Chainlink
A decentralized oracle network that aggregates real-world data for smart contracts; Polymarket uses Chainlink's RTDS product to resolve crypto binary markets.
Definition
Chainlink is the leading decentralized oracle network, providing tamper-resistant real-world data to smart contracts across many blockchains. It operates a network of independent node operators who fetch, aggregate, and sign data before publishing it on-chain. Chainlink's product suite includes price feeds, verifiable randomness, and the Real-Time Data Streams (RTDS) low-latency oracle used by Polymarket.
In practice
For predtools bots, Chainlink matters primarily through its RTDS product: the aggregated Chainlink price at the market end time is the authoritative resolution price for 5-minute and 15-minute crypto binaries on Polymarket. A bot's signal price (from Binance, Coinbase, Kraken) may differ from the Chainlink aggregate by a small but decisive amount at the resolution instant. Poly5m-v4 addresses this by computing a multi-exchange median that mirrors Chainlink's aggregation methodology. See the dedicated entry for Chainlink RTDS for full technical details.