What’s next? Next-gen OCR enhancements include: ⚡ Performance-based leader selection for faster consensus formation ⚡ Optimistic single-round commit path to reduce network trips for lower latency ⚡ Improved state-sync & data dissemination for increased throughput

The Offchain Reporting (OCR) protocol is the backbone of the Chainlink standard. It’s how decentralized oracle networks (DONs) form consensus, allowing them to support highly secure and reliable services across data, compute, and interoperability.

In OCR: • Oracle nodes make independent observations about the world • The DON reaches consensus from those observations • The aggregated outcome is reported to a destination (e.g., smart contract or external API)

The evolution of OCR: ⬡ OCR1—built specifically for Ethereum Data Feeds ⬡ OCR2—generalized to support multiple chains & flexible data types ⬡ OCR3—introduced major scaling, performance, and programmability upgrades, all while maintaining Chainlink’s security & reliability

OCR3 consists of four modular protocols: • Pacemaker—progresses DON between epochs • Outcome Generation—gathers & aggregates data into consensus outcomes • Report Attestation—produces signed, validated reports • Transmission—delivers reports to smart contracts or APIs

OCR3’s modular design enables extreme flexibility. Plug-ins allow devs to customize how oracles operate, including: ✅ Signature schemes ✅ Aggregation methods ✅ Delivery schedules ✅ Data transformation This means full control over how data is sourced, processed, & consumed.

With OCR3, developers can define what data they want, if they want to transform it, and how and when they want to consume it. OCR3 abstracts away the technical complexity, such as P2P networking, cryptography, consensus, node selection, and more.

OCR3 is more than an oracle upgrade—it’s a new foundation for decentralized services. Powering CRE, OCR3 enables DONs to: ✅ Stream real-time data ✅ Execute offchain computation ✅ Coordinate across DONs ✅ And much more Learn more about CRE:

OCR3’s performance upgrades also paved the way for Chainlink Data Streams. Underpinned by the initial version of OCR3, Data Streams unlocked sub-second latency—setting a new standard for data delivery.

Now, in its mature state, OCR3 makes the Data Streams’ Multistream upgrade possible. A single Multistream DON can now serve 1000s of data points in parallel across chains. This means: 📈 More and faster data 🌍 One integration for all supported chains ⚙️ Greater programmability

Multistream will also enable Data Streams to easily scale across chains. Furthermore, users will have greater access to data types and enhanced programmability to consume data however they want via custom channels.

OCR3 is enabling the next-generation of Chainlink. With unmatched scalability, programmability, and flexibility, OCR3 is setting the new standard for building customized oracle services and quickly scaling them across chains. Read the OCR3 whitepaper ⬇️