Decentralized API (dAPI)

A decentralized API (dAPI) is a data feed that delivers outside information, such as asset prices or weather readings, to smart contracts by combining the answers of several independent data providers rather than relying on one server. The term is most closely associated with the API3 project, whose design has data providers run their own oracle nodes, a model it calls first-party oracles, and aggregates their values on-chain into a single feed that applications can read. The idea is to make an ordinary application programming interface usable by blockchains without trusting any single company. dAPIs are one design within the wider family of blockchain oracles, alongside networks such as Chainlink, and they face the same core risk: if enough sources report wrong data, contracts that depend on the feed will act on it.