What is Chainlink VRF and how does it work?

Blockchain technology has generated many applications in recent years, the most popular being cryptocurrencies. It has also facilitated the creation of many decentralized, secure and transparent markets in the digital economy.

Offering much more trust as all transactions are immutably recorded on the blockchain, this technology has been well complemented by the smart contract feature popularized by Ethereum. Blockchain-based decentralized applications (DApps) like Ethereum are disrupting traditional businesses like retail banking and are even introducing use cases that were never considered possible.

Expanding the capacity of oracle smart contracts
However, for the Ethereum blockchain to support the development of DApps that go beyond simply facilitating transactions, they must interact with the external or off-chain world and integrate incoming data into smart contracts, which is where blockchain oracle technology comes into play, reinforcing smart contracts by linking them to data, real-world events and transactions. Now, there are many types of third-party services available, such as incoming, outgoing, software, and hardware oracles, that are further expanding the number of real-world applications that blockchain protocols can power.
Consensus-based oracle networks, such as the Chainlink protocol, provide end-to-end decentralization, which is key to securing the entire blockchain ecosystem in which they operate. In addition, these oracles improve the performance, functionality and interoperability of smart contracts to offer a greater degree of trust and transparency than chained systems.