Chainlink has launched a serverless self-service platform to help developers connect their decentralized applications (dApps) or smart contracts to any Web 2.0 API, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.
The new platform, Chainlink Functions enables the execution of custom computations on top of Web 2.0 APIs within minutes through its network.
“Our goal is to enable developers to combine the best of web3 smart contracts with the power of Web 2.0 APIs,”
El Moujahid said
Chainlink connects data in the chain to external systems to enable smart contracts to execute transactions based on real inputs and outputs. According to the platform’s website, it has enabled more than $7 trillion worth of transactions since mid-February.
Chainlink Functions hopes to be the bridge between the two parties to create mass adoption.
“Web3 is not going to be a binary thing. I’ve seen this in AI. The path to mass adoption was making it easy to embed AI into your apps. It’s the same with web3. You don’t have to build your entire app on-chain. It’s going to be a spectrum: part smart contract; part Web 2.0 APIs.”
El Moujahid said.
The new platform also supports more widespread programming languages such as JavaScript so that developers unfamiliar with Web3 can get into the field. It will also provide integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, and others.
With Meta for example, web3 developers can connect social media activities and small e-commerce businesses with a smart contract using Chainlink Functions and automatically trigger actions on-chain based on off-chain activities.
The platform’s serverless nature also means developers can stop worrying “about the overhead of managing and securing the infrastructure on which their code will run,”
El Moujahid said.
El Mujahid also shares that the platform is currently in private beta mode on Ethereum and Polygon’s test networks. Additionally, Chainlink plans to expand its functionality to more blockchains, add new integrations and tools, and launch on the main network as soon as possible.
