Introducing Zap.org

Smart Contracts Need Oracles. We developed a marketplace to list and purchase oracles.

Overview Zap is an open platform for creating, sharing, and monetizing deterministic oracles from data feeds (such as exchange rates, sports scores, weather, etc.) for use in smart contracts. The grand vision is to reduce the friction involved in using external data in blockchain-based smart contracts. By taking the hard work out of creating data oracles, Zap is accelerating the mainstream adoption of real world smart contracts.

Team/Foundation The Synapse Foundation (soon to be renamed) was formed to promote and oversee the Zap project, which includes the Zap technology stack and the Zap Store. The Foundation’s mission is to foster the creation of the world’s best open marketplace for data. Zap was founded by a group led by Nick Spanos, who is one of the earliest adoptors. He founded Bitcoin Center NYC in 2013 and serves as CEO of Blockchain Technologies Corp. Spanos was featured in the recent documentary Banking on Bitcoin and has been featured in many conferences on blockchain technology.

Want Smart Contracts? You Need Oracles Smart contracts and decentralized applications (Ðapps) must be connected with off-chain relays called oracles to utilize data from the outside world. There is currently no standardized way of creating data oracles, leading to many smart contracts/Ðapps using their own unique implementations. For the entire ecosystem to grow, there must be a convenient, standard way for smart contracts to use external data. Zap is the answer to this problem.

While there are existing platforms and methods for creating smart contract oracles, there has yet to be a standardized place to discover existing oracles or publish new oracles. The Zap Store fills this gap by introducing a data marketplace, making it simple and easy to discover pre-made oracles for use in smart contracts and Ðapps. This allows all parties to a smart contract the ability to agree on the source of data and have faith in the way that the data is delivered.

Data Democratization/Monetization (IoT) The Zap Store incentivizes data providers to list their data feeds through the ability to charge for access to the data, and the ability to easily monetize data incentivizes additional new data providers to enter the market. By making the Zap Store an open, free market it allows for everyone from individuals to big businesses to list and monetize their data and make it available for use in smart contracts. We believe this will lead to more people making money from data and high quality data becoming easily accessible to everyone.

Deterministic Oracles & The Synapse Marketplace The advantage of deterministic oracles (in comparison to crowd consensus oracles, such as those employed by Gnosis/Augur) is that they provide smart contracts with a connection to immediate information about the current state of the world. They can gather data directly from a single source or data feed (e.g. flight info and sport statistics). Deterministic oracles are more efficient, reliable, and can flexibly scale to all network sizes.

Of course, using a deterministic oracle from a single or small group of sources introduces another issue: trust. To mitigate the risks involved with trusting a particular data provider, the Zap Store introduces a reputation/feedback system (“oracle curation layer”). Quality data feeds will be featured and questionable sources will be pushed to the bottom. In addition, verified data sources — such as price feeds directly from an exchange — will get a special badge signifying their identity has been verified.

Summary The Zap Project aims to create the first, standardized and self-sustained smart contract data layer by offering a three part solution. First, by creating a global, decentralized marketplace where users can publish or subscribe to data feeds. Second, by connecting smart contracts to the real-time data necessary for smart contracts to execute (oraclization). Third, by implementing peer to peer curation for ranking and verifying oracles.

Important Links:

Website: [zap.org] (https://zap.org) & [zapproject.org] (https://zapproject.org)

Whitepaper: [zap.org/whitepaper.pdf] (https://zap.org/whitepaper.pdf)

Telegram: [t.me/zaporacles] (https://t.me/zaporacles)

Email: [email protected]

Blog: [media.zapproject.org] (https://media.zapproject.org)

Twitter: [twitter.com/zaporacles] (https://twitter.com/zaporacles)

Facebook: [facebook.com/OfficialZapStore] (https://facebook.com/OfficialZapStore)

YouTube: [www.youtube.com/channel/UCj53uS32K8UwQCytBwPqmtg] (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj53uS32K8UwQCytBwPqmtg)

Reddit: [reddit.com/r/zapstore] (https://reddit.com/r/zapstore)

GitHub: [github.com/zapproject] (https://github.com/zapproject)