Fantom collaborates with Chainlink to natively integrate Chainlink VRF providing developers with on-chain randomness

We’re excited to announce that Fantom and Chainlink are actively working to natively integrate Chainlink Verifiable Random Function (VRF)—a secure and verifiable on-chain randomness solution purpose-built for smart contracts. Designed according to leading academic research, along with multiple security audits and time-tested usage in production, we are integrating Chainlink VRF as the recommended random number generator (RNG) solution for all Fantom developers needing it within their decentralized applications.

Fantom developers will be able to leverage Chainlink VRF to create high-throughput and low-cost gaming, NFT, and DeFi products that are augmented by randomness, such as unpredictable in-game scenarios, fair distribution of limited-edition financial assets, or random assignment of rare NFTs attributes. This initiative comes in addition to the recent Chainlink grant given to Block 42, which is currently bringing the widely used Chainlink Price Feeds natively to Fantom to support the DeFi initiatives being launched by Fantom Finance and other development teams.

Understanding the Technical Details of Chainlink VRF

Blockchain randomness is a critical component of meaningful smart contract applications, driving unpredictability to create thrills, establishing fairness to stimulate competition, and creating security to uphold the scarcity of certain assets. However, accessing an RNG solution on-chain in a manner that is tamper-proof and auditable by its users is not as straightforward as it may seem.

For example, RNG solutions derived from on-chain data such as block hashes can be subject to manipulation by blockchain miners, where they leverage their ability to order transactions into blocks as a means of temporarily delaying the publication of a random number input derived from a block has until it produces a more favorable outcome for them. On the other hand, RNG derived from off-chain providers like traditional APIs are opaque and provide no integrity guarantees that the API provider is remaining tamper-proof. Chainlink VRF is designed to mitigate both of these problems, which is especially critical as the amount of on-chain value being secured by randomness scales. 

On a technical level, Chainlink VRF works by combining block data that is still unknown when the VRF request is initiated with the oracle node’s pre-committed private key to generate both a random number and a cryptographic proof. The smart contract will only accept the random number input if it has a valid cryptographic proof, and a valid cryptographic proof can only be generated if the VRF process is tamper-proof. This provides users with automated and publicly verifiable assurances directly on-chain that each application using Chainlink VRF for randomness is provably fair and cannot be tampered with or predicted by the oracle, outside entities, or the application’s development team. 

For a technical walkthrough and in-depth understanding of the architecture and mathematics underpinning Chainlink VRF, refer to the Chainlink VRF blog post.

Combining Fantom and Chainlink VRF to Create Scalable, Low Cost dApps Enhanced by Randomness and Price Data

Through both Chainlink VRF and Chainlink Price Feeds, we’re confident that Fantom developers will have the most important oracle infrastructure building blocks needed to quickly construct and launch high-speed applications on the Fantom mainnet that function securely and reliably based on a wide variety of key inputs. Fantom’s EVM-compatible blockchain features high throughput, low transaction costs, and instant finality, which is critical for developers wanting major upgrades in scalability and cost-efficiency within their decentralized applications than what is obtainable on most Layer-1 blockchains. 

Developers can leverage Chainlink VRF within their dApp in many unique ways, including: 

• Creating provably random NFT attributes for in-game items and characters
• Distributing provably rare NFTs based on weighted probabilities 
• Selecting random winners from DeFi LP pools to receive unique airdrops
• Ordering participants fairly when there is high demand for limited access functions
• Generating random gameplay elements like maps, critical hits, and matchmaking
• Choosing participants from a DAO or network validators to make a key decision

We look forward to continuing working with Chainlink to create more ways that users can leverage oracles within their applications to offer innovative forms of value to users within new and existing markets. 

“Fantom continues to attract world-class developers building next-generation decentralized smart contract applications. Consequently, we wanted to scale up our infrastructure to include more secure and expansive tooling that enables new use cases and opportunities for developers,” stated Michael Kong, CEO of Fantom. “As such, we are actively integrating Chainlink Price Feeds and VRF because they are the industry’s leading oracle solutions for price data and verifiable randomness, ultimately empowering our developers to build highly advanced decentralized applications for industries like gaming, DeFi, NFTs, and more.”

“We are pleased to support Fantom as they integrate both Chainlink Price Feeds and Chainlink VRF to augment what developers can build on Fantom’s high-throughput, low-cost network,” commented Dan Kochis, Head of Partnerships at Chainlink Labs. “Chainlink’s flexible architecture and time-tested decentralized services give developers the ability to leverage external data and off-chain computation to create more meaningful user experiences that are fully integrated with the real world.” 

About Chainlink

Chainlink is the most widely used and secure way to power universally connected smart contracts. With Chainlink, developers can connect any blockchain with high-quality data sources from other blockchains as well as real-world data. Managed by a global, decentralized community of hundreds of thousands of people, Chainlink is introducing a fairer model for contracts. Its network currently secures billions of dollars in value for smart contracts across the decentralized finance (DeFi), insurance and gaming ecosystems, among others.

Chainlink is trusted by hundreds of organizations to deliver definitive truth via secure, reliable data feeds. To learn more, visit chain.link, subscribe to the Chainlink newsletter, and follow @chainlink on Twitter.

Docs | Discord | Reddit | YouTube | Telegram | Events | GitHub | Price Feeds | DeFi | VRF

About Fantom 

The Fantom Foundation is committed to building technology that is open-source, decentralized Dag-based distributed ledgers. We aim to create fast, secure, and scalable technologies across a wide range of industries, allowing organizations, businesses, and individuals to develop decentralized and secure applications, solving real-world problems.

Website | Docs | Research papers | Discord | Blog | Twitter | Reddit | Github