On decentralized oracles for data availability

TL;DR

This paper proposes a trustless data availability oracle using Nakamoto consensus, enabling systems to verify whether data is publicly accessible through a decentralized network.

Contribution

It introduces a novel design for a decentralized data availability oracle leveraging Nakamoto consensus to determine data accessibility.

Findings

The oracle can reliably verify data availability in a decentralized manner.

The approach reduces data availability verification to network connectivity properties.

It demonstrates the potential for blockchain protocols to secure non-mathematical truths.

Abstract

Nakamoto consensus, the protocol underlying Bitcoin, has the potential to secure a new class of systems which agree on non-mathematical truths. As an example of this capability, we propose a design for a trustless, data availability oracle. This exposition reduces the problem of determining whether or not a registered datum is publicly available to the problem of constructing a network in which either almost all nodes can download a given datum, or almost none of them can.