Ecosystem Proposal: API3 DAO

CVP Proposal Ecosystem Proposal: API3 DAO

Introduction

The goal of API3 is to provide developers with an easy way to access off-chain resources from within their smart contracts, without having to worry about security and trust implications. We believe DeFi and Web3 can change the financial landscape with the right infrastructure and access to meaningful real-world data.

Value Proposition

API3 pioneered first-party oracles operated by data providers, removing the middleman and serving data directly to the chain. In price feeds, this means a collection of well-known data providers verifiably serves individual price updates to Metis, before being aggregated on-chain. In a first-party architecture, every data source can be verified, optimizing for transparency and increasing the security of a Price Oracle.

Beyond providing next-generation Oracle technology, we focus on delivering a delightful developer experience, realized with the API3 Market. In the Market UI, price feeds can be activated and read in a permissionless fashion, with dAPIs being simple for developers to integrate.

Alongside our price feeds, API3 also operates a public good Quantum RNG that provides ‘true’ entropy generated by quantum mechanics. API3 QRNG has dozens of NFT, gaming, lottery, and other types of dApps utilizing the oracle to deliver truly random outcomes.

Moreover, API3 launched our decentralized price feeds in September 2023, and since then, we have grown our TVS to over $1 billion, with 25+ DeFi protocols integrated.

Uniqueness Factor

API3’s OEV recapture solution, the OEV Network, will enable these protocols to recapture significant value by redirecting MEV currently leaked back to the protocol.

Expanding on the above, Oracle Extractable Value (OEV) is a subset of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) that occurs within on-chain liquidations. Currently, liquidations in lending markets are very inefficient, with significant amounts of collateral being passed to block producers (validators). The OEV Network is a solution that makes liquidations more efficient by using a dAPI price feed.

This means that, for the first time, protocols can generate value through their oracle. For larger lending markets, we estimate this equates to millions of dollars in value recapture per year, bringing significant benefits to this vertical within DeFi.

Benefits for Users (Developers)

  • Transparent first-party price feeds provide improvements to transparency and security of an oracle
  • Permissionless access to price oracles through market.api3.org
  • Recapture OEV with zero further technical implementation to generate a new source of value accrual
  • Provision of builder tooling to utilize a REST API as an oracle for niche data feed requirements

Benefits for Metis Ecosystem

  • Additional of high quality infra to support the defi vertical
  • Developer engagement and support via API3 developer relations function to help builders execute
  • Support for price assets required in Metis enabling an ambitious defi strategy

Security/Audits

As an oracle we have undertaken many audits. You can see these in the API3 Github: contracts/audit-reports at main · api3dao/contracts · GitHub

Roadmap

API3 has been building since late 2020. The majority of our whitepaper has been delivered, specifically our oracle node (Airnode), dAPI price feeds, and marketplace, all of which have been in production for several months. In the last six months, we optimized the data feed service and market experience for speed and scalability.

Since late 2022, API3 has been working on our OEV recapture solution, known as the OEV Network. This is expected to go live in the near future.

After this launch, API3 will be looking at enhancements to our data feeds, but this is still to be defined.

Summary

API3 brings an enhanced oracle system to the Metis ecosystem, which, alongside serving price feeds, will allow DeFi protocols to recapture the thousands of dollars currently leaked to block builders through liquidation processes. This represents a new source of value accrual for DeFi builders in general, but specifically for lending and money markets.

Official Links: Website, Docs, etc.

Hey there, great proposal! I have two quick questions for you.

The oracle space is quite competitive, with the likes of Chainlink and Band Protocol making waves, what steps will API3 take to stay ahead of its competitors and keep innovating in the oracle space?

Also, how does API3 intend to manage high demand and ensure its oracle services scale effectively within the Metis ecosystem?

Thank you.

Love your proposal! One quick question though:

The proposal mentions multiple audits. Can you share some key findings from these audits and any improvements made as a result?