Explore → dAPIsWhat are dAPIs?
dAPIs are on-chain data feeds sourced from off-chain first-party oracles owned and operated by API providers themselves. Data feeds are continuously updated by first-party oracles using signed data. dApp owners can read the on-chain value of any dAPI in realtime.
Thanks to first-party oracles source transparency is realized, enabling the independent verification of whether an oracle uses multiple data sources and is thus decentralized. By removing the third-party node layer that other oracle solutions rely on, dAPIs provide a solution with improved transparency, scalability and security.
dAPI composition
At the core, a dAPI is a mapping that points towards a beacon or a beacon set.
dAPIs are directly powered and maintained on-chain by multiple off-chain oracle nodes operated by the owner of data (API Provider) served directly to a network. API3 refers to these as a beacon. Each of these off-chain sources serve cryptographically signed data by a data provider before being aggregated on-chain, API3 refers to as a beacon set.
The aggregated value is read through a proxy address as part of the dAPI requester. If the dAPI is active the proxy address will be displayed on the UI of the API3 Market.
It is simple for developers to integrate a dAPI request into their contracts and once imported a dAPI can be re-directed to read any price feed without any further technical implementation. For a further technical understanding of dAPIs head to the developer reference section.
Read more
Dive into the design decisions about dAPIs by reading dAPIs: APIs for dApps.
A simple way to access next-generation push oracles
dAPIs operate in a familiar push-model, meaning price is updated on-chain according to pre-determined oracle specifications. These are 0.25%, 0.5%, 1% and 5% update thresholds that can be selected through the API3 Market. All oracles have a 24hr heartbeat.
dAPIs are simple and permissionless to access. Through the use of the proxy contract function read() you can do this in minutes with little changes to the code.
API3 Market
The API3 Market provides tooling for dApp owners to access decentralized price feeds, known as dAPIs. Use the API3 Market to search for dAPIs, activate feeds, obtain dAPI proxy contract addresses, and monitor dAPIs.
From the API3 Market developers will manage all data feed subscriptions. Once the dAPI interface has been imported to a dApps contract, upgrading a data feed happens through the API3 Market.
Get started
Refer to these guides and learn how to subscribe, activate and read the dAPI using a proxy contract:
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