Innovative technologies often begin with a specific function to provide new value to users and expand as developers monetize through added value. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov highlights the evolution of smart contracts, which have advanced from multi-signature blockchain transactions to scriptable contracts on Ethereum, bringing new value and enabling the creation of functional applications for end-users. The current development focuses on connected smart contracts, which, through the use of oracles, significantly expand the awareness of smart contracts to off-chain events, triggering predefined actions and creating new value. Chainlink's decentralized oracle network already securely delivers off-chain market prices to smart contracts, enabling crucial functions for various DeFi applications. Leading academics like Ari Juels, known for his extensive research in computer science and as a Chainlink advisor, emphasize the broader potential of oracles beyond data delivery, envisioning them as enablers of privacy-preserving computations and scalable off-chain logic. Projects like Mixicles and Arbitrum exemplify this potential, offering privacy and scalable computations, respectively. Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and initiatives like Town Crier and DECO further enhance oracles' capabilities, ensuring data integrity and confidentiality. As Chainlink continues to provide robust tools for developing next-generation smart contracts, the possibilities are limited only by developers' imaginations, with expectations that smart contracts will become the standard for digital agreements in the coming years.