Recently, WeBank has cooperated with BSN to integrate the Truora consortium chain oracle solution in the BSN test network service, providing technical support for trusted information interaction between on-chain and off-chain blockchain applications.

Interview guests:

Zhou Lu: Senior Blockchain Architect of WeBank

Ma Xiaojun: CTO of Beijing Jujube Technology

When it comes to oracle machines, everyone knows that the function of oracle machines is to write external information into the blockchain to complete the data exchange between the blockchain and the real world. To put it simply, an oracle is a middleman who can provide various data to blockchain companies or Internet companies. These data can come from the Internet or the real world, and various mechanisms are used to ensure data security. Oracles can help on-chain smart contracts connect to data outside the blockchain network.

Recently, WeBank has cooperated with BSN to integrate the Truora consortium chain oracle solution in the BSN test network service, providing technical support for trusted information interaction between on-chain and off-chain blockchain applications.

Today we are honored to invite Zhou Lu, senior blockchain architect of WeBank, and Ma Xiaojun, CTO of Beijing Jujube Technology, to share with you the characteristics of Truora, as well as the application scenarios, problems that can be solved, and development directions of the oracle machine after the cooperation between the two parties.

The following is the content of the interview, enjoy~

Question 1: As blockchain technology is more integrated into information applications, technical concepts such as oracles, IPFS, and cross-chain are very popular. As a credible technical means for data interaction between on-chain and off-chain, the oracle machine will empower the application of blockchain technology in more scenarios. Please talk about what role the oracle plays in the blockchain?

Zhou Lu: In blockchain applications, people often hope that business logic can be automatically executed on smart contracts as much as possible to reduce trust costs and realize intelligent and automated business processes. Therefore, smart contracts need to easily obtain off-chain data to meet complex and changeable application scenarios. Due to the blockchain consensus mechanism and the inherent characteristics of virtual machines, smart contracts cannot access off-chain data, which greatly limits the scope of application of smart contracts.

To fully connect the blockchain with the real world, it is necessary to introduce an oracle machine to input real-world data into the blockchain through the oracle machine to provide smart contracts with connections to the outside world, such as: real-time exchange rates, random numbers etc., can be obtained by linking external data sources through oracles and participating in the execution of smart contracts.

Ma Xiaojun: Our understanding is exactly the same. We know that blockchain is a mechanism for storing data in shared ledgers, which is non-tamperable, secure and transparent, but because of this, it is relatively closed, and smart contracts cannot directly obtain data outside the chain. In practical applications of blockchain technology, data outside the chain is often required to support business scenarios. Therefore, for the blockchain, the function of the oracle machine is to provide a mechanism for safe and reliable off-chain data to the contract on the chain. It is a bridge between the blockchain and the real world. By inputting real-world data into the block On the chain, connect the blockchain and the real world, and provide connectivity to the outside world for smart contracts.

Question 2: For what considerations did WeBank develop the domestic oracle project Truora? What does the name mean? Compared with the mainstream oracle solutions currently on the market, what are the main features of Truora?

Zhou Lu: The oracle machine is an indispensable off-chain infrastructure in the blockchain field. In order to enable smart contracts to easily access off-chain data, WeBank has actively analyzed and summarized industry needs based on years of technical research and application practice, and has developed a set of trusted oracle solution Truora for the alliance chain. The application scenarios where the logic depends on the trusted data under the chain can be realized, which enriches the application scenarios of the blockchain.

Truora is the abbreviation of Trust Oracle, and Truora can be called a trusted oracle in Chinese. Truora has the following features:

1. Based on the alliance chain design, it is legal and compliant, and completely open source;

2. Visual interface, easy to use. It supports one-click deployment and has a simple UI interface, which is more convenient for users to understand;

3. Support national secret features and provide developers with more secure and controllable oracle solutions.

Question 3: What new capabilities will be injected into the BSN technology ecology when BSN integrates Truora oracle service? What can developers implement in BSN based on Truora?

Ma Xiaojun: BSN is a global one-stop blockchain infrastructure network independently developed by my country. The two core purposes of building BSN are to reduce the cost of blockchain development and deployment to infinitely close to zero, and to achieve isomorphism and heterogeneity. , Comprehensive data interoperability between off-chain systems. Therefore, BSN continues to integrate and adapt almost all mainstream blockchain underlying framework technologies in the world for developers to use. At the same time, it provides technical services such as oracle machines and cross-chains to improve data interoperability. This is why we integrated it in BSN this time. The Truora oracle solution of the WeBank blockchain.

The main functions of BSN's oracle machine service include: oracle machine management contract management mechanism, oracle machine application contract function, and oracle machine off-chain services. At present, the BSN oracle machine has been launched on the test network. It integrates WeZong's Truora solution based on the alliance chain, and supports APIs for obtaining random numbers and exchange rate data. Users can also develop off-chain APIs as data sources. Everyone is welcome to try out the testnet and give feedback on problems and development suggestions. We will continue to improve functions and integrate more oracle solutions.

Question 4: We know that FISCO BCOS, developed and open-sourced by WeBank, is the first domestic alliance chain underlying framework adapted to BSN. What are the considerations for WeBank to integrate Truora into BSN this time? Will the introduction of oracles bring more surprises to FISCO BCOS?

Zhou Lu: The oracle machine is essentially a public infrastructure. Running Truora on the BSN, combined with the BSN operation can bring greater use value to developers.

The introduction of the oracle will enrich the application scenarios of FISCO BCOS. Smart contracts based on FISCO BCOS can easily link any data in the external world to achieve more functions to facilitate blockchain applications.

