APRO and Brevis Join Forces to Power the Next Generation of Provable Oracles

APRO, the most popular oracle network on BNB Chain has unveiled an intensive technical collaboration with Brevis, a leader in the area of zero-knowledge (ZK) coprocessing with a view to redefining the nature of how oracles source, verify, and deliver information to smart contracts. The partnership is a strategic use of cryptographically provable data as a shift away from consensus-based oracle models.

The partnership is not merely an integration but signifies a convergence of two layers of foundational infrastructure of the Web3. The multi-chain oracle network of APRO with the ZK proof stack of Brevis and its ZK Data Coprocessor, ZKTLS technology, and Pico zkVM are being integrated. The teams are collectively constructing what they say is a new generation of oracles that they are provable, not socially attested.

Moving Beyond Social Consensus

Conventional oracle systems are based on validator sets with which data are retrieved and reported with consensus when deciding on what value to regard as correct. Though this design has driven much of the modern DeFi, this structure has tradeoffs in terms of latency, increased cost, and honest majority assumptions. 

APRO and Brevis are attempting to solve these problems by substituting the assumptions of trust with the guarantees of cryptography. The data is accompanied by zero-knowledge proofs in the new model, which secures how the data was obtained and calculated.

Verifiable On-Chain Historical Data

The on-chain historical data is one of the areas of focus. With the ZK Data Coprocessor by Brevis, one can make off-chain historical blockchain data computations and verifiable as succinct ZK proofs.

The oracle network of APRO at the time transfers the output and the evidence to the blockchain where smart contracts can verify the claims of the past without trust. This feature is useful in allowing new types of applications, such as prediction markets and financial primitives that rely on provable past activity instead of subjective reporting.

Authenticating Off-Chain Public Data

The alliance also improves the process of off-chain imported public data being carried onto-chain. Sports, financial, or election outcomes are examples of data that are traditionally dependent on the belief that oracle nodes are accessing correct information in external forms. The ZkTLS technology proposed by Brevis presents cryptographic confidence as establishing the fact that data has been accessed by an authoritative TLS connection via the right domain.

Brevis goes ahead to demonstrate through Pico zkVM that the data was indeed read in the correct way so as to convey the values in question. APRO incorporates this proof pipeline into its oracle delivery, allowing smart contracts to use off-chain data on cryptographic certificates of authenticity instead of using node honesty.

Unlocking Verifiable Private Data Feeds

In addition to publicly available data, the partnership opens the access to confirmable private and proprietary data feeds. Not everything of value can be publicly exposed, including algorithmic trading indexes or enterprise metrics. With Brevis zkVM, data providers can produce evidence that an output was well derived using committed private data or algorithms without disclosing the underlying information.

APRO serves both as the delivery layer of this evidence and allows decentralized programs and prediction markets to pay over proprietary information with confidentiality. This establishes completely new markets whereby trust is pegged on cryptography rather than reputations.

Privacy for Market Participants

Besides data verification, the partnership also aims for user-level privacy. Open blockchains reveal the patterns of traders, which causes threats to front-running and copying strategies. APRO and Brevis are also developing privacy preserving schemes, where traders demonstrate that they are acting according to market rules by using ZK proofs that do not reveal addresses, positions or strategies.

The infrastructure will enable institutional-level involvement in on-chain markets, specifically in the ever-expanding prediction market ecosystem on BNB Chain.