The Polkadot developers have released a Substrate 2.0 update that allows decentralized applications to interact with the outside world without the involvement of third-party oracles.
Substrate is an infrastructure with a set of tools that developers can use to create their own blockchain for various applications. These blockchains can be launched independently or integrated into the Polkadot shard network (parachains).
A key feature of Substrate 2.0 is the off-chain worker module, which runs off-chain and allows blockchains to perform advanced computing and send requests to the outside world. This module optimizes Substrate nodes to perform operations beyond the capabilities of the blockchain.
On the Ethereum network, computation must be fast and limited to fit into a block. This eliminates many non-deterministic operations (for example, web requests can fail) and actions that may be too complex for the available resources.
With Substrate 2.0, developers will be able to pass these operations off to hosts that can execute web requests, encrypt and decrypt, sign data, generate random numbers, and other tasks that require more CPU resources.
Substrate 2.0 will allow Polkadot developers to build complex systems on the web, such as price stream providers, while removing some of the elements of trust. According to Polkadot developers, finding reliable data sources is the main problem of oracles, and it is still relevant.
The update will provide maximum flexibility when building blockchains and decentralized applications. For example, Chainlink oracles collect data exclusively off the network. Smart contract developers can only access processed data provided by oracles, which requires trust in these data providers.
Substrate 2.0 also offers developers various “Pallets” toolsets. These are configurable modules that simplify certain actions. For example, the Democracy suite simplifies online voting, and the EVM suite duplicates the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to move their smart contracts to the Polkadot network. Earlier, Polkadot developer Bruno Škvorc said that the modular architecture of Substrate will allow deploying its own blockchain in an hour, it can be quickly updated without the need for a hard fork.
Recall that last month the head of the Spartan Black cryptocurrency fund Calvin Koch suggested that in the near future Polkadot could enter the TOP 3 blockchains.
