[0wing]

What's the point of using the network then?

Why not do everything more efficiently via the "oracle" server?

[chrischen]

This is the question that applies to about 99% of Dapps (at least the one that don't simply exist to serve other Dapps) so far.

[sova]

Yes, exactly -- how does having some sort of external intervention into the protocol make the protocol more robust?

[0wing]

You misunderstand.

If a smart contract relies on an external data source from a normal server (oracle), then why even take the risk of deploying the smart contract?

If you're using an oracle for a data source you might as well do everything on a normal database.

[nileshtrivedi]

By minimizing the role of the oracle, instead of relying on one entity, you can rely on the market. Anybody could be the oracle, they'd put their reputation/offer/price on sale and the stakeholders would select one as they wish.

You're still trusting the selected oracle to behave honestly, but they will be operating in a very competitive market which hopefully would lead to better behaviour. They might cheat once, but it would be trivial to switch to a better oracle next time.