Summary
Everyone is likely very familiar with RedStone, a cross-chain data oracle technology that provides fast and cost-effective data access, complete historical audit trails, and an insurance-backed decentralized dispute mechanism, offering users recourse in case of inaccurate data provision.
In the four days following its TGE launch on Binance, the price skyrocketed from around $0.2 to $0.4 at opening to $1.45, showcasing the utility of oracle protocols.
However, today I would like to introduce another oracle protocol: Switchboard.
This article will compare RedStone and Switchboard.
1. Introduction: Do You Know About Oracle Protocols?
1.1 Why Do We Need Oracles?
Blockchains are closed systems, and smart contracts cannot directly access off-chain data. Many DeFi or DApp applications require real-time data, such as:
The current price of a token (e.g., BTC/USD)
Random number generation (for chain game lotteries, etc.)
Real-world events like match results, weather, etc.
Oracle protocols act as an "information bridge," securely fetching data from the off-chain world and delivering it on-chain for smart contracts to use.
1.2 Simple Analogy: What Is It Like?
Imagine you are playing an on-chain price guessing game, where the rules are:
Players bet whether BTC will exceed $100,000 tomorrow.
The smart contract for this game needs a real, trustworthy price source; otherwise, it is vulnerable to attacks or cheating.
At this point, you can use Switchboard as a price oracle to obtain the real price from CoinGecko or Binance and feed it to the on-chain contract to determine the winner.
1.3 Basic Information about Switchboard:
Switchboard is a permissionless, customizable, multi-chain oracle protocol for general data feeds and verifiable randomness. By allowing anyone to push any form of data, regardless of data type, it provides a one-stop service for users and helps drive the development of the next generation of decentralized applications.
Switchboard has raised a total of $11 million in seed and Series A funding.
2. What Can Switchboard Help You Do?
2.1 Use Case Examples
Price feeds for DeFi platforms (e.g., determining liquidation lines in decentralized lending)
Random numbers for chain game lotteries (providing fairness based on VRF randomness)
Insurance or prediction markets (e.g., weather outcomes, sports scores)
2.2 Developer Perspective
Switchboard provides SDKs and APIs
Customizable configuration for price sources, update frequency, thresholds, etc.
Supports deploying function scripts as computation logic
Open-source components, supporting local deployment or testnet simulation
2.3 Multi-Chain Ecosystem
Switchboard supports multiple chains, including:
Solana, Sui, Aptos, Starknet, NEAR
It is also supporting more L2s, so if your DApp is deployed on these chains, you can natively use Switchboard.
Current multi-chain ecosystem supported by Switchboard
2.4 Summary in One Sentence
In summary, Switchboard can help you securely and verifiably bring real-world data (prices, weather, scores, random numbers, etc.) into your smart contracts while allowing you to customize price feeding rules, deploy logic scripts, and achieve on-chain automated decision-making.
3. Comparison of Switchboard and RedStone
3.1 Protocol Design Comparison
For Switchboard, the emphasis is on "customizability + security + multi-chain VRF support," making it suitable for developers to implement complex logic. In contrast, RedStone emphasizes "modularity + extreme gas optimization + tightly coupled data flow with contracts," making it suitable for high-performance dApps.
TVS and supported protocol comparison
Currently, RedStone supports 71 protocols with a TVS of $5.2 billion, while Switchboard supports 19 protocols with a TVS of nearly $1.8 billion. It is evident that Switchboard has greater potential, and since 2024, its market share has been steadily increasing.
3.2 Advantages of Switchboard Compared
If you want to create a DeFi protocol (focusing more on price accuracy and security), run a GameFi or NFT platform (requiring fair random draws), or deploy on non-EVM chains (like Sui, Aptos, etc.), you can confidently choose Switchboard as it outperforms RedStone in these areas, and Switchboard's native support for multi-chain is very friendly.
If you need to read more content, you can directly visit Switchboard's documentation: https://docs.switchboard.xyz/
4. How to Participate in Switchboard?
4.1 Participate in Fragmetric Staking (FragSOL's TVL Reaches $260 Million)
Visit: https://app.fragmetric.xyz/restake/
Enter the invitation panel: https://app.fragmetric.xyz/rewards/referral/, fill in the invitation code: EFC2PZ, to earn more points.
Currently, Switchboard maintains a very friendly cooperation with Fragmetric, which is a native staking protocol on Solana and is also about to issue tokens. On Fragmetric's panel, there is also a settlement rewards panel related to Switchboard.
Recently, Fragmetric collected the Solana addresses of active community members in Switchboard's Discord, likely for NFT rewards.
Fragmetric collected active members' Solana addresses in Switchboard's Discord.
4.2 Participate in Official Zealy Tasks
Visit: https://zealy.io/cw/switchboard
Participate in Zealy tasks; the first 1,000 participants will receive rewards, and subsequent rankings may also receive additional rewards, but this is currently unknown.
4.3 Join Switchboard's Official Discord and Be Active to Gain Status
Visit: https://discord.gg/xnssgyWw7J
After entering Discord, being active can earn you a special Discord status, which may become an airdrop credential or benefit in the future. (For example, this time, members with special status had the opportunity to fill in Fragmetric's collection of Solana addresses for rewards.)
4.4 Follow Official, Foundation, and Chinese X Accounts for the Latest Updates
Official X account: https://x.com/switchboardxyz
Foundation X account: https://x.com/SwitchboardFDN
Community Chinese X account: https://x.com/Switchboard_CN
5. Conclusion
Both RedStone and Switchboard are building trusted data bridges for the blockchain world, but with different focuses. RedStone is suitable for DeFi projects that pursue extreme performance and cost control, while Switchboard, with its strong scalability, multi-chain compatibility, and developer-friendliness, is becoming a new choice for more project teams.
Especially after the TGE, while RedStone is receiving much attention, Switchboard is quietly gaining strength and should not be overlooked. Whether you are a developer or an early user, now is a great time to learn about and participate in Switchboard.
The future oracle competition has just begun.
And I, kkmoat, stand firmly on the side of Switchboard.
If this article has been helpful to your research or any aspect, I hope you can follow my Medium account so that you will receive my newly published articles via email. Of course, you can also follow my YouTube and X accounts.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kkmoat
Medium: https://kkmoat.medium.com/
Telegram: http://t.me/kkmoat
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