LinkPool

A Chainlink node fetches a value such as an asset price from several data providers, signs it and agrees on a joint report with the other nodes in its network. LinkPool runs such nodes for Data Feeds, Data Streams, Automation and CCIP on the same Kubernetes platform that carries its validators. The LinkPool deployments draw prices from data providers such as dxFeed, Tiingo and XBTO.

In 2019 LinkPool released market.link, a marketplace where node operators listed their nodes and jobs for smart contract developers. Early operators such as ChainLayer added their nodes to it as soon as it went live. The price that a lending contract finally reads is the median of many such signed reports, which is how oracle networks limit the influence of one faulty node.

LinkPool built stake.link, which launched in December 2022 as a protocol on top of Chainlink Staking. Holders deposit LINK and receive stLINK, a receipt token that stays transferable while the LINK behind it is staked with node operators. The stake.link DAO governs the protocol, and SDL is its platform token.

Fourteen Chainlink node operators joined as the first members, among them ChainLayer, Simply Staking, stakefish, Stakin and 01Node. Delegation matters because Chainlink Staking gives each node operator a fixed allotment, and in the first version each operator serving Data Feeds received 50,000 LINK of capacity. Protocols such as stake.link let outside holders fill that capacity and share in the rewards.

LinkPool also runs validators on several proof-of-stake networks outside the Chainlink ecosystem. On Ethereum LinkPool is an operator in the Simple DVT module of Lido, and further validators run on NEAR, IOTA, Polygon, Lava, Espresso and the Canton Network. Token holders can delegate to these validators where a network allows delegation, with terms that differ from network to network.

Distributed validator technology, or DVT, splits the signing key of one Ethereum validator across several operators, so the validator keeps working when one machine fails. LinkPool runs the DVT client software on the same platform as its standard validators and its oracle nodes.

LinkPool runs its workloads on bare-metal servers that it owns, without a hypervisor between the hardware and the containers. The machines sit in three availability zones in Manchester, and the company sets a target of 99.99 percent uptime. LinkPool holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications, which cover its information security management and controls that an auditor tested over a period of time.

Servers in the United Kingdom keep node data under UK law, a point that banks and funds check together with the data residency of their other systems.

LinkPool UK Limited is registered in England and Wales under company number 14448543, with its registered office in London. Jonny Huxtable founded LinkPool and leads the company as chief executive.

Node operators that serve Chainlink Data Feeds stake LINK as a guarantee for their work and can lose part of it after a valid alert about a feed. Version 0.2 went live in November 2023 with a pool of up to 45 million LINK, in which each operator stakes between 1,000 and 75,000 LINK and loses 700 LINK per valid alert.

Data Streams is a pull-based oracle service of Chainlink, in which a network of nodes produces signed price reports continuously. An application fetches the latest report only when a transaction needs it, and the contract checks the signatures onchain before it uses the price.