> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.telepathy.xyz/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.telepathy.xyz/~/changes/KxC5oWvtfGkdfZr0Ml2E/cross-chain-data-oracle/introduction.md).

# Introduction

Permisionless oracles for Ethereum

As L1 gas has gotten more expensive, there has been an explosion in the number of rollups. More complex and interesting protocol development has moved to L2s. However, L2 dApp developers often need to access L1 information in their L2s smart contract, or vice-versa. 

Example use-cases include:

* Reading Chainlink L1 data on L2 for DeFi protocols
* Conducting voting on L2, weighted by `balanceOf` an ERC-20 on L1
* Perp protocols on L2 with price oracles from L1 AMM pools (i.e., Uniswap TWAP)
* Claiming rewards on L2, gated by L1 ERC-721 ownership

The Telepathy cross-chain data oracle allows dapp developers to request **arbitrary view function data** **from any L1 or L2** and have that information available on any chain.

Compared with other oracle solutions like Chainlink, the Succinct cross-chain oracle optimizes for flexibility, latency and low gas costs. 

**A quick tl;dr of how our cross-chain data oracle works:** we use a network of *restaked* operators (using Eigenlayer & our own restaking contract) to secure our cross-chain oracle with *economic security*. To enforce *accountability* for these cross-chain queries, we had to overcome a lot of hard challenges, including implementing an EVM interpreter in Solidity to get the ground truth for *any historical EVM view function call*. To learn more, read more in [Succinct Network Architecture and Security](/~/changes/KxC5oWvtfGkdfZr0Ml2E/cross-chain-data-oracle/succinct-network-architecture-and-security.md). 

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This product is in beta, so reach out to <uma@succinct.xyz> if you're interested in using it.
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