Bridging Web2 to Web3 with HTTPS Outcalls from Internet Computer Protocol
ICP blockchain recently upgraded its protocol to enable its Smart Contracts to execute HTTPS Outcalls, thereby allowing them to communicate with Web2 Servers in Real-time.
Internet Computer Protocol is the first blockchain to have its smart contracts communicate with any external data sources via HTTPS outcalls.
This breakthrough feature is made available for developers now thanks to the years of dedicated leading-edge research and innovation by DFINITY, the creator and the major contributor to Internet Computer Blockchain.
Why are Smart Contracts making HTTPS Outcalls directly a big deal
ICP’s on-chain governance DAO recently upgraded its protocol to enable the Canister Smart Contracts to execute HTTPS Outcalls, thereby allowing the blockchain's smart contract to communicate with web2 HTTPS servers.
The blockchain's smart contract can now call web2 servers and execute functions that require HTTPS Outcalls, such as executing an HTTP Request to an external HTTPS server on the Internet.
Smart Contracts Retrieving Web2 data is a risky business
Typically public crypto blockchains do not retrieve the data from Web2 internet due to their non-deterministic nature. This creates many problems and introduces catastrophic single-point of failures in the current crypto settings, partially owing to the reliance on the unreliable legacy IT stack.
ChainLink has provided its solutions to help chains use its protocols for oracalization of Financial Data, but is somewhat successful and is limited by its scalability.
The security of Canister Smart Contracts executing HTTPS Outcalls is guaranteed because the network is peer-reviewed via Internet Computer Consensus when transactions are executed and stored.
ICP is about to make oracles obsolete with its immutable automated smart contract APIs
Breaking away from Web2 Paradigm
Traditionally, blockchains have relied on centralized and semi-centralized oracles to fetch data such as token price, etc, from web2 to facilitate DeFi on-chain.
HTTPS is a widely used protocol that establishes trust between two communicating parties. It's used to verify the identity of a site and its authenticity
But in blockchain applications, web2 servers and third-party oracles have traditionally been used as trusted intermediaries because blockchains don't have the capability or strong enough consensus architecture to securely procure, process, and verify the identity & authenticity of non-deterministic data from web2.
The HTTPS outcall functionality is significant because it allows developers to create programmable applications without having to integrate or expose smart contracts with a centralized server or trusted intermediates that are easily compromised.
ICP is the only layer 1 capable of doing this currently. End-to-end smart contracts communicate with web2 independently via a series of protocols.
Cryptocurrency hacks have crossed over $2.5 Billion USD in damages in 2022 alone
Developers are not required to adhere to the traditional paradigm o an intermediary for utilizing and computing with the status quo Internet Systems.
The problem would be solved with the introduction of on-chain smart contract oracles, which will provide a secure channel between web2 servers and blockchains that doesn't require any trusted third-parties. This will enable the verification of non-deterministic data from web2 with fewer limitations than before.
What are the limitations of blockchains relevant to this?
Blockchain architecture has strong limitations when it comes to transactions and processing.
While the web2 stack is capable of processing large amounts of data with intensive computations, a blockchain’s throughput is limited by block size and transaction speed.
Furthermore, blockchain systems rely on getting consensus among a group of nodes via mining or staking - this process can take minutes to hours in some cases. Although the design is justified because blockchains were meant to be unstoppable and immutable.
ICP overcomes the above limitations with its limitless scaling through subnetwork architecture.
To Oraclize or To Not Oraclize
In a typical blockchain application, blockchains frequently depend on web2 oracles as trusted intermediaries to fetch real-time data and perform off-chain computations, such as price data retrieval for DeFi, etc.
Internet Computer Protocol’s canister smart contracts are autonomous sovereign on-chain web serving softwares. IC can serve interactive smart contracts directly through HTTPS calls to a user without using or relying on traditional cloud infrastructure.
Canisters provide an open and extensible model for developing apps through its self-contained, modular on-chain software stack.
The entire IT stack could be reimagined as smart contracts on Internet Computer Protocol Blockchain.
The Virtual Machine Internet Computer is extremely efficient and its interoperable Subnets reach asynchronous consensus to finalize txns within under two seconds.
Canisters Smart Contracts and HTTPS calls
As outlined by a researcher from DFINITY in the above tweet, ICP’s smart contracts are years ahead in contrast to existing Alt L1 or L2 smart contract platforms. The smart contracts already serve interactive web content to a user’s browser via HTTPS calls without relying on any external party.
Canisters talk to web2 servers via HTTPS, procure data, reach consensus to store it within blocks, and use the data for smart contracts computation. Guess you could say #IC integrates with web2 systems directly without any ‘bridges’.
You can read in detail about the 13-step process here.
This feature covers a primary subset of functionalities that are typically provided by oracle services, but it does so in a trustless manner
- DFINITY
Simply put, Canisters hosted in HTTPS Outcalls enabled replicas (Subnet replicated across nodes) will be able to communicate with web2 systems, procure data, reach consensus to create blocks, and use the data for smart contract computation.
Canisters will be able to automatically execute a web2 function, such as sending an Email from Web2 email service.
However, Canisters must consider the simultaneous PUT/POST requests created by replicas. DFINITY is working on this to streamline the HTTPS Outcalls feature.
The replicas of the IC each need to make the same call and obtain consensus over the result. Once the replicas are able to reach consensus on what the response to the request was, they include it as a special type of payload in an IC block.
- DFINITY
Immutable API season is here
Internet Computer Protocol blockchain enables the creation of Immutable APIs and with HTTPS enabled, these immutable robust blockchain-hosted APIs can be leveraged by web2 internet and games to reward/monetize their products with tokens or NFT infrastructure.
These APIs are created as autonomous canisters ( smart contracts), and they are all stored on the blockchain. One of the most important features of these immutable APIs is that they can be accessed with a secured HTTPS-enabling network connection and are hosted as computing units entirely on-chain. This way, the data can't be tampered with and significantly decreases the risk of getting de-platformed overnight.
This technology will affect many industries in the future. Being on the blockchain makes these services unstoppable, tamperproof, open-sourced, and tokenizable.
Someone could build ‘Rapid API’ on-chain with DAO governance and tokenization
Many companies can require the use of blockchain APIs.
For example, a company might want to restrict certain API calls for their employees only, which is something that could prove very useful without sacrificing security or privacy for the user leveraging blockchain authentication.
Example: I can make a canister smart contract bot, say CanBot, that can change my Twitter banner in real-time, correlating to #ICP price movement.
This feature is not mature yet, so don’t expect much for POST/PUT requests now. Nonetheless, this feature is a breakthrough for blockchains since ICP removes the need for any intermediaries to exchange data with the Web2 internet owing to its novel consensus and architecture.
ICP may soon provide immutable, automated Smart Contract Orcales to other blockchains for DeFi and other services.
Resources
Blog Post by DFINITY - Beyond Oracles
ICP Wikipedia - HTTPS Outcalls
Developer Forum - HTTPS Outcalls
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