Chainlink (LINK) is a decentralised network of nodes that provides data and information from off-blockchain sources to on-blockchain smart contracts through oracles. It serves as a bridge between blockchain and non-blockchain technologies. For example, it connects smart contracts with data feeds, traditional bank accounts, and web APIs.

Meanwhile, LINK is an ERC20 token running on the Ethereum platform that is used to pay Chainlink Node Operators when performing transactions. This payment is in the form of fetching or feeding data from off-chain to the blockchain.

For Chainlink itself, the benefits are not in the form of cash or from the mining process, but in LINK tokens. Users who want to buy data through Chainlink must use LINK tokens as payment. This crypto asset, which was present in 2014, was the brainchild of Sergey Nazarov as CEO and Steve Ellis as CTO.