If we take a look at the entire blockchain industry, it is striking that smart contracts play a particularly important role in the use of blockchains. Blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, Tezos, or EOS in particular enable the development and execution of intelligent contracts. These programmable contracts allow fraud-proof contracts to be concluded. However, the required data must also be imported securely onto the corresponding blockchain and exported after the smart contract has been executed - this is where LINK is used.
Despite this unique business model, however, it can be seen that Chainlink also addresses a competitive market. Nevertheless, Chainlink is doing well and continues to push its own Oracle business. In contrast to the competition, Chainlink does not need any sidechains to transfer the required data to the target blockchain. Rather, the oracles represent a type of agent that is used to check and aggregate the data. With the help of smart contracts, the data is then transferred to the blockchain.
Especially the DeFi sector, i.e. decentralized finance, uses the Chainlink infrastructure to a rapidly increasing extent. Numerous DeFi Apps (DApps) use, for example, Chainlink's decentralized prices as a basis for building financial applications. Since DeFi is considered one of the hottest topics in the industry, Chainlink will inevitably follow the success of the DeFi sector. Here we see the greatest potential for long-term growth and a real benefit of the coin for Chainlink.
In the meantime, other major stock exchanges have also followed and have also listed LINK as a trading couple. Binance, for example, is one of the largest crypto exchanges. Only recently, the Gemini LINK exchange, licensed in the United States, also started trading, a milestone for recognition in the crypto world.
The strong presence in the DeFi sector, as the basis for decentralized applications (DApps), is a key growth driver for Chainlink. Almost every DApp uses the decentralized price feeds from LINK.
In the future, even more, important collaborations could follow, which should then spur the course even further. However, the cooperations not only have a short-term impact, but they also contribute to further growth in the long term.
Many experts also value Chainlink's flexibility. For example, LINK is considered the proprietary token, but the protocol is developed in such a way that other data can be seamlessly integrated without any problems. Experts also call this blockchain-agnostic. However, the LINK token is very functional and enables the payment of node operators, the execution of calculations, or the formatting of data.
In particular, analysts expect prices to rise so that the previous high could also be overcome in the future. The integration into almost every DApp worldwide represents a strong growth case.
References:
https://chain.link/features/
https://blockonomi.com/chainlink-guide/
https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-chainlink