Oracles
Oracles are decentralized or centralized services that provide external data, such as asset prices, to smart contracts on a blockchain. Since blockchains cannot natively access real-world data, oracles act as a bridge to feed accurate price information into the protocol.
In the context of liquidations, oracles are essential for the liquidation engine to determine the current value of collateral and the debt position. If an oracle provides incorrect or manipulated price data, it can lead to erroneous liquidations or allow under-collateralized positions to remain open.
Therefore, the security and reliability of oracle networks are paramount to the proper functioning of financial derivatives on-chain. They are the single source of truth for the protocol's risk engine.