Explore → dAPIsHow are dAPIs maintained?
API3 composes dAPIs out of individual beacons and beacon sets, and provides them as turn-key data feed services. Users need not worry about the exact API provider used, the endpoint called, or the parameters used. This process is managed by the API3 core technical team multisigs deployed on the chains that dAPIs are provided on. API3 also provides access to individual beacons or beacon sets for the users that require full control over the curation of the data feeds they use.
Role of API3Server.sol
A dAPI points to an individual beacon or an aggregation of multiple beacons (beacon set). Each dAPI has a human-readable name (e.g., AVAX/USD) that makes them easy to categorize. The contract API3ServerV1.sol maintains the link between a dAPI name and the beacon(s) it uses for the dAPI. dApps use an API3 Market proxy contract to read any dAPI from API3ServerV1.sol.
dApp owners use a proxy contract, available on the API3 Market, to access a dAPI. Proxy contracts use the API3Server.sol contract to access dAPIs. Developers can easily set the proxy contract address in a dApp contract to start reading from the dAPIs.
The API3ServerV1.sol contract reads directly from its data store of beacons, which are powered by API provider-operated Airnodes. Thus proxies allow dAPIs to be used like libraries. The smart contract only needs to import the interface for calling the proxy contract.
This means once a dAPI is integrated to read a different data feed, the contract does not need to change the code itself, rather it only needs to use a different proxy address when calling the read() function on the proxy contract. If the dAPI interface has previously been imported, it abstracts away the technical implementation of accessing new data feeds.
Signed APIs
The heart of dAPIs are the first-party data feeds, powered by the owners of the data themselves. These data source owners operate an Airnode - a small abstraction that takes their data and cryptographically signs it. The signer wallet never leaves the owner's control, and anyone can verify that a particular signed data was signed by the respective data source. Airnodes periodically push the signed data to Signed APIs.
Read more about Signed APIs.
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