DeFi & governance
Oracle freshness: a valid number can still be unusable
Price source, update conditions and failure handling belong in the same review.
Les enquêtes et les fiches de référence sont publiées en anglais. La navigation est disponible en sept langues.
Personnes et projets
Dans cet article
- Identify the consumed value Trace the actual feed and consumer contract. Determine the units, decimals and update conditions. Do not assume the visible frontend price is the value used for collateral or liquidation calculations.
- Examine the failure path Ask what the consumer does when data stops updating or moves sharply. A revert, a fallback and continued use of an old value create different outcomes. The correct behaviour depends on the product, but an undocumented assumption is a concrete research target.
- Explain the consequence with a bounded example Use a clearly labelled hypothetical position to demonstrate how a stale input could affect a decision. Keep that illustration separate from any claim that an actual account was liquidated incorrectly. To establish a real incident, connect the feed state, consumer execution and affected transaction at the relevant time. A later screenshot cannot substitute for that historical state.
Oracles provide smart contracts with data they cannot obtain directly from the blockchain's own state. A consumer must decide what to do with that data, including how to interpret its timestamp and whether it remains suitable for the operation being performed.
Identify the consumed value Trace the actual feed and consumer contract. Determine the units, decimals and update conditions. Do not assume the visible frontend price is the value used for collateral or liquidation calculations.
Examine the failure path Ask what the consumer does when data stops updating or moves sharply. A revert, a fallback and continued use of an old value create different outcomes. The correct behaviour depends on the product, but an undocumented assumption is a concrete research target.
Explain the consequence with a bounded example Use a clearly labelled hypothetical position to demonstrate how a stale input could affect a decision. Keep that illustration separate from any claim that an actual account was liquidated incorrectly. To establish a real incident, connect the feed state, consumer execution and affected transaction at the relevant time. A later screenshot cannot substitute for that historical state.
Sources
Ethereum documentation · oraclesTechnical reference checked 9 September 2026. The review questions are editorial analysis, not findings about a named project.