Oracle project announces it will stop service— the industry’s real risk may not be price, but infrastructure
Today there is news that didn’t trigger large-scale price volatility, but is very much worth paying attention to for the on-chain industry as a whole
Switchboard announced that it will gradually end its oracle business and plans to stop the related services on September 25. The project team said users need to complete migration before the deadline
Many retail traders may not pay much attention to oracles
But in reality, oracles are a crucial piece of on-chain financial infrastructure
Lending protocols need them to provide prices
Derivatives protocols need them to determine liquidations
Stablecoin systems need them to confirm asset value
If an oracle stops serving and the protocols don’t migrate in time, it could lead to a chain of problems—such as prices not updating, liquidation failures, assets being unable to be redeemed, and more
What’s most concerning here isn’t a single project exiting the market, but the fact that many protocols’ reliance on underlying services is often deeper than users imagine
On the surface, users only store, borrow, or trade within an application. But behind the scenes, the application may simultaneously depend on oracles, cross-chain service node operators, and data indexing services. If any one link breaks, the entire application can be affected
The project team has already advised users to migrate to other oracle services, but for ordinary users, the most important thing isn’t blindly switching—it’s first to confirm whether the protocols you use are affected
In particular, you should check a few things
Whether you have lending positions that depend on this oracle
Whether you have collateral assets and liquidation prices
Whether there are liquidity pools or automated strategies
Whether a manual migration is required
Events like this may not hit trending topics immediately like a sharp crash, but the industry warning it provides is very real
As public-chain ecosystems have developed to where they are today, security is no longer just about preventing hacker attacks
Whether infrastructure can run stably and reliably over the long term also determines whether on-chain assets are safe
When the market is rising, people are more likely to focus on which token might double
Truly mature investors, however, will start paying attention to what actually supports the protocol at the foundation level
Today there is news that didn’t trigger large-scale price volatility, but is very much worth paying attention to for the on-chain industry as a whole
Switchboard announced that it will gradually end its oracle business and plans to stop the related services on September 25. The project team said users need to complete migration before the deadline
Many retail traders may not pay much attention to oracles
But in reality, oracles are a crucial piece of on-chain financial infrastructure
Lending protocols need them to provide prices
Derivatives protocols need them to determine liquidations
Stablecoin systems need them to confirm asset value
If an oracle stops serving and the protocols don’t migrate in time, it could lead to a chain of problems—such as prices not updating, liquidation failures, assets being unable to be redeemed, and more
What’s most concerning here isn’t a single project exiting the market, but the fact that many protocols’ reliance on underlying services is often deeper than users imagine
On the surface, users only store, borrow, or trade within an application. But behind the scenes, the application may simultaneously depend on oracles, cross-chain service node operators, and data indexing services. If any one link breaks, the entire application can be affected
The project team has already advised users to migrate to other oracle services, but for ordinary users, the most important thing isn’t blindly switching—it’s first to confirm whether the protocols you use are affected
In particular, you should check a few things
Whether you have lending positions that depend on this oracle
Whether you have collateral assets and liquidation prices
Whether there are liquidity pools or automated strategies
Whether a manual migration is required
Events like this may not hit trending topics immediately like a sharp crash, but the industry warning it provides is very real
As public-chain ecosystems have developed to where they are today, security is no longer just about preventing hacker attacks
Whether infrastructure can run stably and reliably over the long term also determines whether on-chain assets are safe
When the market is rising, people are more likely to focus on which token might double
Truly mature investors, however, will start paying attention to what actually supports the protocol at the foundation level