Blockchain API, or blockchain +API, is an application programming interface built using blockchain technology, which allows information to come from the same information source, thereby connecting multiple applications and realizing data sharing.
What is an API
Application program interface (ApplicationProgrammingInterface, API) is a kind of software agents, it allows two unrelated applications communicate with each other. It acts like a bridge, taking a request or message from one program and passing it on to another program, translating the message and executing the protocol according to the programming design of the API.
Apis are present in almost every aspect of our digital lives and are arguably the hidden backbone of our modern plugins, digital interfaces, and software communication environments. They connect everything together and make the software system work harmoniously.
A good example is a hotel booking aggregator site that uses apis to request information from different hotel chains in response to customer requests.
For example, the customer requests information about available rooms that meet certain criteria – start and end dates of the stay, geographic area, cost. This information is sent to the hotel’s system using an API that converts the request into a format that the hotel server can understand. These systems then respond via apis to available rooms that meet these criteria.
Although aggregator websites and hotel systems are built by different companies using different technologies, apis enable information to be exchanged quickly and easily.
In this scenario, the hotel is the API provider. It builds apis to enable other applications to access this information. Hotels do this so that users can easily understand their available rooms. The aggregation site is the user of the API. It uses apis because without them, getting the required data is either impossible or too much work.
Blockchain API
Blockchain +API is an application programming interface built using blockchain technology. It allows information to come from the same information source, thereby connecting multiple applications and enabling data sharing. Blockchain is a decentralized distributed database with decentralized, tamper-proof, traceable characteristics. The innovation of blockchain is that it generates trust without the need for a trusted third party and guarantees the fidelity and security of data records.
Nowadays, in the field of cryptocurrency, in addition to using the blockchain API interface to pay attention to digital currencies such as BTC/ETH and the basic information and transaction data of NFT, the blockchain API is also widely used in the development of decentralized applications Dapp.
Application of blockchain API
There are many blockchain apis to choose from, and different public chains will correspond to their different data apis, such as Bitcoin API, Ethereum API, and cross-chain asset transfer API. In addition, decentralized applications built with blockchain apis as the data core have gradually become the infrastructure of Web3.
Blockchain API use cases are extensive, involving games, finance, social media and other fields, including the construction of applications such as decentralized exchanges, DeFi lending platforms, crypto wallets, NFT platforms, decentralized music streaming platforms, meta-universe platforms/games.
The use of blockchain apis can free ordinary users and developers in the Web/NFT field from massive databases, greatly saving time costs.