Question 5: Please talk about which scenarios the oracle machine is currently mainly used in? What specific business problems are solved? The future direction of development?

Ma Xiaojun: Because of the characteristics of the blockchain, data outside the chain cannot be obtained within the chain, and many businesses need to interact with the outside world, such as: financial derivatives trading platforms, lending platforms, IoT, lottery tickets, insurance, prediction markets, etc., for To solve such problems, an oracle machine is introduced to support the realization of the business. At present, the most important scenario is DeFi. DeFi needs to obtain real-time currency prices in the outside world through external services. Everyone’s approach is to use oracle machines to feed prices; some industry application scenarios need to use unpredictable and verifiable on-chain random number. This requirement cannot be met in the blockchain environment, and obtaining VRF verifiable random numbers through the oracle machine can solve this problem. Although DeFi is the most widely used oracle at present, DeFi is definitely not all about oracles. Whether it is an alliance chain or a public chain application, if its smart contract needs to reference or rely on business data from external systems (such as: legal currency exchange rate, insurance Public data such as underwriting, notarization review, government affairs and people's livelihood) may use oracle machine services for business logic processing. When the blockchain penetrates into other industries, the oracle service will gradually be widely used by everyone, and this requires the oracle to meet the performance of various DApps, realize the acquisition of various data, and guarantee The safety and reliability of data will be a challenge for oracle machines.

Zhou Lu: Truora is a bridge between the blockchain and the outside world. Its usage scenarios are mainly when the logic execution of smart contracts on the chain requires the participation of external data, such as obtaining public data such as real-time exchange rates through oracle machines, and obtaining safe and credible random data. Use smart contracts to achieve fairer lottery, lottery and other scenarios.

Take the number lottery scene as an example. In the process of buying houses in some cities, lottery methods are adopted to ensure fairness. Its openness, transparency and fairness have become the focus of many people's attention. However, home buyers know little about the lottery process and can only silently wait for the lottery result.

Secure random numbers cannot be generated on a closed chain, how to generate secure random numbers on the chain to achieve lottery fairness?

The real estate company can deploy a lottery smart contract. After verifying the customer's purchase qualifications off-chain, the real estate company can upload the identity of the qualified customer to the chain, and obtain random numbers from the notary office website or random number website through Truora, or use Truora's VRF (Verifiable random number) function to generate a random number. After the random number is generated, the smart contract determines the lottery winner according to the pre-programmed lottery logic, and the home buyer can view the lottery information in the whole process on the chain.

The core problem Truora solves is whether the smart contract needs external data to participate in the execution. It can realize the interaction between the smart contract and the external data, while ensuring the security and credibility of the data.

The future development direction of Truora will focus on how to link more data sources and use a multi-centered approach to make data sources more credible. Adhering to open source and openness, Truora will provide standards and access to more blockchain manufacturers.

Question 6: We have seen that in this quarterly version iteration of BSN, it is mentioned that BSN has provided open alliance chain services based on FISCO BCOS. Can you briefly introduce it?

Ma Xiaojun: "Taian Chain" is jointly released by BSN Development Alliance and Tai'an Industry and Information Technology Bureau. It is based on the underlying blockchain framework FISCO BCOS. Tai'an is a prefecture-level city in Shandong Province. The reason why it is named "Tai'an Chain" means "the country is peaceful and the people are safe." The BSN open consortium chain is based on BSN's domestic public city nodes. Through compliance and technical transformation of the public chain or consortium chain technology, it becomes an "open consortium chain" that is deployed in the BSN ecosystem and can be supervised. All open The alliance chain is named by the corresponding Chinese city name selected by the operator. The first batch of Tai'an Chain and Wenchang Chain have been launched on the BSN Open Consortium Chain Portal (opb.bsnbase.com). Wenchang Chain was created by the Boundary Intelligence Team based on its consortium chain product IRITA, which transformed the underlying public chain at the forefront of IRIS Hub and Cosmos Hub technology to support China's national secrets. Subsequent BSN will launch an open consortium chain based on more underlying frameworks. The open consortium chain that will be launched throughout 2021 will be provided to developers for free. Everyone is welcome to experience and provide valuable opinions. BSN will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of all open alliance chains, and gradually complete the interconnection between each open alliance chain and the common alliance chain framework that BSN has adapted.

Question 7: In what areas will WeBank and BSN cooperate in the future?

Zhou Lu: After BSN was adapted to FISCO BCOS, we saw that many developers of FISCO BCOS use BSN. Among the officially designated applications of BSN, many enterprises and individual developers are developing and deploying application projects based on FISCO BCOS on BSN. In the future, we will continue to iterate the experience of FISCO BCOS on BSN, improve the functions of Truora, and jointly help the development of the blockchain industry.

Question 8: BSN has been committed to the integration and standardization of blockchain technology. As the most widely distributed blockchain infrastructure network in the world, please briefly introduce the current construction of BSN technology ecology? Which oracle vendors have you cooperated with?

Ma Xiaojun: We have been continuously building the BSN technology ecosystem. The underlying architecture services currently provided include consortium chain services, public chain services and cross-chain services, among which consortium chain services are further divided into standard consortium chains and open consortium chains. At the same time, BSN also provides rich technology development services such as oracle machines, IPFS private networks, and proprietary nodes. While providing diversified technical support, it continuously reduces the technical threshold and development costs of development.

In addition, in addition to the Truora oracle service provided on the test network. We have also connected to the ChainLink oracle service through the IRITA cross-chain mechanism. Currently, we provide exchange rate query services on the test network, and more services will be provided in the future.