Flare selects its price data providers by random draw on every block

An Oracle Built Into the Chain Itself

@FlareNetworks takes a different approach to price data than most blockchain networks. Rather than relying on a third-party oracle service, the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO) is an enshrined oracle built directly into the network's core protocol, meaning every price feed it produces carries the same security guarantees as the chain itself.

Enshrined into Flare's core protocol, every oracle feed in FTSOv2 inherits the economic security of the entire network. That distinction matters for DeFi applications that depend on price accuracy: the oracle cannot be separated from the chain's consensus, removing a common attack surface found in bolt-on oracle designs.

The system supports up to 1,000 feeds across equities, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, with each feed backed by around 100 independent data providers selected by Flare users through delegated stake.

How the Random Draw and Commit-Reveal Mechanism Work

Provider selection is not static. On every block, roughly every 1.8 seconds, a stake-weighted random draw picks a sample from the network's pool of data providers. The selected providers submit small incremental updates to the previous price, keeping feeds current without requiring every provider to act on every block.

Layered on top of that fast feed is a slower anchor round that runs approximately every 90 seconds. In that round, all providers participate in a commit-reveal process: they submit their prices in sealed form first, then open them simultaneously. The sealed submission prevents any provider from copying another's answer before committing, preserving genuine independence across the provider set. Outlier submissions are filtered out, which stops bad or manipulated readings from pulling the final price off course.

Flare Networks encourages data providers to develop their own custom data provider code, mainly due to the competitive nature of price provision in pursuit of FTSO rewards. That competitive dynamic gives providers an economic reason to submit accurate data rather than free-ride on others.

Wrapped $FLR tokens can be delegated to FTSO data providers or used in governance, among other uses in EVM-compatible dapps and smart contracts on Flare. Delegation lets ordinary token holders align their stake behind providers they trust, reinforcing the stake-weighting that drives the random selection process.

The design positions Flare's oracle as infrastructure rather than an add-on, with the two-speed architecture, fast per-block feeds anchored by periodic commit-reveal rounds, aimed at combining responsiveness with resistance to short-term manipulation.

Sources
Flare Developer Hub: FTSOv2 Overview
Flare Network: Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO)