Chainlink (LINK) has acquired a privacy-preserving oracle protocol DECO from Cornell University and one of its creators, Ari Juels, will be joining Chainlink as chief scientist. Previously, Juels served as chief scientist at RSA and has been teaching at Cornell University since 2014, one of the premier blockchain hubs in the world. He is taking a sabbatical to focus on his work at Chainlink. Along with his research partner Markus Jakobsson, he coined the term "proof-of-work".
DECO employs advanced cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs to provide enhanced privacy to its users. In a Cointelegraph interview, Chainlink's co-founder Sergey Nazarov said the integration of DECO will not only increase security of the project's infrastructure but will potentially create new use cases: