Keeper, ZK-Rollup, JPEGz, Wrapped Tokens

Chainlink teamed up with several high-profile projects across the crypto universe this week, announcing partnerships with a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) pioneer, an innovative Layer-2 solution, a novel NFT marketplace index token and a major liquidity protocol.

In this week’s roundup:

• MakerDAO onboards Chainlink Automation as part of its Keeper Network.
• Starknet joins Chainlink SCALE.
• Cryptex Finance integrates NFT Floor Price Feeds to launch JPEGz.
• BGD Labs integrates Proof of Reserve (PoR) into Aave Protocol on Avalanche.

MakerDAO adds Automation to Keeper

MakerDAO has onboarded Chainlink Automation as part of its Keeper Network.

"The sophisticated technology and tools that quietly but constantly run in the background to ensure DAI's stability rely upon MakerDAO's Keeper Network. This network of automated bots perform essential tasks to maintain the Maker protocol and will be greatly expanded through the integration with Chainlink's renowned, hyper-reliable automation platform,” said Nadia Álvarez from MakerDAO's Growth Core Unit, in a press release.

MakerDAO governs the foundational DeFi lending protocol Maker Protocol and created the DAI stablecoin.

Automation will run specific tasks on the Maker Protocol smart contract system, such as Maker Oracle’s price updates, liquidity balancing for for the DAI Direct Deposit Module and debt ceiling upgrades for assets held as collateral. The addition of Automation to the third-party “Keepers” performing duties for Maker Protocol improves the decentralization of Maker and DAI’s core functionalities.

"The advancement of the technology backing stablecoins is a necessary component to unlock the future of finance. As more and more traditional financial institutions partner with MakerDAO and assess the applicability of DeFi, the required underlying infrastructure becomes increasingly complex,” Chainlink’s VP of Go-To-Market Johann Eid said. “Integrating Chainlink with MakerDAO demonstrates the necessity for highly performant automation infrastructure and indicates a prosperous future for decentralized financial services."

Chainlink + Starknet

Starknet is joining the Chainlink SCALE program to accelerate the growth and adoption of the Ethereum Layer-2 solution. Meanwhile, Chainlink Price Feeds are already on the Starknet testnet and will soon go live on its mainnet.

“Ultimately, we are excited to establish a sustainable system wherein Chainlink Labs and StarkWare are aligned on expanding application development on Starknet for the long term,” according to a StarkWare Medium post.

Starknet is a ZK-Rollup aiming to address scaling issues with the Ethereum mainnet. As part of the SCALE program, the yet-to-be-released $STKR will cover certain operating costs of Chainlink oracle nodes on Starknet.

NFT Index Token JPEGz

Cryptex Finance has integrated NFT Floor Price Feeds to launch JPEGz, the first NFT Market Cap Index token.

“Cryptex is thrilled to announce the creation of JPEGz, a fully collateralized, data-backed index token providing market cap exposure to the NFT sector,” Cryptex Co-Founder Joe Sticco said in a Medium post. “The robust calculation and secure delivery of NFT floor price data by Coinbase Cloud and Chainlink helps support the growth of this unique asset class.”

The JPEGz token will track the following Non-Fungible Token (NFT) collections: Azuki Official, Bored Ape Yacht Club, CloneX, Cool Cats, CrypToadz, CryptoPunks, Doodles, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Vee Friends, and World of Women.

Cryptex had already integrated Chainlink oracle services and Price Feeds for its TCAP index token that tracks the total crypto market cap.

Chainlink + Aave on Avalanche

Web3 development initiative BGD Labs announced the integration of Chainlink Proof of Reserve (PoR) on the Aave lending protocol on Avalanche.

"We're pleased to support the Aave Protocol and community by integrating Chainlink Proof of Reserve," BGD Labs Co-Founder Ernesto Boado said in a press release. "This integration helps prevent undercollateralized bridged assets on Aave markets on Avalanche, helping to reduce the technical and economic risks associated with liquidity pools involving bridged assets."

The PoR integration helps ensure that wrapped tokens in Aave markets on Avalanche are sufficiently collateralized. The PoR feeds now support AAVE.e, DAI.e, LINK.e, WBTC.e and WETH.e.

"Real-time access to the state of cross-chain liquidity pools increases the transparency and verifiability of the Aave market on Avalanche," Aave Companies Founder and CEO Stani Kulechov said. "Bringing additional visibility into reserve collateral is a necessary step forward and will help build more confidence and trust with end-users."

In 2022, Chainlink oracles helped enable transaction flows totaling more than $2 trillion.

"We are excited that Aave is using Chainlink Proof of Reserve to help ensure that cross-chain assets in Aave pools on Avalanche are sufficiently collateralized," Chainlink Co-Founder Sergey Nazarov said. "Fully-decentralized, automated verification through Chainlink PoR helps mitigate undercollateralization risks that cross-chain bridges can pose to Aave markets."

Also on Avalanche, money market protocol BENQI has integrated PoR and Automation to help secure cross-chain asset lending and borrowing for BTC, ETH, DAI, USDC and USDT.

For more information, read this BENQI Medium post.

Last four weekly Chainlink Roundups:

• Feb. 5: Picardy Protocol, Icetea Labs
• Jan. 29: $7 Trillion, FilSwan, Karto Cars
• Jan. 22: Etherisc, OpenEarth, Planet IX, EMP Money
• Jan. 15: Mind Network, Polarys, Festa do Taipe
• Jan. 8: Cask, OnePlanet, Kwil, 2022 Highlights

What is Chainlink:

Chainlink is the industry standard for building, accessing, and selling oracle services needed to power hybrid smart contracts on any blockchain. Chainlink oracle networks provide smart contracts with a way to reliably connect to any external API and leverage secure off-chain computations for enabling feature-rich applications. Chainlink currently secures tens of billions of dollars across DeFi, insurance, gaming, and other major industries and offers global enterprises and leading data providers a universal gateway to all blockchains.

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