API3, initiated in December 2020, is a cooperative endeavor to establish decentralized APIs (dAPIs) for decentralized applications (DApps) through the use of Airnode, a decentralized network operated by first-party oracles. Essentially, dAPIs provide services similar to traditional APIs but are designed to directly engage with and offer off-chain data like price feeds, which are crucial for decentralized environments. Traditional APIs are widely recognized in the creation of centralized software and applications. API3 aims to set a new standard in the decentralized space by making dAPIs the go-to technology for DApps, leveraging its Airnode technology.
The native token of API3 facilitates the development, management, and monetization of these dAPIs on a large scale.