Over the centuries, humans have maximized the value created through financial markets, but the global financial system today faces systemic risks due to its opaque and under-collateralized nature. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) offers a solution through transparent financial products based on smart contracts, ensuring high safety through over-collateralization. With the growth of DeFi, there is a rising demand for new types of collateral beyond native on-chain assets, such as cross-chain tokens and stablecoins backed by fiat currency. Chainlink's Proof of Reserve aims to enhance transparency by providing smart contracts with data on the true collateral value of on-chain assets based on off-chain reserves. This system helps protect user funds from unexpected fractional reserve practices or fraudulent activities by off-chain custodians. It is particularly advantageous for applications that lend digital assets using tokenized Bitcoin as collateral. The Proof of Reserve not only supports tokenized Bitcoin but can also provide collateral data for cross-chain assets on any blockchain, thereby accelerating DeFi's growth and offering more opportunities. Additionally, it can track fiat-backed stablecoin reserves, encouraging both DeFi users and traditional institutions to adopt stablecoins. Beyond DeFi, Chainlink's Proof of Reserve can be integrated into traditional financial markets, providing immutable on-chain proof of asset collateralization, enhancing transparency, and enabling the creation of DeFi products that hedge against traditional financial institution practices.