An Overview of Oracle Providers in DeFi

Oracles are critical components of nearly all DeFi protocols in use today, most commonly as reporters of token prices. At the basic level, oracles are bridges between on-chain and off-chain data, allowing smart contracts to act upon data from the world outside of the blockchain. 

Smart contracts are designed to execute transactions based on certain triggers, but often the data required for these triggers are only available off-chain. Even data points as seemingly simple as token prices can only be determined through a sample of feeds representative of the entire market, including both centralized and decentralized exchanges and professional data providers.