TheRollupCo2 min read
Sergey Nazarov: Chainlink grows more vital as chains and contracts multiply
Chainlink's co-founder argues that every new chain, bridge and advanced contract increases demand for Chainlink's data, bridging and identity layers.
AI summary of “Sergey Nazarov: Every New Chain Makes Chainlink Stronger (Full Breakdown)”
Key takeaways
- Sergey Nazarov says more chains and more advanced contracts mean more need for Chainlink.
- He cites the DTCC collateral management app chain as an example of a "digital twin" needing reconciliation with Ethereum.
- Nazarov claims Chainlink has avoided the bridge hacks that lost "$290 million" and "$320 million" elsewhere.
- He expects AI agents to use Chainlink's CRE as their interface to tokenized cash and stablecoins.
- Nazarov says on-chain finance is only in "the first year" of its DeFi-like lifecycle, with much more advancement ahead.
Tokens mentioned
The speakers' views, not ours
Argues every new chain and more advanced contract increases demand for Chainlink's services
“The more chains there are and the more things you need to connect to the contract then to the chain, the more important Chainlink is.”
Nazarov: a multi-chain world with more advanced contracts only increases Chainlink's importance
Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, tells the host that as more chains appear and contracts become more advanced, the need for data, bridging, identity and compliance grows correspondingly. He argues that a simple smart contract that just mints and sends a token needs none of this, but anything more advanced requires what Chainlink provides.
He points to the DTCC app chain collateral management example, built with Fulcrum, as a case where settlement is not complete until obligations are closed out across both Ethereum and the app chain — what he calls a "digital twin" that must synchronize with DTCC's own backend. He says regulation currently requires final settlement to happen off-chain in a legally recognized location, though he expects this to change as laws evolve.
"The more chains there are and the more things you need to connect to the contract then to the chain, the more important Chainlink is." — Sergey Nazarov
Nazarov frames Chainlink's history as a sequence of problem-solving: first data, then reliable bridging, and now identity, digital-twin accounting and orchestration via CRE. He notes Chainlink "doesn't lose $290 million" or "$320 million," contrasting its bridging reliability with other hacked systems, without naming them.
AI agents and the future of smart contracts
Nazarov suggests that if AI agents become widely used for interacting with tokenized cash — stablecoins, tokenized deposits or CBDCs — Chainlink's CRE, which he says is "already optimized for AI usage," could become their interface layer. He frames this as another instance of Chainlink evolving to meet whatever advanced smart contracts require next.
He defines smart contracts not simply as code running on a chain but as code that automates "key financial operations" in a cryptographically verified way, a view he says predates Ethereum via an earlier project called smartcontract.com. He argues the market is in the "early to early-mid" stage of contract sophistication, comparing it to the first year of DeFi's production lifecycle, implying significant growth in complexity — and in Chainlink's role — still ahead.
Written by AI from the video's transcript. It can compress, misattribute or miss context — the original video is the source. Not investment advice.
