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So the library Oraclize if I understand correctly, allows you on solidity to get a result from a URL inside a callback.

But I also read that you can't communicate with the external world in Ethereum (because it's non-deterministic), so I don't understand how Oraclize manages to call URLs although Oraclize is itself a smart-contract.

  • Must read for security, trust, reliability: https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/201/how-does-oraclize-handle-the-tlsnotary-secret tl;dr: "Oraclize is a decent step forward, but it's not the final solution. Be careful that you use their service in a manner appropriate to the risk level of your application!" – eth Jun 26 '19 at 22:12

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The URL fetching happens entirely outside of Ethereum. The process is like this:

  1. Your contract calls out to the Oraclize contract, requesting data from some URL.
  2. The Oraclize contract logs an event saying what URL your contract asked for and what your contract's address is.
  3. Some code running outside the blockchain observes that logged event and fetches the URL.
  4. That off-chain code sends a transaction to your contract's callback function with the requested data.
user19510
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  • thank you for that explanation. I've been bashing my head trying to make Oraclize/Provable work with the most basic of use-cases. given your steps above I think I'll just ditch that and build the functionality myself – ekkis Jan 01 '20 at 03:47