Umbrella network decentralises in bid for community ownership

Umbrella – a touted Chainlink killer – has launched a massive community validator program aimed at decentralising the layer-2 oracle network into community ownership.

The move comes as Umbrella, which acts as an information bridge between smart contracts and off-chain data feeds, pushes network growth.

The expansion aims to boost the network’s data power, this will allow the development of a new crop of more advanced DeFi applications and financial instruments for use with the oracle.

Umbrella already boasts an impressive 1,200 price feeds available for dApps as it jostles to lead the pack in the ongoing race for oracle-supremacy (alongside Chainlink, BAND protocol, and Pyth).

The layer-2 network has the public goal of 10,000 price feeds by the end of 2021 – a figure which would dwarf Chainlink’s 194 price feeds.

Data belongs in the hands of the people

Sam Kim, a Partner at the Umbrella Network, appeared philosophical in his desire to drive forward decentralisation of the network – arguing that data and power belong in the hands of the people as the DeFi space grows.

“Centralised oracles compromise the integrity of DeFi’s decentralised network,” he said.

“They can influence data accuracy and are vulnerable to attacks and technological failure. Using centralised oracles, DeFi apps will never be able to achieve the scale to support a new financial system.

“We believe that power should reside in the hands of the people, and that data, which is a vital component of the ecosystem, should not be controlled by the few.”

With the community validator program now onboarding members, oracle data will become increasingly democratised on the platform – with members of the network benefiting from the right to vote on the validators representing them.

Creating a fair and decentralised process to generate consensus is the idea at the heart of this launch.

Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanisms will be used for the validation of incoming data. This will involve a majority approval vote of the data by the validators in every consensus round.

Full DPoS consensus will allow the community to vote and choose validators, minimising potential for bias.

Votes will also be held on the introduction of new data feeds to increase the flow and availability of accurate on-chain data.

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