenue from random number generation services accounts for less than 1%.

(# 3.1.1 Chainlink price feed service

The pricing feed is one of the most traditional services of the Oracle Machine. As one of the earliest decentralized Oracle Machine projects, Chainlink's pricing feed service does not directly obtain prices from third-party APIs but instead acquires data through data nodes. Taking the real-time price of ETH/USDT from a lending platform as an example, a user's on-chain transaction request will trigger a smart contract, which will call Chainlink's Oracle Machine service to obtain the latest price data. Chainlink's Oracle Machine does not obtain information directly from a single data source but gathers data from multiple quality data aggregators through several independent nodes. The nodes locally aggregate and clean this data before submitting it on-chain.

Subsequently, Chainlink's aggregation contract will filter and perform a weighted average on the data reported by all nodes, resulting in a final on-chain price for smart contract calls. In this process, the Oracle Machine nodes are composed of independent operators such as LinkPool, ChainLayer, Mycelium, and others. After the platform uses this price data, it will pay the Chainlink network with $LINK tokens as service fees through smart contracts.

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)# 3.1.2 Chainlink Automation

Automation( automation) is another important revenue-generating business of the Chainlink project. In 2021, Chainlink launched the Keeper trading automation service. Keeper is an External Owned Account### EOA(, which can trigger smart contracts to execute based on predefined conditions with certain economic incentives. Keepers will use off-chain computation to execute the same smart contract functions as on-chain. Once the function returns true, Keepers will initiate an on-chain transaction to call the on-chain smart contract function. In practical applications, Keepers can be used to automatically execute operations triggered by specific events, such as minting NFTs, rebalancing liquidity provision, yield aggregation, and loan repayment, etc. Keeper is also the most important product of the Chainlink project during the Automation 1.0 era.

In 2024, Chainlink launched Automation 2.0. Automation 2.0 introduces cryptographic consensus in decentralized off-chain computation, shifting the costly computation verification from the blockchain network to the off-chain network. Developers can improve the runtime of their dApps, reduce costs, and simplify the user experience. The savings on gas fees and the enhancement of computing performance will encourage more developers to choose Chainlink's Automation 2.0 solution.

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(# 3.1.3 Chainlink Cross-Chain Protocol

In 2021, Chainlink released the cross-chain interoperability protocol )CCIP(, a new open-source standard for cross-chain protocols. This protocol provides smart contract developers with a general infrastructure with computational capabilities, enabling the transmission of data and smart contract instructions across various blockchain networks. CCIP will become the underlying protocol for various cross-chain services, including Chainlink's programmable token bridge, allowing users to securely and efficiently transfer tokens to any blockchain network, with scalability.

For example, if a user expects to transfer 1,000 USDT assets from Sui to Solana, the key point is that the cross-chain bridge can verify that the user actually has 1,000 USDT on the Sui chain. The Chainlink network, with its large and decentralized node network, has strong advantages in cross-chain verification and data relaying, making it very suitable for cross-chain scenarios that require high security.

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)# 3.1.4 Chainlink Verifiable Random Function

Verifiable Random Function is a cryptographic function that generates pseudo-random numbers based on data input and attaches a proof that anyone can verify. Chainlink VRF uses Goldberg's verifiable random function ###VRF(. Chainlink VRF generates one or more random numbers for each random number request and attaches a cryptographic proof of the random number. This proof is published on-chain and verified on-chain, and the random number will only be used after verification is successful. Chainlink VRF has covered multiple blockchain networks including Ethereum, Polygon, and BSC. In February 2022, VRF V2 was officially launched, which is a brand new upgraded version of VRF, featuring more powerful performance and higher security.

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)# 3.1.5 Chainlink Enterprise Privacy Data Service

Chainlink, as one of the earliest Oracle Machine projects, has formed a relatively strong moat in the price feeding business, while the expansion into other businesses has not stagnated. There has been a noticeable rise in areas such as automation, cross-chain protocols, and verifiable random numbers. Moreover, there are a large number of entities that require point-to-point transmission of private data. To meet this demand, many startups specialize in private data, employing methods including Multi-Party Computation ###MPC(, Zero Knowledge Proof )Zero Knowledge Proof(, Homomorphic Encryption )HE###, Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), and Federated Learning. Chainlink's powerful verification network can ensure the security and timeliness of private data transmission.

Chainlink provides opportunities for enterprises to sell data and API services in a blockchain environment, enabling various functions such as on-chain privacy data, off-chain contract logic computation, and on-chain trading of privacy data. In November 2024, Chainlink announced the completion of a pilot program with the global banking financial telecommunications association (SWIFT) and Swiss banking giant UBS Group (UBS). This pilot project tested tokenized fund settlements between parties, including options for traditional financial systems to interact with the digital economy without using cryptocurrencies.

( 3.2 Pyth Network

Compared to predecessors in the Oracle Machine space like Chronicle, Chainlink, and WINkLink, Pyth Network only launched its project in 2021. The Oracle Machine is a key component in the grand narrative of Solana's high-performance public chain, supporting not only on-chain transactions but also narratives like DePIN, AI, and low-latency payments. Pyth Network is also a project heavily supported by a certain foundation. The fast price update frequency is one of Pyth's important tags.

Pyth Network supports a total of 65 public chains, second only to Redstone, making it one of the Oracle Machines that supports the most public chains. However, its main price feed services still take place on the Solana chain. According to