ltlmaps / api3-docs

Documentation for the API3 Project

API3 documentation is kept as a regular repository of Markdown files to be easily contributable by everyone. Feel free to create issues for discussions, proposed additions and changes.

What is API3?

API3 is a collaborative project to deliver traditional API services to smart contract platforms in a decentralized and trust-minimized way. It is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), its code is open source and its operations are completely transparent.

API3 thesis statement

The vast majority of the external integrations that decentralized applications need are to commercial Web APIs that traditional businesses have built to monetize their data and services. Therefore, what is widely known as the oracle problem is in practice the API connectivity problem. Existing oracle solutions fall short because they fail to make this distinction, resulting in inferior solutions that depend on third-party oracles and ecosystems that exclude API providers. By refining the definition of the problem, API3 aims to provide a much more optimal solution.

Whitepaper

See the whitepaper for a detailed discussion of the project. Just as these docs, you can discuss it and propose updates through issues.

Medium posts

See a grouped list of our Medium posts here.

Contents

• Fundamentals

  • API
  • First-party oracles
  • Decentrally-governed oracle networks
  • dAPI

• Airnode

  • Design philosophy
  • Implementation
  • OIS
  • config.json
  • security.json
  • Airnode ABI specifications
  • Ethereum providers

• Request–reponse protocol

  • General structure
  • Provider
  • Endpoint
  • Authorizer
  • Requester
  • Client
  • Designated wallet
  • Endorsement
  • Template
  • Request

Community

Become a part of API3

API3 is formed by people who spontaneously found each other through a common understanding. Despite being largely overlooked, the API connectivity problem is the most critical obstacle in front of meaningful decentralized applications being built at scale.

If existing oracle solutions do not fulfill the needs of the decentralized applications you want to build, give you a fair opportunity to monetize your API business, or feel like they are working against the ethos of decentralization, we invite you to be a part of API3 so that we can solve the API connectivity problem together.

The API connectivity problem is in essence an ecosystem building problem, more so than a technical one. This means that API3 can use the skills of all kinds of experts and the decentralized nature of the project will allow you to shape it in a way that makes the best use of your skills.

Communication channels

Website: https://api3.org/

Telegram (for community): https://t.me/API3DAO

Keybase (for contributors): https://keybase.io/team/api3

Medium publication of the DAO: https://medium.com/api3