In an announcement on Sept. 28, Chainlink Labs stated that the new initiative allows blockchains and layer-2 networks to fast-track smart contract innovation.
This is achieved by helping to cover the operating costs (such as gas fees) of Chainlink oracle services for a period of time.
“As L1 & L2 user bases expand, fees from dApps can eventually cover the full on-chain costs of Chainlink oracle nodes – driving long-term viability across different ecosystems,” the team stated.
A number of networks, including Avalanche, Metis, Moonbeam, and Moonriver, have pledged support for Chainlink SCALE, onboarding the program to cover certain oracle network operating costs and furthering research and development.
As the system matures, oracle operating costs can transition to being covered by dApp user fees rather than the ecosystem itself covering the overheads.
SCALE is part of the Chainlink Economics 2.0 program, which targets sustainable growth, crypto-economic security, and deeper value capture in the network. The roadmap was released in early June, highlighting long-term goals and economic sustainability for the data oracle ecosystem.
Sergey Nazarov, the co-founder of Chainlink, commented that SCALE is a way to “help rapidly accelerate the growth of blockchain ecosystems while putting in place a holistic economic model that is viable for the long-term success of blockchains, dApps, and the Chainlink ecosystem.”
Ultimately, SCALE aims to generate more economic value for each participant in Web 3, such as blockchains, dApps, oracle service providers, and users, the announcement concluded.
In related news, Chainlink has partnered with bank messaging system SWIFT on a proof-of-concept project to permit traditional finance firms to transact across blockchain networks. The project uses the network’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to allow SWIFT messages to instruct on-chain token transfers.
Chainlink’s native token, LINK, has not reacted to either announcement, having lost 3.5% on the day. At the time of writing, LINK was trading at $7.73, according to CoinGecko.
The token has gained 15% over the past week, however, recovering from an early September low of $6.50. LINK is still down 85% from its May 10, 2021, all-time high of $52.70. It has a market cap of $3.8 billion and has fallen out of the crypto top twenty to sit at 22.