The world’s leading source of market information and news, Thomson Reuters, has taken another large step into the blockchain space.

The company has released a ‘smart oracle’ to the blockchain ecosystem for ‘lean experimentation purposes’.

BlockOne IQ allows organisations to incorporate real market data into their applications, with cryptographic proof that the data came from Thomson Reuters.

Sam Chadwick, director of Strategy in Innovation and Blockchain at Thomson Reuters, said:

“At our core, Thomson Reuters provides access to aggregated, high quality data and analytics – two characteristics that play well in an oracle and smart contract system – so its natural transition for us, and another mechanism to deliver our content to industry participants.”

Oracles

Oracles are mechanisms that form a bridge between web-based APIs and blockchain applications. BlockOne IQ allows blockchain applications to integrate Thomson Reuters data into their automated processes.

BlockOne IQ is currently compatible with Corda and Ethereum, and plans to expand to include Hyperledger in the near future.

John Dwyer, senior research analyst, at Celent, said:

“Bringing trusted and secure external data to the blockchain ecosystem will be hugely beneficial. This move is coinciding with rapid expansion of new alternative data sets in capital markets and an extraordinary level of innovation across both public and private blockchains.”

The project is one branch in a wider Reuters blockchain strategy which also included last year’s release of Ethereum developer tool BlockOne ID.

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