Pyth Network, a first-party oracle solution for financial data, has added Douro Labs as its latest core contributor that will work on developing the network.

In a Tuesday announcement shared with Unchained, Douro Labs said it would initially be working on implementing the Perseus Upgrade and on bringing the network into a permissionless mainnet with token-led governance.

Blockchain oracles like Pyth bring off-chain data, like price feeds from financial markets, on chain to be used by smart contracts, making them one of the cornerstones of decentralized finance (DeFi). As a core contributor, Douro will work alongside data providers to build developer-focused oracle tooling and core protocol infrastructure. 

So far, Chainlink has been at the center of the blockchain oracle space, serving a number of different Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains, in addition to decentralized applications and sidechains. According to Douro Labs CEO Mike Cahill, however, Chainlink updates relatively slower, and uses only free data. 

On the other hand, Pyth Network is a first-party data network, meaning its nodes generate the data themselves. Currently, the network has 85 data providers, which include large trading firms like Jump, Jane Street and Susquehanna, as well as crypto exchanges like Binance.

“The Perseus Upgrade is a continuation of the development in the Pythnet architecture that gets sent over Wormhole in such a way. We are now using Merkle trees for proofs and that allows for way more customizable delivery,” explained Cahill.

He estimated that this customizable delivery would allow for a decrease in gas costs from anywhere between 40% to 90%. 

For the time being, becoming a node on Pyth is managed by the Pyth Data Association, but over time, this role will be turned over to governance token holders.

“There are a couple of good models out there where we see highly participatory governance structures. Synthetix is a good example of one. And then there are other models that are more like say Aave or Compound,” Cahill said in an episode of Unchained.

“And so we’ll allow the community to make proposals on how this will work, but I think that it’s an exciting place to kind of experiment.”