Date: 2026-07-25
Type: Technical research, Protocol analysis
Status: Confirmed
Phase: Phase 1.5 oracle architecture design
Research question: Has anyone implemented oracle price feeds over Nostr before Asgaya’s distributed-monitoring architecture?
Answer: Yes - Two approaches exist:
Key finding: Existing implementations use oracle for on-chain enforcement. Asgaya’s approach is different - we use oracle-over-Nostr for monitoring/UX, with MTP fallback for trustless security. Multi-oracle consensus (median from multiple sources) and global price watch channel appear to be novel contributions.
Validation: Oracle-over-Nostr is proven infrastructure. DLC oracles demonstrate Nostr works well for oracle communication. Asgaya’s trust model separation (oracle-for-UX, MTP-for-security) is architecturally sound.
While designing Asgaya’s distributed monitoring system with oracle-over-Nostr architecture, we needed to know:
This research validates the oracle-over-Nostr infrastructure choice and identifies where Asgaya’s design differs from existing approaches.
NIP proposal by Vitor Pamplona for posting asset prices to Nostr using kind 89 events.
$BTCUSD) as Nostr events// Oracle posts kind 89 event
{
kind: 89,
content: JSON.stringify({
asset: "BTCUSD",
price: 65432.10,
timestamp: 1721937723,
source: "coinbase"
}),
tags: [["asset", "BTCUSD"]]
}
// Client subscribes and averages
const avgPrice = prices.reduce((a,b) => a+b.price, 0) / prices.length;
From PR discussion: “The data from this NIP cannot be used for trustless financial transactions. If you publish two valid but conflicting price events, there is no fallback, unlike with DLC oracles.”
Pull request still open, not merged into official NIPs.
Source: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1658
More sophisticated proposal using Discreet Log Contracts for cryptographic price attestations with on-chain enforcement.
From NIP-88 proposal:
“With Nostr as a layer of discoverability for DLC oracles, anyone with an internet connected device can discover other oracles on the same relay, hear announcements from any oracles who connect to the same relay, create conditional contracts based on those announcements, and create multi-oracle contracts which resolve based on the opinions of different oracles, possibly on distinct relays.”
Oracle signs outcome → Contract enforces signature on-chain
Oracle signature controls contract execution, but multi-oracle contracts can mitigate this.
DlcDevKit implements NIP-88 with oracle marketplace for discovering and using DLC oracles in real applications.
Active development, real implementations exist, pull request #919 ongoing.
Sources:
DLC Oracles (NIP-88):
Oracle signs outcome → Contract enforces signature on-chain
Trust: Oracle's signature controls funds
Asgaya:
Oracles broadcast prices → Devices monitor → Client decides to refund
Covenant: Allows refund anytime (sender owns it)
Oracle: Improves UX, doesn't control funds
MTP fallback: Guarantees trustless refund
| Aspect | DLC Oracles (NIP-88) | Asgaya Oracle-over-Nostr |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | On-chain enforcement | Off-chain monitoring for UX |
| Trust model | Oracle signature required | Oracle optional, MTP guarantees trustlessness |
| Single point of failure | Yes (oracle controls outcome) | No (MTP fallback if oracle fails) |
| Multi-oracle | Supported but optional | Built-in (median from 3+ sources) |
| Network effect | Oracle marketplace (discovery) | Global price watch (resolution scaling) |
| Cryptographic commitment | Required (oracle signs) | Not needed (monitoring only) |
Follow established pattern for oracle broadcasts:
{
kind: 88001, // Price monitoring event (not attestation)
content: JSON.stringify({
pair: "BCH/EUR",
price: 995.50,
timestamp: 1721937723,
source: "coinbase"
}),
tags: [
["pair", "BCH/EUR"],
["source", "coinbase"]
]
}
✅ Oracle-over-Nostr is proven infrastructure
✅ Asgaya’s trust model is sound
✅ Multi-oracle consensus is improvement
✅ Global price watch is novel
Implementation:
Design decisions validated:
Consider proposing NIP for “Multi-Oracle Price Consensus” pattern:
Status: Research complete. Prior art analyzed. Asgaya’s approach validated. Implementation path clear.
Key takeaway: Oracle-over-Nostr has prior art (DLC oracles, price events), but Asgaya’s trust model (oracle-for-UX, MTP-for-security) and multi-oracle consensus with network effect scaling are novel contributions.