Source. Crypto info.com
What is Chainlink?
Chainlink is a cryptocurrency project which aims to provide Smart Contracts with secure information.
What is a smart contract? It is a computer protocol intended to facilitate, verify or digitally apply a contract. Smart contracts streamline contract creation by eliminating people like lawyers and accountants.
To work, smart contracts must be able to access secure real-world information. Chainlink solves this problem by gathering information from a decentralized network of 'Oracles' (information providers) and aggregating it. Outliers are rejected and consensus is passed to the smart contract. Each oracle stakes collateral (money) and if it provides false information, as well as being rejected by the network, it will lose that collateral.
The Chainlink token is the backbone of the project. Smart contracts will pay for the secure information they need by spending Chainlink tokens, and oracles can use Chainlink tokens as their collateral.