What is Tellor: Tellor is a decentralized oracle network based on Ethereum designed to provide off-chain data for smart contracts on the blockchain. Simply put, Tellor connects blockchain applications to the outside world, allowing developers to access real-time data such as prices, weather information, and more. Its core goal is to ensure data accuracy and security through a decentralized approach, thereby providing reliable data support for applications such as DeFi protocols.
Tellor’s network is maintained by a decentralized group of reporters who compete to provide accurate and timely data in order to earn Tellor’s native token, TRB. This mechanism ensures data reliability and integrity, making Tellor an important tool for a variety of industries and applications.
Tellor (TRB) History
Tellor was founded in 2018 by two developers, Brenda Loya and Nick Fett, to solve the problems facing decentralized oracle solutions. Oracle solutions at the time were often centralized and unreliable, which posed significant risks to the security and reliability of smart contracts on the blockchain.
In this case, Brenda and Nick set out to create a decentralized oracle network to provide smart contracts with accurate and reliable off-chain data. In 2019, Tellor was launched to meet the growing demand for reliable and secure data sources, enhance the functionality of decentralized applications (dApps), and enable these dApps to interact with real-world information.
As development progressed, Tellor launched its mainnet in December 2019, allowing users to access and use its decentralized oracle service. This momentous event marks a critical development for the project as it becomes one of the pioneering oracle protocols on the Ethereum network.
Since its launch, Tellor has become a favorite among developers and blockchain enthusiasts. The network has been integrated into a variety of applications and use cases, including DeFi platforms, prediction markets, and more. In addition, Tellor has formed partnerships with other blockchain projects such as Chainlink to provide more powerful oracle solutions.
How Tellor works
Tellor uses a decentralized network of miners to provide off-chain data to smart contracts on the blockchain, which is how it works.
When a smart contract requires external data, it makes a request to the Tellor oracle network. Miners then compete to provide the requested data, and the first one to submit the correct data point will be the winner. This data is then verified by the network and stored on-chain in a secure and immutable way.
To incentivize miners to provide accurate and timely data, Tellor uses a reward system. Reporters need to stake a certain amount of TRB tokens to initiate reporting data requests, and will be rewarded with more TRB tokens after providing accurate data. Additionally, reporters can be penalized for providing inaccurate data or missing deadlines. This ensures that the data provided to the smart contract is reliable and trustworthy.
Tellor also uses a unique hash function called "Tributes." Tributes include the block hash, reporter address, and request ID, which creates a unique identifier for each data request. This helps prevent collusion among miners and ensures every data request is processed fairly.
Decentralized Oracle Network
Tellor’s decentralized oracle network is one of its core features, enabling secure and reliable access to smart contracts’ off-chain data. The network consists of decentralized miners who compete to provide the most accurate data to the network. This decentralized approach helps prevent any single points of failure or potential data manipulation, ensuring that the data provided to smart contracts is reliable and trustworthy.
The network allows smart contracts to request data from specific data sources. Reporters then compete to provide that data, and the first miner to provide the correct data is rewarded with TRB tokens. This will incentivize miners to provide accurate and timely data and help ensure that the data provided is accurate and secure. Overall, Tellor’s decentralized oracle network is a powerful tool that enables access to off-chain data in a decentralized and secure manner.
Tellor’s main features
Reliable data transmission: Tellor's reliable data transmission is its core function. This mechanism ensures that the data provided to smart contracts is accurate and reliable by providing incentives for miners to provide accurate data and penalizing miners for providing incorrect or delayed data. This helps prevent potential data manipulation or malicious behavior on the network, ensuring that the data provided is trustworthy and accurate.
In addition to its consensus mechanism, Tellor uses unique hash functions called “Tributes” to facilitate reliable data transfer. This feature prevents collusion among miners and ensures that every data request is processed fairly. With these technologies, Tellor is able to provide a reliable and secure way to access smart contracts’ off-chain data, making it an important tool for a wide range of use cases and industries.
Data security
Tellor takes data security very seriously and has implemented a variety of techniques to ensure that the data provided to smart contracts is secure and immutable. The use of on-chain storage is a key element of network data security. This ensures that data cannot be changed or deleted once submitted, helping to prevent the possibility of data tampering and ensuring that data remains safe and secure.
Another important aspect of Tellor’s data security is that it uses Tributes – a unique hash function that helps prevent miners from colluding and ensures that every data request is processed fairly. This prevents any single miner or group of miners from manipulating the data provided to the network, further enhancing the security and reliability of the data.
Multiple data sources
Tellor’s multi-data source capabilities enable a flexible and adaptable approach to accessing smart contracts’ off-chain data. The network plans to integrate a range of data sources, from APIs to IoT devices and more. As a result, a wide variety of use cases and industries turn to the web to access the data they need. The multi-data source capability also allows for redundancy in the data being provided, ensuring that even if one data source fails or provides erroneous data, the network can still access accurate data from other sources.
In addition to flexibility, Tellor's multi-data source capabilities provide transparency and accessibility. The network provides a clear and open fee structure for accessing data, and developers can easily integrate the network into their existing smart contract code. Businesses and developers of all sizes can easily access the data they need in a safe and secure manner while minimizing access friction or barriers to entering the network.
Partnerships and integrations
Tellor has a growing number of partnerships and integrations with several industry-leading projects and platforms. With these partnerships, Tellor’s oracle services integrate seamlessly into existing smart contract code and enable access to a variety of off-chain data sources.
Some notable partners are DeFi platforms such as Aave, Curve Finance, and Balancer, and blockchain projects such as Chainlink and Polkadot. These partnerships highlight Tellor’s ability to become an important part of the growing DeFi ecosystem and beyond.
In addition to these partnerships, Tellor offers a variety of developer resources and tools that allow enterprises and developers to easily integrate the network into their existing infrastructure. Integrated content includes detailed documentation, developer tutorials and code samples, and a growing community of developers and supporters. By building a strong partner network and providing strong developer resources.
TRB token
TRB (Tellor Tributes) is the native token of the Tellor network and plays an important role in helping provide off-chain data to smart contracts.
TRB Token Economy: In the Tellor system, 50% of TRB tokens are used to reward miners for providing accurate data, and the remaining 50% is used for staking and other incentive mechanisms. This economic model ensures network stability and data reliability.
TRB tokens are used not only to reward miners, but also for staking and governance. Miners need to stake a certain amount of TRB tokens to initiate a data request, which ensures the sincerity of the miner and reduces the possibility of malicious behavior. In addition, TRB token holders can also participate in network governance and vote to determine the future development direction of the network.
In the ever-evolving world of blockchain technology, Tellor’s decentralized oracle solution and the unique mechanics of the TRB token have proven their importance in providing reliable and secure off-chain data. Through continuous innovation and strong partnerships, Tellor is becoming an integral part of the blockchain ecosystem.