pyth-network_pyth-crosschain/apps/developer-hub/content/docs/whitepaper.mdx

---
title: Whitepaper
description: The official Pyth Network whitepaper outlining the protocol design, architecture, and economic model.
---

Growth in DeFi requires high-fidelity, time-sensitive, real-world data, direct from the source and made available on any L1 blockchain. Financial market data, however, is often accessible to only a limited set of institutions and users. Traditional markets typically maintain strict control over and access to both live and historical price feeds. Consequently, only a selected group of users has access to the most timely, accurate, and valuable information.

The Pyth network is a next-generation oracle solution that aims to bring this valuable financial market data to the general public. The network does so by incentivizing market participants — trading firms, market makers, and exchanges — to share directly on-chain the price data collected as part of their existing operations. Pyth's data providers include some of the largest **traders**, **exchanges**, and **financial services** players who create unique high quality market data. This includes real world market data in **equities**, **fx, crypto, and metals with ambitions to scale across asset classes**. Data publishers include [GTS](https://pythnetwork.medium.com/new-pyth-data-provider-gts-555c4d0e362b), Jane Street, Hudson River Trading, [LMAX](https://pythnetwork.medium.com/new-pyth-data-provider-lmax-dd05264d1a16), [Virtu](https://pythnetwork.medium.com/new-pyth-data-provider-virtu-financial-ed09143f44d5), [BSX](https://pythnetwork.medium.com/new-pyth-data-provider-the-bermuda-stock-exchange-ccf3c04bd430), [CTC](https://pythnetwork.medium.com/new-pyth-data-provider-chicago-trading-company-64a457340443), and [many more](https://pyth.network/publishers/).

The [Pyth Network Whitepaper](https://pyth.network/whitepaper) describes the mechanisms powering the protocol.
The whitepaper was last updated in September 2023.